WeWork Is Preparing to Go Public Again, and Other News

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The embattled coworking giant WeWork is preparing to go public at a reduced valuation.

WeWork is preparing to go public after reaching a $47 billion valuation at its peak. Unfortunately, after the company quickly learned that being a landlord to unruly small tenants with no clear paths to profitability, especially during the quarantine, that number has plummeted. Through a special purpose acquisition company, or a SPAC, WeWork now plans to go public at $9 billion. The move follows WeWork’s initial attempt to go public, in 2019, when investors discovered its unsustainable financials that forced the company to abandon the effort and fire its founder, Adam Neumann. 

The Louvre is sifting through its entire collection for works with problematic provenance.

After publishing a catalogue of its nearly 485,000 objects online and opening an enormous conservation center, the Louvre is mining its entire collection to find Nazi-owned works or those from former colonies. This type of provenance research, according to Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez, is “undoubtedly the main question museums have to deal with in the coming years to maintain their credibility.” More than 1,700 works, for example, were recovered in Germany after World War II but were never returned to the descendants of their rightful owners and are currently managed by the Louvre and entrusted to French museums for safe keeping. The Louvre has said they are committed to carrying out extensive research to find their beneficiaries. 

Carlo Ratti proposes floating reservoirs to create carbon-free heating for Helsinki. 

Carlo Ratti Associati has been named among the four winners of the global Helsinki Energy Challenge, which aims to find sustainable alternatives for urban heating networks. The Italian firm proposed a series of 10 island-like structures resembling an archipelago that would use seawater pumps to convert predominantly carbon-free energy from wind and solar power into heat. Some of the reservoirs will also be covered by inflatable roofs and house public recreational spaces with tropical ecosystems and LED lights that imitate the sun. The Finnish capital has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2035.

In Peru, archaeologists discover a 3,200-year-old mural of a spider flaunting a knife.

Archaeologists have uncovered a 3,200-year-old mural of a spider god at an ancient temple complex in Northern Peru’s Virú province, about 300 miles north of Lima. Rendered in shades of ochre, yellow, gray, and white, the painting was found on the side of an adobe structure, featuring a zoomorphic design that experts imply represents a spider wielding a knife. The historic work was originally discovered by local avocado and sugarcane farmers in November while using heavy machinery to plow fields, which inadvertently destroyed about 60 percent of the undiscovered site. 

The Winnipeg Art Gallery reopens with a new addition designed by Michael Maltzan.

The oldest public art gallery in Western Canada is preparing to reopen its doors with a new addition designed by Michael Maltzan Architecture. The Los Angeles firm collaborated with local practice Cibinel Architects for the $55 million addition, called Qaumajuq, which adds about 40,000 square feet to the museum’s original 120,000-square-foot gallery designed by Gustavo da Roza in 1971. The space, whose name means “it is bright, it is lit” in Inuktitut, will house the world’s largest public collection of Inuit art and was designed with extensive consultation from the Indigenous Advisory Circle. “The center is more than a building,” the firm said in a statement. “It will amplify the voices of the artists to promote a cultural understanding and innovate the art museum.”

Buildings in Philadelphia will turn off their lights at night during bird migration periods.

An estimated one billion birds die every year in the U.S. from collisions with buildings. From April 1 to May 31 and August 15 to November 15, Philadelphia will impose a city-wide Lights Out initiative to eliminate glowing distractions during key migration periods when millions of birds fly through the city along the Atlantic Flyway. Philadelphia joins 33 American cities with similar programs. 

Today’s attractive distractions:

This new pasta shape was designed to excel in “sauceability” and “forkability.”

At Seattle’s MadArt, Casey Curran grows kinetic flowers from wood scaffolding. 

Pepsi and Peeps are joining forces to create a marshmallow-flavored soft drink.

The New York Times auctions away one of its columns as an NFT for $560,000.