Welcome back to the top of another dreary summer week. Thankfully we have some lighthearted news this week to chase away the end-of-summer doldrums.
Here’s what you need to know:
You can watch Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s wrapping of L’Arc de Triomphe live
Christo’s Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped is currently under installation in Paris as the iconic 185-year-old stone archway prepares to be smothered with silver-blue polypropylene fabric and red rope. Wrapping the Arc de Triomphe had been a dream of Christo’s since 1962, but the coronavirus pandemic pushed back the opening date of the project to September 18 of this year; sadly, Christo would still have been alive then to see it realized if all had gone as originally planned. Before the massive temporary art installation is finalized, you can watch the Parisian landmark get wrapped online through a 24/7 YouTube livestream.
A Westminster Council leader steps down after Marble Arch Mound fiasco
The fallout over MVRDV’s Marble Arch Mound in London continues. After closing, then reopening the manmade hill with free admission after visitors complained, Melvyn Caplan, the deputy leader of the Westminster Council that commissioned the hill, has now stepped down from his position. Caplan’s resignation comes after costs for the hill doubled from an initial estimate of $4.57 million to the current $8.31 million.
H/t to BBC News
Rem Koolhaas’s latest project is an American Express’s Centurion Black Card
Rem Koolhaas’s newest project isn’t a museum exhibition, collaboration with Prada, or even a building. It’s bringing OMA’s unbuilt Boompjes, a 1980 high-rise study for Rotterdam that was never built, to AMEX’s line of Centurion Black Cards—a card the company touts as being the world’s most exclusive credit card. For their new “art card” line, AMEX tapped both Koolhass and artist Kehinde Wiley, the latter bringing a floral, botanical motif to his.
H/t to Hypebeast
The indoor plant market isn’t as green as you might think
Indoor plants are touted as trendy, air-purifying (debunked), mood-lifting design accouterments, but what’s the real cost of buying potted pothos? Unfortunately, most of the house plants that go viral on Instagram originate from China, or France, or evolved for hot and humid conditions in Central America. That scarcity makes them a prime target for big factory farmers, who can propagate cuttings in massive industrial greenhouses before disbursing everything from succulents to monstera plants to big-box retailers and flower shops alike.
H/t to Vox
The internet is going crazy over this drive-through (or under) Taco Bell concept
Taco Bell is literally elevating its restaurants. On August 12, the fast taco purveyor revealed that it would break ground on a new concept store in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and the internet took notice. Taco Bell Defy will span two stories with the restaurant floating above four drive-through lanes and food sent down tubes to fulfill orders. The new vertically oriented prototype restaurant is expected to open in 2022. In the meantime, commentators jumped on the rendering the company released, saying that most of Taco Bell’s food already looked like it had fallen down a chute (etc.).
This is perfect because taco bell already looks like they dropped it from the second floor pic.twitter.com/Gg1ROWYwmu
— Mild Hepcat (@MildHepcat) August 12, 2021
The new Museum of Broadway will open next summer
The Museum of Broadway had originally been slated to open on West 45th Street in Manhattan in 2020, but much like the reopening of the shows it chronicles, that too was pushed back by the pandemic. Now, the museum, which will cover the history and past locations of New York’s central theater district, is finally slated to open its doors next summer at 145 West 45th Street next to the Lyceum Theater.
H/t to the New York Times