Good afternoon and welcome back to another hectic Thursday complete with a bevy of new news to catch up on.
Here’s what you need to know:
Benjamin Moore’s Color of the Year 2022 is a pleasing pastel grey
Pleasant pastels are in this year; after Sherwin-Williams declared its 2022 Color of the Year the “sophisticated” Evergreen Fog SW 9130 in September, Benjamin Moore has chosen a “gentle” silver-grey of its own. Yesterday, the paint company awarded Color of the Year 2022 to October Mist 1495, a shade of sage that’s part of a broader lineup of grey-ish, relaxing hues to mix and match. Will mellow palettes see a comeback next year as people turn towards tranquil colors to keep them anchored?
Henning Larsen’s housing association headquarters literally bridges a crossroads in Copenhagen
Henning Larsen has completed a new headquarters for one of Denmark’s largest housing associations in a city, the capital of Copenhagen, that sorely lacks affordable residences. The nearly 80,000-square-foot mid-rise office building for KAB sits, quite literally, at the heart of a major crossroad and bridges the city’s old and new neighborhoods. Inside, Henning Larsen took design inspiration from the rooms found within a typical home, carving out living room-like meeting spaces and interior libraries. The entire interior has been wrapped in a light wood finish, creating a sense of warmth even in the areas bounding a multistory atrium. KAB administers 64,000 units across the city and more than 120,000 residents.
Planning directors across America decry racism in the built environment, pledge change
Twenty-one planning directors from across the United States have signed on to an open letter decrying a history of urban development driven by racism, and a pledge to do better moving forward. The statement, officially put out by the City of Philadelphia on September 27, acknowledges that highway development, exclusionary zoning, environmental externalities, urban renewal, and a slew of other historic development tools have (and continue to) disproportionately affect BIPOC residents. The full list of issues is extensive, but the directors, including Anita Laremont, the new chair of the New York City Planning Commission, have signed on to involve their respective communities in any further decision making and rebuild trust.
H/t to The Real Deal
Half of all museum PPP loan money went to only a handful of institutions
Of the more than 7,500 cultural institutions that received federal COVID aid through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Hyperallergic found that 228 of them received more than half of the $1.6 billion distributed. Additionally, of those 228, 28 percent ended up laying off staff, a combined total of over 14,400 employees—something the PPP funds were expressly intended to prevent.
H/t to Hyperallergic
Rugged Robotics is using surveyor robots to create on-site building layouts
Houston’s Rugged Robotics has teamed up with construction company Consigli to test an on-the-job-site field layout of a 240,000-square-foot life sciences building currently on the rise. The small robots will autonomously lay down field markings directly on the concrete floors; a much more economical use for artificial intelligence than the gun-equipped robot dogs debuted earlier this week.
H/t to Construction Dive
Controversy at the Kunsthaus Zurich extension over the Nazi legacy of its main collector
The David Chipperfield-designed Zurich Kunsthaus extension opened its doors to Swiss art patrons over the weekend. The $220 million annex displays the collection of industrialist Emil Georg Bührle. Bührle passed away in 1956, but now furor over the Kunsthaus’s decision to put his works on display is mounting; he amassed his fortune by selling arms to the Nazis and much of the artwork was acquired from the German government after being stolen from the original Jewish owners.
H/t to the New York Times
