Good afternoon and welcome back to another Friday news roundup. As we move into what will be a frigid winter weekend for much of the United States, here are some stories to keep you occupied if you remain huddled indoors.

Nick Cave will project his colorful Soundsuits on theMART in Chicago this spring

From May 5 through September 7, visitors to Chicago’s riverside theMART can catch the kinetic and colorful Soundsuits of artist Nick Cave dancing across the building’s monumental facade. Intended to hide the wearer’s identity and cloak them in a veil of otherworldly fabric, Soundsuit performances are a blend of dance, performance art, film, and sculpture.

“Chicago is a living representation of America as a melting pot,” said Cave in the project’s announcement. “My hope is that by turning our collective gaze up to theMART’s monumental facade and taking in the Soundsuits in all their limitless exuberance, we can let some of that positivity seep into our own skins.”

Cave’s contribution is the latest to the permanent Art on theMART series, which screens a curated selection of visual art across the eponymous building’s massive facade twice a night, seven days a week.

Times Square’s Midnight Moment radiates soothing pastels through the end of February

In video art news from the East Coast, there are only three more days to catch Krista Kim’s Continuum in Times Square. For the latest installment in the long-running Midnight Moment visual arts series, 90 billboards have been synchronized to paint the normally busy tourist hotspot in meditative gradients of pinks and purples every night from 11:57 P.M. to midnight through February 28.

Los Angeles’s plan to boost housing is shot down by the state

Despite Los Angeles’s ambitious long-term plan to create up to 500,000 new homes to address its dire housing crisis, the State of California is ordering that L.A. move faster—much faster. Despite praising the city’s movement on upzoning wealthier neighborhoods, the Department of Housing and Community Development has ordered that L.A. must rezone for 255,000 new low-income homes by mid-October 2022 or risk losing billions in affordable housing grants. Mayor Garcetti and other city leaders are pushing back and claiming that rezoning the entire city in only 6 months is impossible.

Currently only seven cities across all of California are in compliance with the state’s new housing quotas.

H/t to the Los Angeles Times

New York’s Governor Hochul pulls statewide ADU proposal after pushback

Meanwhile, New York is grappling with its own affordable housing problems, but in something of the inverse of its West Coast counterpart. Governor Kathy Hochul has pulled plans to require local governments to legalize the construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) in areas zoned for single-family occupancy after Republicans and representatives from Long Island, Staten Island, and other largely residential areas pushed back. The ADU expansion was pulled from Hochula’s proposed budget, but the governor has vowed to increase “transit-oriented” development elsewhere.

H/t to Newsday

Developers could be on the hook for condo defects if the New York City Council gets its way

Cracks, leaks, and shoddy workmanship have rocked New York’s luxury condo market, and now the City Council wants to have developers foot the bill. A new bill working its way through council procedures would make developers responsible for fixes within the first 10 years of occupancy and target affordable housing and high-end units alike, but opponents are claiming the measure would only slow down new housing projects.

H/t to The Real Deal

Survivors of the blast that rocked Beirut want damaged silos preserved as memorials

After the blast that leveled Beirut’s ports in August of 2020 and left over 200 dead, survivors are calling on the government to preserve the monolithic grain silos that shielded scores of residents from the explosion—saving their lives. The silos are slowly tipping and at risk of falling, and the government wants to tear them down, while survivors are asking that they be turned into permanent memorials.

H/t to Al Jazeera