Okej Studio founders Emmie and Mitchell Brower also dont see curvy shapes going anywhere anytime soon. We can see a variety of interior design styles experimenting a little and becoming more eclectic, Emmie says. One might see more minimalist interiors embrace complex shapes and really add those standout pieces that you normally wouldnt find in those environments. Well see a lot more classic and simple design that has been enhanced through interesting patterns and textures.

From the point of view of Bougie Woogies Jazmin and Matias, wiggly and squiggly shapes are expanding into two new directionsthe central piece, which is an accent that calms down the wiggle frenzy to clean the visual information and brings balance without losing the fun, and the passage from 2D squiggle to 3D swirl. The couple cites Vivid Wu and Aden Wangs home as a prime example of a space where the balance between classic minimalism and retro-style wiggly shapes and colors make the space feel modern with a touch of nostalgia. (They also point to the Home Union and Pieces collaboration as a reference.) On a similar note, the architectural designer Lula Galeano also thinks that spiral patterns will be huge in 2022. Perhaps its a sign that we are on our way toward the upward spiral?

Jeanette Reza is a hopeless romantic at heart so when she was conceptualizing the shape of her Jiu Jie cushions back in 2018, she wanted them not only to provide squishy comfort, but also to be viewed as objects of desire. The Mexican designer sees her knotty creations as a labyrinth that takes us into this alternative universe where all our fantasies and desires become true. Cushions molded like this serve as transitional pieces that make you feel connected to something on a deeper emotional level.

Now that everything is happening within one space, Jeanette also thinks that modular multiuse products will be an even bigger design trend because more people want things that you can play with that have multifunctionality. She says, It has to be something a little more special that has a story and meaning behind it, not just a decoration purpose.

Wiggle Room's signature coffee table with a purple Sophie Lou Jacobsen pitcher full of flowers.

Jenny Kaplan, cofounder of Pieces, has been gravitating toward new shapes that have never been shown before. As a brand that looks to push the boundaries of modernizing our designs with innovative forms, Pieces is constantly thinking about what areas have yet to be explored within the design landscape. I am feeling lots of print and organic silhouettes for 2022, Jenny says. We are currently working on a new collection based on the study of patterns from the 20th century with a focus on the 80s and 90s.

Gustaf Westman is interested in what the wiggle will evolve into. Lately, the designer has noticed a shift in color palettes from pastels to deeper hues so he expects to see a new wave of color combinations in the mix. I think we are going to see an increased mix in materials, colors, and shapes, he says. I think that the wiggly and bulky styles will be seen a lot in raw materials like wood and metal The shapes [might] come after harder materials and straight lines.

Original post:
What's Next After the Wiggle Trend? We Asked 9 Designers for Their Predictions - Architectural Digest

The origin story of Americas national parks goes like this: during the Lincoln administration, fearing that the recently discovered wonders of Yosemite Valley would be defiled as Niagara Falls had been, and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove logged, federal legislation created what would eventually become Yosemite National Park, though as author Dennis Drabelle notes, the word park never appeared in the law.

The reserve was conveyed to the state of California.

A mysterious and spectacular landscape, mostly in Wyoming Territory, similarly threatened by entrepreneurs who sought to profit from access to it and possibly make it into a carnival like Niagara Falls, resulted in the first national park because Yellowstone was federal land and there was no state to which to grant it.

John Muir and others campaigned to make the land around Yosemite Valley and the nearby giant sequoias a national park, which they achieved, and Yosemite Valley was ceded back to the federal government and became the Yosemite National Park we know and love today. So, there you have it, a simple and straightforward progression.

The actual origin story is, however, neither simple nor straightforward, stretching over half a century and involving many players, some well known to the park-loving public today, and most not.

In The Power of Scenery, Dennis Drabelle traces the early evolution of the national park idea and its realization. His account moves from British statesman and political philosopher Edmund Burke, who wrote of the aesthetic that stirred the national park movement, to early American artist George Catlin, who envisioned a nations park, and then to Henry David Thoreau, who also floated the idea.

Drabelle describes how U.S. Senator John Conness of California shepherded the initial Yosemite legislation to passage by Congress and the signature of Abraham Lincoln, and then to a lengthy discussion of how Frederick Law Olmsted influenced the national park movement. Others in the story include journalist Samuel Bowles; Americas first landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing; scientist and survey leader Ferdinand Hayden; photographer William Henry Jackson; entrepreneur Nathaniel Langford; Congressman John Lacey; and financier Jay Cooke. While these and other philosophers, legislators, writers, journalists, photographers, early scientists, and explorers all play their parts, Drabelle makes Olmsted the focal point in his account of the evolutionary process that resulted in the National Park System we know today.

Why Olmsted? Because, as Drabelle explains, the power of Olmsteds ideas about parks influenced the course of national park history more than any other single person, and that might be a surprising claim to those who give the accolade to John Muir.

After reviewing the contributions of Olmsteds predecessors who contributed ideas that influenced the park movement, Drabelle summarizes Olmsteds early life and his many ventures as an apprentice seaman, farmer, journalist and, most importantly, superintendent and landscape designer of New Yorks Central Park, the historic role for which he is especially remembered. With architect Calvert Vaux he designed and oversaw early construction of this historic park. Then he served as a United States Sanitary Commission member and leader during the Civil War, and as manager of the Mariposa Estate in California, which placed him where he could make his primary contribution to national park history.

Drabelle opens The Power of Scenery in 1865 with Olmsted in a smoke- and beard-filled room presenting a lengthy report to his colleagues on the Yosemite Commission on how the new Yosemite park should be managed. The Commission and its charge were required by the conveyance of Yosemite Valley from federal to state ownership and Olmsted, with his Central Park management and design experience, had become its de facto leader.

Drabelle writes, Olmsted applied to Yosemite the first principle behind his great New York project: a park should belong to and be useable by everyone. At the time, this was a radical proposal, as Drabelle goes to some length to explain using the example of Niagara Falls where everyone could only enjoy it at considerable financial expense.

And then came a recommendation tailored specifically to this, the first public park in the wilds: leave it in its natural state, permitting only such minor additions as a road or two for better access and a handful of rustic structures to accommodate visitors, continues Drabelle. This, too, was a radical idea as, driven by the idea of manifest destiny and other motives for taming and conquering nature, Americans at the time were bent on extracting every cent possible from the land, modifying it to fit their ambitions.

Several of his fellow commissioners decided for various reasons that Olmsteds visionary blueprint for the park was too radical and expensive and managed to have his report quashed, but for decades it percolated in the background as the national park movement got underway.

Olmsted became nationally prominent as a landscape architect and found many ways to put his ideas before the public and decision-makers. Drabelle notes that In 1903, the year of Olmsteds death, President Theodore Roosevelt gazed out over the Grand Canyon and implored his audience to leave it as it is. You cannot improve upon it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. Almost 40 years earlier, Olmsted has reached the same conclusion about Yosemite and, by extension, every American national park to follow.

Olmsteds thinking had reached the pinnacle of political power with lasting consequences for the American landscape and its national parks, the Grand Canyon of course destined to be one of them. Olmsteds 1865 report may have been quashed for a time, but Drabelle writes that it was Buried but influential all the same.

According to Drabelle, Olmsteds genius lay in peering into the heart of each landscape he came across and finding ways to bring out its best. Yosemite Valley struck him as an entirely different case than Manhattan Island, in that Yosemites best had already been brought out, as agents such as the glacier grinding away at its granite, and he fashioned his report accordingly.

Olmsted left California after four years of trying unsuccessfully to right the sinking Mariposa Estate and commenced his career as the most influential landscape architect in American history. He designed parks all over the United States and established the profession to which he had been introduced by Andrew Jackson Downing, a profession that would be most influential in the future National Park System.

Following in his fathers footsteps, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was the principal draftsman of the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 in which, as Drabelle writes, he might have simply cut and pasted the principle laid down by his father in the 1865 Yosemite report.

His father had reaffirmed the [Yosemite] reports central recommendation that managers of a wilderness park should keep improvements to the bare minimum periodically throughout his career, including in the report for Niagara Falls he coauthored with Vaux. But cutting and pasting was of course impossible. Olmsted Jr. had to state the principle differently because in 1916 there were national parks, and Congress was finally getting around to creating an agency to manage them, authorizing it to enforce rules in them, police powers that even the U.S. Army had lacked in its decades-long efforts to protect early parks.

The Organic Act famously stated, in part, The service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

Father and son set the National Park Service up for a big challenge provide for enjoyment but leave unimpaired which the agency has struggled to manage since its inception.

The Power of Scenery covers historical ground extensively explored by many other writers in both popular and scholarly ways. Drabelle puts Frederick Law Olmsteds role in national park history into context, explaining how and why he was able to be so important to that history in the late 19th century and even to the present.

Drabelles style and approach make for a compelling read for anyone with a shred of interest in Americas national park history. For instance, he explains how Olmsted seemed unimpressed by the sublime qualities of Yosemite Valley that so captured John Muir and many others yet saw the great value of Yosemite Valley. Olmsted subscribed to a different aesthetic even though Drabelle goes to considerable length to describe the nature and influence of the sublime aesthetic that was so important to the rise of the national park idea. Describing the new California reservation soon after its passage in a letter to his father, Olmsted portrayed the valley as awfully grand, but . . . not frightful or fearful . . . . The valley is as sweet & peaceful as the meadows of Avon, and the sides are in many parts lovely with foliage and color.

Drabelle writes,

While saying nothing specifically about Half Dome or El Capitan or Yosemite Falls, he compared the Merced River to the bucolic Avon and preferred ferns and rushes to chasms. When it came to natures extravagances, Olmsted had a blind spot. Toward the end of his career, in 1893, he admitted as much, mentioning his susceptibility to natural beauty but adding a qualification. Not so much grand or sensational scenery as scenery of a more domestic order. Scenery to be looked upon contemplatively and which is provocative of musing moods. It all went back, he thought, to the enjoyment which my father and mother (step-mother) took in loitering journeys; in afternoon drives on the Connecticut meadows. As for all things craggy, they struck him as anything but tranquilizing. Mountains, he said, suggest effort.

This passage illustrates Drabelles readable style and approach and his occasional touch of humor. Asides, such as his account of Truman Everts getting lost in Yellowstone when traveling that wild landscape as part of the famous Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition of 1870, provide entertaining tales that enliven the story of how the national parks got their start.

Scholars of national park history, who are not the audience for this book, might be put off by some obvious errors that will jump out at them. Perusing the small collection of photos in the book they will note that in photo #9 the caption reads, Yellowstone superintendent Horace Albright (left) with explorer Charlie Cook in 1922, at the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of the parks establishment. Courtesy of Wikimedia.

Unfortunately, NPS Director Stephen Mather is listening to Charlie in the photo, not Albright, who was present but not in this image.

In another error, Drabelle has the Yosemite National Park superintendent responding to a letter from George Grinnell that the superintendents boss, Stephen Mather had passed along for comment. He has the wrong Grinnell here. George Bird Grinnell indeed played a role in national park history, but the Grinnell writing to the Yosemite Superintendent was Joseph Grinnell, the director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California at Berkeley, whom Yosemite Park historian Al Runte (cited by Drabelle as his source here) describes as an indefatigable champion of park protection and research.

And finally, Drabelle places the first official American wilderness area, within the Gila National Forest in Arizona. That wilderness is in New Mexico. Errors like this will not detract from the value of this book for the average reader, who can learn much from Drabelles study of Frederick Law Olmsteds role in national park history, but it will annoy some who hold authors writing history, even for popular audiences, to a high standard of accuracy.

In this book, Dennis Drabelle makes a compelling case that Frederick Law Olmsted deserves the prominent place he holds in the pantheon of shapers of the National Park System we enjoy in the 21st century. Visitors may be awed by the monumental scenery, experiencing the sublime qualities of Yosemite, Yellowstone, and other parks. Or they may enjoy the sweet and peaceful meadows and wildflowers as Olmsted did. They will enjoy, without knowing of it, the work of landscape architects as they have sought to fashion park development that does not intrude upon the scenery, part of Olmsteds legacy.

While today we recognize that national parks have many more values than scenery, the power of scenery in the history of national parks is an important and entertaining story.

Go here to see the original:
Review | The Power Of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted And The Origin Of National Parks - National Parks Traveler

Died: December 18, 2021.

RICHARD Rogers, Lord Rogers of Riverside, who has died aged 88, was an architect of towering ambition, whose creations transformed urban landscapes in major cities across the world.

His buildings include the Pompidou Centre in Paris, designed with Italian architect Renzo Piano, which opened in 1977; the Lloyds of London building, completed in 1986; and the Millennium Dome, the symbol of New Labour triumphalism that opened to the public on New Years Day 2000, and which evolved into the O2 venue.

Other key buildings by Rogers included the Leadenhall Building (2013), across the street from Lloyds, which became known as the Cheesegrater. He also designed the law courts in Bordeaux (1998) and Antwerp (2005), the National Assembly in Wales (2005), and Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport (2008). This was eventually built following a labyrinthine public inquiry and associated objections and protests, and took 19 years to come to fruition.

Rogers also designed the first Maggies Centre for cancer care in London, which opened at Charing Cross hospital in 2009. The building won Rogers his second Stirling Prize for architectural excellence. The first was for Barajas Airport, Madrid, in 2006.

Rogers buildings used glass, steel and other industrial materials to create shiny structures that attempted to open up inner cities with space and light. At times there were contradictions in his vision. As an advocate of social housing and public space for all, he also created expensive apartment blocks and helped open the door to an era of regeneration that sometimes sidelined existing communities. The expansive scale of his creations nevertheless became symbols of upwardly mobile communion on a grand scale.

Richard George Rogers was born in Florence, Italy, to Nino, a doctor, and Dada (ne Geiringer) Rogers. His father was the son of a British migr, and his artist mother was the daughter of an architect and engineer, and had once been taught by James Joyce. The family lived in an apartment that had a view of the Duomo, before fleeing to England in 1939 from rising fascism. They lived in one room in a Bayswater boarding house, where, as Rogers later put it, life switched from colour to black and white.

He was sent to boarding school at Kingswood House in Epsom, where he took up boxing after being bullied. He went to St Johns school in Leatherhead, but left without A-levels. He later discovered he was dyslexic.

He did his national service in Trieste, and while on leave worked in the office of his cousin, Ernesto Rogers, who had designed the Torre Velasca building in Milan. Back in London, this inspired him to enrol as a student at the Architectural Association School. With his first wife, Su Brumwell, he went to Yale University on a Fulbright scholarship. While in America he met his contemporary, Norman Foster.

A brief period working in a San Francisco architects office made Rogers realise that working in someone elses practice wasnt for him. Collaboration became key to his ethos ever after. Returning to the UK, Rogers, Brumwell, Foster, and Fosters wife Wendy Cheesman, set up the Team 4 practice.

They began by designing Creek Vean, a house in Cornwall for Brumwells parents. Six years in the making, the experience was a baptism of fire, with Rogers and Foster brought before the Architects Registration Council for practicing without a licence. Rogers learnt his lesson, even if his proposed ZipUp House, an affordable factory-assembled construction for modern living, never took off.

Winning the competition to design the Pompidou Centre put him on the map, even if some of its more epic plans were scaled back in the face of budget cuts and public scepticism. In the end, the building was deemed a success, and was the beginning of his re-imagining of cities at a global level.

This was done primarily through the Richard Rogers Partnership, later Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, founded by Rogers in 1977.

In the 1980s, he became a public advocate of radical modernism in London and beyond, and clashed with Prince Charless sense of traditionalism, with the monarch-in-waiting describing Rogerss proposed extension to the National Gallery in London as a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend.

At the turn of the century, Rogers led the new Greater London Authoritys Architecture and Urbanism Unit, with support from the citys first mayor, Ken Livingstone. Plans for more public spaces in London were quickly overturned by Livingstones successor, Boris Johnson.

Rogerss achievements were recognised both in the UK and Europe. In France, he was awarded the Legion dHonneur in 1966, and was knighted in 1991. Tony Blair made him made a Labour peer in 1996, and he became Lord Rogers of Riverside. His autobiography, A Place for All People: Life, Architecture and Social Responsibility, was published in 2017 by Edinburgh publishing house, Canongate. He retired from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2020, closing the door on more than half a century of his modernist vision being at the heart of city living around the world.

He is survived by his second wife, Ruth Rogers, and five children; Ben, Dad and Ab, from his first marriage to Su Brumwell; and Roo, to Rogers. Their youngest son, Bo, predeceased him in 2011. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren, and his younger brother, Peter.

Original post:
Obituary: Richard Rogers, pioneering architect who re-imagined the urban landscape - HeraldScotland

A rose to all those who sacrificed a part of their Christmas Day to serve the public. While Christmas is a day off to enjoy family and friends for most of us, there are many who work on the holiday to provide essential (and non-essential) services law enforcement, firefighters, emergency service workers, utility company employees, hospital and urgent care clinic employees to name a few. We thank you for the important work you do and for the sacrifices you are sometimes called to make for our benefit. Merry Christmas!

A rose to Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin for his decision to bury a time capsule on New Years Eve and inviting the public to contribute items that will be unearthed in 2072, the citys 250th anniversary. We believe time capsules have a value that goes beyond the curiosity and anticipation that increases as the time goes by until the time capsules are reopened. Now, its an opportunity for us to reflect on who we are, what we believe to be important and how we want to be remembered. For those who are around when the time capsule is retrieved in 50 years, its a chance to reconnect with those who preceded them, tying the past together with the future. We encourage citizens to carefully consider contributing items that tell our story to those who follow.

A rose to the city of Starkville, which announced its masterplan for a $16 million upgrade for the citys parks. Based on recommendations from a landscape architect firm, the plan includes many renovations at all city park facilities. Of particular note, the plan creates more walking paths and green spaces that can serve a wide variety of uses. The old lets build a ballfield and call it a day approach has been abandoned to create a diverse offering of recreational opportunities while creating opportunities to adapt to new trends as they emerge. Its clear careful thought was given to both the current recreational needs of the community as well as future possibilities for facilities that have yet to emerge. Its a practical, flexible, forward-focused plan.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

Excerpt from:
Roses and thorns 12-26-21 - The Commercial Dispatch

As we were closing this issue, I came across a video on Twitter of a highway just outside Vancouver, submerged in water. It wasnt the only one. The densely populated urban heart of British Columbia was cut off from the rest of Canada by flooding and mudslides after an atmospheric river barreled through. The countrys busiest port lost access to rail service, stranding containers. Hundreds of motorists had to be rescued from slide-isolated highways on military helicopters. The only way to get to the rest of the country by road was to detour through the United States.

The deluge followed a hot, dry summer that saw the numerous cities throughout the region blast through long-standing temperature records as a heat dome blanketed much of the Pacific Northwest. By the end of August, drought had settled in across the province. Vancouver Island, home to old-growth temperate rainforests, hit level 5 drought conditions, British Columbias most severe categorization. Hundreds of wildfires left the region covered in ash and the city itself choking in smoke. The charred landscape left by the summers drought made the falls floods that much worse. Watching that video of a highway covered in brown, muddy water, it occurred to me that I was viewing a sad microcosm of the premise of this issue: The way very many of us will initially experience climate change will be through watereither too much of it or not enough. We will flood. Or burn. Or both. This issue brings you stories of the way changes to the water cycle are playing out all over the world as we begin to experience climate change.

More here:
Most of us will first experience climate change through water - MIT Technology Review

Ronny MichelHearts in Touch

I did something that, for me, was not the better part of wisdom. I tried to remember my 2021 New Years Resolutions. The one goal I remembered will be carried into next year. The other long forgotten and likely broken ones are written somewhere, but I will let them rest in peace.

C.S. Lewis wrote,Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ. Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect who designed Central Park, was tasked with turning 80,000 acres of bare land into a forest surrounding the Biltmore Estate. Three million trees and plants from all over the world took root in the soil of the Estate, and more than 100 years later, tourists enjoy the scenic reality of Olmsteds vision.

The Approach Road to the Biltmore mansion is a three-mile winding road and that, too, was part of Olmsteds plan. He didnt want a straight path. He wanted guests to enjoy every twist and turn of the ride that took 45 minutes by carriage. With every bend of the road, Olmsted wanted the landscape to be a different experience, like turning the page of a book.

Im going to think of that whenever life takes a twist. Im going to trust that God just wants me to appreciate a different view or learn a new lesson and just enjoy the ride. As I approach 2022, Ive already been praying for clear vision for everyone who reads these words. May the new decade usher in deeper trust that the Grand Architect has planned every detail of the landscape of our lives.

Ronny can be reached atrmmichel@rtconline.com.

See more here:
FAITH: Hearts in Touch - When life takes a twist - Orange Leader - Orange Leader

Ana Teresa Fernndez stands in front of her sculpture On the Horizon during its installation and viewing party on June 20 at Ocean Beach. Photo: Jana Asenbrennerova / Special to The Chronicle

In 2021, the Bay Area returned to cultural life in museums, galleries and public art events as venues renewed in-person programming while remaining ready to adjust to new restrictions and variants.

Continuing 2020s calls for widen representation in culture, we saw the launch of the Minnesota Street Project Foundations California Black Voices Project, a grant program that featured an opening exhibition in the 1275 Minnesota St. atrium curated by Lizzetta LeFalle-Collins, as well as projects by artists Toni Scott and Leila Weefur. LGBTQ art was also given notable attention with the presentation of an original rainbow Gay Pride Flag by Gilbert Baker at the GLBT Historical Society Museum, the Queer Visions lookback at LGBTQ nightlife history at the Haight Street Art Center and a celebration of queer artist Jerome Caja at the Anglim/Trimble gallery.

San Francisco gallerist Jessica Silverman moved from her space in the Tenderloin to new digs in Chinatown, where locals Clare Rojas, Catherine Wagner, Woody De Othello and Sadie Barnette were subjects of solo shows.

In public art, Dana Kings Monumental Reckoning, featuring 350 sculptures symbolizing the first group of Africans enslaved in the United States, and Ben Davis Illuminate the Arts Lift Every Voice installation notably changed the Music Concourse at Golden Gate Park after the removal of a statue of slaveholder Francis Scott Key last year.

A thrilling, temporary public work also got an opportunity for more life. Ana Teresa Fernndezs eco-sculpture On the Horizon, consisting of 16 6-foot plastic tubes filled with seawater, was initially installed twice at Ocean Beach as a commentary on climate change and inequality. It went on to be part of the For-Site Foundations Lands End exhibition at the former Cliff House, where it is currently on view through March 2022.

And the family of San Francisco artist Ruth Asawa debuted a new online audio tour of Asawas public works, stretching from San Jose to St. Helena.

Here are some other standout moments from the year.

In September, Shimon Atties floating barge installation Night Watch felt like a comeback moment for art gatherings. The collaboration between Boxblur and the Immersive Arts Alliance featured a 20-foot LED screen affixed to the vessel traveling the San Francisco Bay for three nights with Atties video portraits of 12 refugees granted political asylum in the United States playing on a loop.

The performance coincided with Atties show Here, Not Here at the Catharine Clark Gallery. The activations around the area meaningfully combined technology and deeper questions about the asylum and refugee crisis.

The inaugural exhibition at the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion at the Asian Art Museum was an exciting look ahead for the institution. The Tokyo-based art collectives projected digital work Continuity not only included completely original moving artwork and soundtracks, but also piped in fragrances for a truly immersive experience.

Forget the sudden rash of projected shows big in pop culture that riff on existing art like Immersive Van Gogh; for half the price, you can take in teamLabs virtual garden.

Continuity by teamLab:1-8 p.m. Thursdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays-Mondays. Closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Through February. $25. Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., S.F. asianart.org

Discussions about fnnch and his signature honey bears reached a fever pitch this year, with fans claiming the work is meant to be uplifting and cute while critics view the work as a branding device thats a symbol of gentrification.

In response, the new street art mascot Ricky Rat rose up as a kind of anti-honey bear while activist group Gay Shame created a papier-mache honey bear being decapitated by a guillotine.

A year that included exhibitions of Joan Mitchell, Nam June Paik and San Francisco native Tauba Auerbach should be an unqualified success for the San Francisco institution. But the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is still finding its way forward after a rocky 2020, even with two shows Bay Area Walls and Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis notably focused on local artists responses to the coronavirus and ongoing social justice reckonings that hit the institution hard.

This year, the museum disbanded its volunteer Modern Art Council, closed the beloved Artists Gallery at Fort Mason and cut its celebrated film program, as well as ceasing its online publication Open Space and podcast Raw Material, citing budgetary constraints.

SFMOMA also continues to work on its Diversity Equity Inclusion plan and search for a successor to director Neal Benezra, while still facing both internal and external complaints.

Artist Judy Chicago was celebratedin four Bay Area shows in August: Judy Chicago: A Retrospective at the de Young Museum; the solo show Human Geometries at Jessica Silverman Gallery; a section of Experience Leonard Cohen at the Contemporary Jewish Museum; and in the Berkeley Art Museum-Pacific Film Archives New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century. The near-simultaneous debut of the shows will go down in local lore as Judyfest: The weekend the Bay Area went Chicago, and was a fitting acknowledgment of the underappreciated feminist creator of The Dinner Party.

However, Chicagos atmospheres installation Forever de Young in October was a polarizing event, with some applauding the work while people downwind (and residents near Golden Gate Park) asked whether clouds of colored smoke were an appropriate artistic medium during Northern Californias fire season.

Judy Chicago: A Retrospective: 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Jan. 9. $15-$30. De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. 415-750-3600. deyoung.famsf.org

Judy Chicago: Cohanim: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. Through Jan. 2. $16 general admission. 736 Mission St., S.F. 415-655-7888. http://www.thecjm.org

New Time: Art and Feminisms in the 21st Century: 11 a.m.-7 p.m Wednesday-Sunday. Through Jan. 30. 2155 Center St., Berkeley. 510-642-0808.bampfa.org

The Afro-futurist sculptures installed in the courtyard and Rodin galleries of the Legion of Honor for Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are You Listening? are a strong recommendation for curator Claudia Schmucklis contemporary series at the museum. The work was not only beautifully juxtaposed with the art and architecture of the venue, but also inspired visitors to ask who those spaces were designed for.

The museum nodded to history with curator Rene Dreyfus Last Supper in Pompeii: From the Table to the Grave exploring the art and lifestyle artifacts of the doomed Roman city and Color Into Line: Pastels From the Renaissance to the Present featuring 80 masterworks of the under-celebrated medium by curator Furio Rinaldi.

Color Into Line: Pastels From the Renaissance to the Present: 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Through Feb. 13. $15-$30. Legion of Honor Museum, 100 34th Ave., S.F. 415-750-3600. legionofhonor.famsf.org

Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love was a giddy explosion of style, color and culture in curator Laura Camerlengos celebration of the 1980s fashion pioneer who broke many of the industrys racial barriers as a Black American fashion designer in the 1980s. The Mode Brut exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Design was another wearable high for Creativity Explored, the Mission District gallery and art center for developmentally disabled artists who explored concepts of gender, accessibility and identity through their garments.

Mode Brute: 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Through Jan. 23. $10. Museum of Craft and Design, 2569 Third St., S.F. 415-773-0303. sfmcd.org

Patrick Kelly: Runway of Love: 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Through April 24. $15-$30. De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. 415-750-3600. deyoung.famsf.org

Carrie Mae Weems: Witness was a fitting first solo exhibition of the artist at Fraenkel Gallery that felt perfectly timed to ongoing cultural explorations of Black identity and womanhood.

Weems, newly represented by Fraenkel, preceded Witness by curating a separate show of Diane Arbus photographs at the gallery. Among the most resonant works in Witness were pieces from the artists Museum series, where she depicts herself clad in black staring down monuments and architectural icons of the art world.

When the Oakland Museum of California reopened in June after being closed 15 months, it debuted excitingly refreshed outdoor spaces by landscape architect Walter Hood and architect Mark Cavagnero. In August, Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism delved into the movement best known for the writings of Octavia Butler and the Marvel film Black Panther. This year also saw the temporary closure of the Great Hall exhibition space after water damage caused by Bay Area rainstorms, pushing the museums Edith Heath: A Life in Clay exhibition to 2022. Also on the museums agenda: a total re-evaluation of its internal structures to better exemplify the organizations values of inclusion, equity and community.

Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Through Feb. 27. $7-$21; free for children age 12 and younger. Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. museumca.org

Deborah Oropallo and Andy Rappaport, still from Uprising, 2021. 3 x 4K video projection with two-channel sound; 9:36 minutes. Edition of 8 + 2AP.

Deborah Oropallo and Andy Rappaports three-channel video installation titled Uprising helped quantify the recent removals of Confederate monuments around the country, depicting more than 200 toppled and defaced works. Watching as the wraparound screen went from vacant to populated with overlapping images of graffitied Confederate statues set to Rappaports berserk carousel soundtrack felt like a fitting final gesture to the monuments legacy.

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Visual art in 2021 explored big issues and didnt shy from controversy - SF Chronicle Datebook

Its been a year of highs and lows, lockdowns and new normals, and throughout 2021 weve been engaging in some metal escapism courtesy of the written page. As we close out the year, our team share some of their favourite books on The Spaces Bookshelf, from lavish architectural tomes to street photography essays, and much-missed pioneer Virgil Ablohs collaboration with Nike.

Photography: Liz Seabrook

Published by Hoxton Mini PressLiz Seabrook started her Female Chef series in 2021, as the restaurant industry tentatively reopened after lockdown. The book, written by Clare Finney, brings together stories and recipes from women many of whom were photographed against the backdrop of their own kitchens who are not only redefining the food scene but doing so in an especially challenging and fraught climate. The book is a loving portrait of these pioneering culinary talents as well as the spaces they inhabit.

Photography: courtesy Taschen

Published by TaschenTheres just a thousand special editions of this Gio Ponti monograph, billed as the most comprehensive account of his work to date. It follows six decades of the architects contribution to design, delving into over a hundred projects lovingly photographed and reproduced in high res as well as unpublished imagery that tells the bigger story behind his achievements. Included with this numbered collectors edition is a set of prints of Pontis ocean liner studies, and a reproduction of the Planchart Coffee Table handy for displaying the colossal book on.

Get a sneak peek at the book.

Photography: Franois Halard

Published by RizzoliThis limited edition book peeks inside the creative crucible that is interior designer Rose Uniackes home. Only 2,500 copies have been published, all of them reproduced in lavish detail think pages of gatefolds, and a canvas and wool dust jacket. Uniacke guides the tour herself, alongside essays from architect Vincent Van Duysen and landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith.

Photography: Karen Halverson

Published by MW EditionsPhotographer Karen Halverson celebrates the mythical status of Los Angeless Mulholland Drive, with a coffee table hardback that dedicates plenty of space to her panoramic photos. She became fascinated with the road after seeing David Hockneys 20-ft painting of it, and after moving to LA set about documenting its 52-mile stretch from the sweeping rear lights of cars to the lush tropical greenery that borders the tarmac.

Photography: Taschen

Published by TaschenThe fashion world was left reeling earlier this year when Virgil Ablohs death was announced. Tributes to the pioneering designer poured in, celebrating his trailblazing contribution to design, fashion and architecture. A small but significant part of that is collected in Somethings Off a printed documentary of the collaboration between Nike and his label Off-White. Abloh described the book as a catalog of images from my process that are largely not on the internet, and cemented his love of print, sneaker culture and belief in the power of local bookstores.

Photography: Rizzoli

Published by RizzoliTheres interior inspiration aplenty in this hardcover collection of artists homes. Photographer Leslie Williamson has documented studios and houses belonging to the likes of Georgia OKeeffe, Isamu Noguchi and Barbara Hepworth, in an attempt to get under the skin of their creative process as well as their home life. I believe that the spaces where we spend our lives hold an ephemeral part of ourselves long after we have left them; our souls linger in the place where we spent our happiest, most fulfilled times, writes the photographer. This book is filled with those soul-imbued artists spaces.

Photography: Stephen Johnson / Studio Volpe / Mayer Rus

Published by RizzoliSteven Volpe, the titan of interior design and loft-living pioneer, takes readers inside his rule-breaking approach, in this first book dedicated to his work. The hardback delves into 10 projects by the designer, covering a wide range of spaces New York penthouses and modernist Cali homes through to classic city townhouses.

Photography: Stefi Orazi

Published by Prestel PressThis alternative travel guide is perfect for those of us dreaming of a long-awaited trip, going behind the doors of Modernist landmarks around the world. Its stuffed with eye candy, including photos of the exterior of buildings as well as the rooms inside. Author Stefi Orazi has added plenty of extra historical detail, meaning readers can choose their favourite, plan a trip, and visit armed with plenty of facts and figures.

You can find out more about the book, and Orazis itinerary here.

Photography: Ivar Kvaal

Published by Thames & HudsonDreams of remote retreats take shape inside this book dedicated to the work of Canadian architect Todd Saunders, who has designed buildings in secluded locations in Newfoundland and Fogo Island. New Northern Houses is his first major monograph and emphasises Saunders expertise in creating architecture that reflects and blends with the nature that surrounds it. The book features 11 projects across Scandinavia and Canada and delves into the architects creative process and design philosophy.

Photography: Marchand/Meffre

Published by Prestel PublishingAbandoned places are a perennial source of fascination, and the grander they are, the more intriguing they become. Movie Theaters documents the crumbling picture palaces across the US, which photo duo Marchand/Meffre have been capturing for the last 16 years. The books oversized format does full justice to the pairs work, featuring hundreds of images of gracefully decaying movie theatres, filled with mouldering velvet seats and defunct equipment.

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10 books we loved this year - The Spaces

A concrete podium topped with a sculptural, glazed volume forms Casa S, a cliffside Chilean house by architecture firms Gubbins Polidura Arquitectos and Ms Arquitectos.

The project is located in Punta Pite, a community that sits between the beach towns of Zapallar and Papudo on the Chilean coast. As indicated by its name punta is Spanish for tip the site juts out into the sea.

Santiago firms Gubbins Polidura Arquitectos and Ms Arquitectos were tasked with designing a second home for a couple with three children.

Their design was heavily influenced by the clients unique property, which is almost 100 metres long and has a steep, rocky drop of 20 metres.

"One of the main objectives of the project was to create a horizontal plane a large podium that allows for habitation and highlights the strength of the landscape, the view of the sea and the sunset," the team said.

The two-level Casa S consists of a V-shaped, concrete podium topped with a glazed, amoeba-shaped volume.

The podium is embedded in the site, making it barely visible from certain vantage points.

"This reduces the image of a large house in the landscape," the team said. "When you are in the pavilion on the upper floor, the rest of the house disappears."

Within the 420-square-metre dwelling, there is a clear division between public and private areas.

"The idea of the proposal was to separate the public and private programs into two pieces arranged one on top of the other, relating both levels to the landscape," the team said.

Upstairs one finds the kitchen, dining area and living room. Each occupies a circular room with a sunken central portion.

Floor-to-ceiling glass enables the rooms to feel integrated with the natural terrain. Granite flooring continues outdoors, further helping the interior merge with the landscape.

At the heart of the ground level is a spiral staircase, which leads down to the sleeping area. One side holds a main suite, while the other encompasses three bedrooms.

Throughout the home, the team used a restrained palette of materials, including stone, wood and board-formed concrete. Stacked plywood boards form the stairs and dining furniture.

Given Chiles high amount of seismic activity, the architects were mindful of earthquakes while designing the building. The upper portion consists of a concrete slab that rests on 21 steel columns.

"The height of the columns is the minimum, 230 centimetres, thus avoiding the possible deformation of the structure in the face of dynamic stress," the team said.

"This height enhances the horizontality of the enclosures, highlighting the views always towards the horizon."

Other coastal dwellings in Chile include a pair of minimalist, timber-clad cabins by Croxatto and Opazo Architects, and a cliffside retreat by the late Chilean architect Cristin Boza that features a winding yellow wall and circular swimming pool.

The photography is by Cristobal Palma.

Project credits:

Architecture firms: Gubbins Polidura Arquitectos and Ms ArquitectosArchitects: Antonio Polidura and Alex BrahmLandscape:Juan GrimmArchitecture collaborator: Hernan FourniesProject calculations: Alberto MaccioniConstruction: Daniel AlemparteLighting: Greene During Iluminacion and Luxia Lighting

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Casa S is an amoeba-shaped home on the coast of Chile - Dezeen

A massive Arvene East project in Queens has been approved and up to 30 million worth of funding was secured from the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, by a tri-joint venture consisting of Triangle Equities, The Bluestone Organization, and L+M Development; in order to undertake the first phase of the project. This development is intended to become the first net-zero community in the city.

The Arvene East project will be located on a vacant 116 acres plot, nestled between Arvene and Edgemore neighborhoods along Rockaway Peninsula. Development plans for phase I will cover the restoration of a 116 acre vacant site; construction of a new building, which will house a welcome center, a park ranger office and comfort station; and a nature preserve which will be developed on 35 acres of land between Beach 44th Street and Beach 56th Place. The nature preserve will be managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

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Design plans for the Arvene East project show that the building plans will incorporate various energy saving techniques, to ensure that the buildings produce more renewable energy than they consume. A net-zero energy status will be attained by using the passive house construction method, which will develop highly insulated and airtight buildings that make use of new efficient mechanical systems to bring in fresh, filtered air. In addition, photovoltaic panels will be used all through the development to ensure that enough energy is produced to offset the energy used in the new buildings.

The Arvene East project, on completion will have about 1, 650 housing units built on the property, with 80% of them to be offered as affordable units and the remaining 20% to be set at the market rate pricing. This new development will also feature numerous retail and public spaces, along with a community center housed within the new building. The community center will be owned and operated by a non-profit group RISE, based in the Greater Rockaway community.

Urbane, a community development consulting firm with an MBE certification will also become part of the tri-venture. The company will serve as development partner on the Arvene East project and will also be responsible for the management of retail and small business, with the aim of promoting the growth of new and existing local, small businesses. Other companies involved in this development include Starr Whitehouse, a certified MBE firm, serving as the landscape architect, and the WBE certified, WXY architecture firm, serving as the nature preserve architect.

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$30m secured to begin Phase I of the Arvene East project in New York - Construction Review