Welcome to Curbed's new weekly round-up of architecture and design on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and (god forbid) even LinkedIn. Collected from retweets, inter-office chats, and, well, anything that sent us into a 140-character tizzy, this is what Curbed editors actually read this week. Please be in touch if you have a recommendation for next week.
1. A hat tip to Solange, a resident of New Orleans, on eight years of marital bliss with her black-and-white striped sofa, a true ride or die. We wish them both the best.
Sofa and I been together for 8 years. What lives we've lived, but we finally found home.
Posted by Solange on Tuesday, April 21, 2015
2. Oliver Wainwright, the architecture guy at The Guardian newspaper, took us atop Renzo Piano's New Whitney and live-streamed it on the Twitter app that everyone pretends to have already mastered, Periscope.
LIVE on #Periscope: At the top of Renzo Piano's new Whitney https://t.co/B0xrhgJycG
— Olly Wainwright (@ollywainwright) April 23, 2015
3. Cooper Hewitt, New York's recently reopened, post-reno Smithsonian Design Museum, came through with our favorite #EarthDay tweet.
"Give Earth a Chance": #MiltonGlaser's poster for the first-ever #EarthDay in 1970. http://t.co/TVLX3ZYabm pic.twitter.com/8IaULOq09m
— Cooper Hewitt (@cooperhewitt) April 22, 2015
4. Betty Willis, designer of the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign along Interstate 15, passed away at 91. Courtesy of MAS context, the full story can be found here.
Betty Willis, designer of the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign, has passed away http://t.co/SWmQ849yqy pic.twitter.com/f4a1M20cXs
— MAS Context (@MASContext) April 22, 2015
5. We're imagining that Carolina Miranda, who pens art-speak for the LA Times, had a career highlight this week: Architect Alejandro Aravena began a building in her notebook.
6. No one ever needs an excuse to revisit the work of the inimitable Ada Louise Huxtable, the standard setter for architectural criticism whose legacy is too dense for this social media round-up. But the reopening of the Whitney Museum in its Renzo Piano-designed new home provided a compelling opportunity to take a second look at her 1966 review of Marcel Breuer's Whitney. Choice quote: " It grows on one slowly, like a taste for olives or warm beer."
Ada Louise Huxtable's 1966 review of the current "harsh and handsome" Whitney Museum building—http://t.co/hEOvztoTxo https://t.co/XXSf7Aup5b
— NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) April 22, 2015
7. From the look of its Instagram feed, Johnson Trading Gallery, a ragtag high-art showroom with a garage sale ethos, is working on a project in Detroit's Woods Cathedral.
8. Sometimes, when you can't say anything nice, it's better to state a series of facts: The New Whitney opens on May 1st. Max Mara's creative director, Ian Griffiths, crafted a limited-edition bag to mark the occasion. The bag is already sold-out. Here is the bag.
Presenting the #WhitneyBag Limited Edition designed by @RPBWARCHITECTS . Discover more on: http://t.co/AEtEu2CLDZ pic.twitter.com/yRbft7ybmH
— Max Mara (@maxmara) April 23, 2015
9. Occasionally we need a reminder to pay attention to Lester Beall, a Post-War graphic designer, pre-Mad Men advertiser, and strident proponent of primary colors. This is a good one.
The work of Lester Beall, which is worth a timely reexamination.http://t.co/hA37llz0wI h/t @michaelbierut pic.twitter.com/v9US0uqlVD
— Chappell Ellison (@ChappellTracker) April 21, 2015
10. If you haven't made the (completely necessary) architectural pilgrimage to Sarasota, Florida, you can just scroll through Alexandra Lange's social feed as she meticulously documents her trip to the southern city. All your favorites are there: Rudolph, Rupp, Lundy, Seibert, Jack West, Hiss, etc. And did we mention that Lange is Curbed's new architecture critic?