Since opening in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge has become an unmistakable icon of New York City that holds a special significance in our collective imagination. Though an architectural marvel, the bridge’s outdated infrastructure presents a very real problem of overcrowding. Long before Covid-19, thousands of pedestrians and cyclists crammed onto the promenade every day, making the experience uncomfortable and unsafe. (The deadly consequences of New York’s underdeveloped cycling paths are nothing new.) Covid-19 has also illustrated the urgency of designing public spaces and transit options with equity, health, and sustainability at their core.

In response to these conditions, the New York City Council and Van Alen Institute launched Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge, a design competition that aims to modernize the bridge’s dated pathways and spark new conversations about infrastructure. In July, the competition announced six finalists—three professional submissions, three from students—that suggest compelling ideas for responsive short-term interventions and large-scale reconfigurations of the landmark. Each finalist presented their proposal on July 23, and the two winners were announced on August 17 after a public vote and jury deliberations.

Taking home top honors in the professional category is Brooklyn Bridge Forest. Spearheaded by Scott Francisco of Pilot Projects Design Collective, the proposal expands the historic wooden walkway using FSC-certified wooden planks sustainably harvested from Guatemala’s Uaxactun community, which is actively safeguarding a 200,000-acre rainforest. In the non-professional category, Do Look Down by Shannon Hui, Kwans Kim, and Yujin Kim received the grand prize. Their proposal primarily features a glass surface, installed above the bridge’s girders, that creates a whimsical new pedestrian space brought to life through art installations.

Though the ideas may still be a distant reality, each illustrates the creative and far-reaching potential of public space to accommodate the new normal, which always seems to be in flux. Read more.

Have a news story our readers need to see? Submit it here.

Reach the design world every morning. Find out more about advertising in the Design Dispatch.

Believe it or not, new hotels are opening their doors, albeit with social-distancing restrictions and enhanced sanitation protocols. Whether now or in the post-pandemic future, we’re making a must-visit wish list. Right at the top is Grupo Habita’s latest, Circulo Mexicano, in Mexico City: a boutique hotel tucked inside a 19th-century grand house where the late renowned Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo was born and raised. Notably, the property served as the setting of his famous 1931 portrait of a sunbeam-speckled girl, titled The Day Dream / El Ensueño.

Designed by local studio Ambrosi Etchegaray, the 25 rooms are pared back with Shaker-inspired interiors, skylit contemplative patios, and handcrafted furniture by the cult Mexican makers La Metropolitana. The restaurant, ONA Le Toit, promises to be as distinctive as the design scheme and worth the trip alone—Parisian chef Romain Tischenko has taken up residency on the ground floor, where he plays with Mexican ingredients and fire-cooking techniques to turn out truly original French cuisine.

Mark Grattan won’t be put into a box, but the sensual furniture he creates for VIDIVIXI merits a vitrine. Since relocating from Brooklyn to Mexico City in 2016, VIDIVIXI has landed on a fast track to becoming one of the design industry’s most sought-after purveyors of seductive and highly sophisticated furniture infused with global materiality and craftsmanship.

The design gallery The Future Perfect has long admired Grattan’s highly detailed approach. “Mark has an incredible sense of the very little things that subconsciously give the work an inimitable sense of chic,” says founder David Alhadeff, who recently signed VIDIVIXI to his gallery’s growing roster. Under normal circumstances, The Future Perfect might be toasting the new partnership with a vernissage attended by the New York design cognoscenti, but the coronavirus had other plans. Both parties were forced, somewhat serendipitously, into conceiving a way to showcase VIDIVIXI’s work digitally.

Enter Douglas Fenton, founder of the 3-D visualization studio Major Visual, who painstakingly developed a cinematic digital rendering that places seven new VIDIVIXI pieces in a museum-like setting. This is no white cube, nor does it resemble the half-hearted virtual viewing rooms that have become ubiquitous as physical galleries remain closed. Rather, the seductive setting shrouds the furniture in a sexy shadowplay that’s slightly evocative of film noir and old-time detective movies.

“I wanted to create a collection using words,” says Gina Love, designer and co-founder of Auvere, a fine jewelry line that offers high-karat gold pieces admired for their craftsmanship and purity. “Words are important, and never more so than today.” Thus, the Scribe collection was born—it’s a set of necklaces, bracelets, and pendants bearing either the phrase “love is love” or “love first.” The lineup, which debuted in July, adds some statement pieces to the Auvere roster, including chunky medallions and shimmering chains. For Love, they feel personal; the script necklaces and bracelets bear her own handwriting.

Scientists discover an odd “heartbeat” coming from a cosmic gas cloud.

Thanks to the coronavirus, Germans are learning to embrace the staycation.

This Starbucks, outfitted with private phone booths, resembles a WeWork.

Archery is helping soothe Bhutanese immigrants who work as Uber drivers.