What’s Happening: Originally slated for completion in 2009, on a $2.1 billion budget that has since swelled, the decades-long undertaking to expand the Long Island Rail Road to Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal has finally arrived—and in many ways symbolizes the challenges gripping urban infrastructure projects in the U.S.

The Download: Commuting from Long Island to New York City isn’t exactly the most pleasant experience. Arriving to the perennially gloomy and overcrowded Penn Station—Manhattan’s only Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) terminus—on the city’s west side, thousands of LIRR straphangers traveling to the east side are left with a hectic subway transfer that adds around 20 minutes each way to the commute.

Nearly six decades after the initial proposals, East Side Access is complete. Last week, the first train pulled into the gleaming new terminal, christened “Grand Central Madison” after the Art Deco landmark it sits beneath and the nearby avenue. Clocking in at eight tracks across 700,000 square feet, the terminal’s design was first envisioned two decades ago by the project’s chief architect, Peter Hopkinson, who replicated Grand Central’s sweeping curved archways. Enlivening the glossy white stone walls are site-specific artworks by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith paying homage to New York City.

While LIRR riders are surely rejoicing, East Side Access will go down as one of the country’s most notoriously inefficient transit undertakings. After years of preplanning and engineering finances, construction officially kicked off in 2001 with an estimated eight-year timeline and $2.1 billion budget. That deadline came and went and bureaucratic entanglements ended up tacking on an extra 14 years and an eye-watering $9 billion to the overall price tag—seven times the average for similar projects elsewhere in the world.

What went wrong? Antiquated labor requirements, bloated work crews, and ballooning budgets caused by bureaucracy-saddled public officials, according to an investigation by the New York Times. Similar quagmires have also dogged ambitious public transit projects in San Francisco, Boston, and Honolulu. (Miami, on the other hand, seems to be doing something right with its high-speed Brightline train.) When President Biden signed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill in 2021, which earmarked $39 billion for urban transit, he lamented how the U.S. once sported the world’s best public transit but now ranks 13th globally.

Of course, the debut of East Side Access doesn’t mean that New York City’s transportation woes have been solved. The Riders Alliance, a nonprofit representing the interests of passengers, decried it as “exemplifying the worst of transit inequity in New York,” noting the subway’s cash shortfall, decrepit conditions, and overcrowding compared to LIRR. “I’ve always been a train buff,” Edward Hand, a transit enthusiast from Long Island, told the Times. “But as I’ve always said, [this] was proposed 50 years ago and it’s 50 years late.”

In Their Own Words: “When I took over as president of MTA C&D, the project was a hot mess,” Janno Lieber, the MTA’s current chair and CEO, said at the opening ceremony. “We tore it apart, we put it back together again. We said never again are we going to let the schedule slip. We hired a new team and said, ‘No schedule slippage, get it done.’ And you know what? We delivered.”

Surface Says: In true MTA fashion, an oversight has already been identified—Georgia O’Keeffe’s name engraved on one of its walls is misspelled.

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Dining at LPM Miami is like stepping into a villa from the Belle Époque, but set to a bossa nova soundtrack. Beginning at the entry with Ferdinand Barbedienne’s recreation of Marius-Jean-Antonin Mercié’s 19th-century bronze statue, Gloria Victis, the Brickell dining room is filled with treasures—French shutters, harlequin mirrors—that transport guests to the Côte d’Azur. Beneath a gallery wall of colorful 20th-century paintings, the stylish clientele nosh on Mediterranean staples in pistachio-hued banquettes and white-clothed tables set with tomatoes and lemons.

Head chef Brian Brumec’s menu pulls influences from North Africa, Greece, and Italy, though it leans decidedly French. At any LPM outpost, whether it be Hong Kong or London, the garlicky escargot is a fan favorite. Other standouts include the salmon carpaccio, marinated lamb cutlets with aubergine caviar and pine nuts, and whole sea bream speckled in provencal herbs.

Over the weekend, Hannah Traore celebrated her 28th birthday as well as the one-year anniversary of her eponymous New York City gallery. With its 2022 debut, the Lower East Side gallery soon made a name for itself by championing historically underrepresented artists including Camila Falquez and Renee Cox. Traore hosted friends and family for a dinner party at Brooklyn venue Frank’s House with diasporic cuisine from the African continent catered by Harlem restaurant Teranga. After, the crowd took to Friends of Form for a late-night dance party, where they enjoyed cocktails by Ten to One rum and birthday cake by Yup Studio.

When was it? Jan. 28

Where was it? Frank’s House and Friends of Form

Who was there? Alteronce Gumby, Antwaun Sargent, Isolde Brielmaier, Kevin Claiborne, Charlie Jarvis, JiaJia Fei, and more.

Anticipation is building for NYCxDesign, especially the upcoming ICFF and WantedDesign Manhattan (May 21–23). Though the two fairs joined forces last year for a co-presentation at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, this year’s event marks the fair’s first edition under new leadership: Kevin Gaffney as group vice president and Odile Hainaut and Claire Pijoulat as brand directors. They’re aiming to provide a more cohesive fair-going experience, particularly with a floorplan reorganized by category. This year’s edition also marks the first time the fair will share a location with the DIFFA by Design fundraiser, which assists people impacted by HIV/AIDS, homelessness, hunger, and mental health issues.

Hainaut and Pijoulat, who formerly helmed WantedDesign, are looking forward to bringing their penchant for authentic design to an even bigger stage. “We’re looking forward to expanding on that reputation to include a strong focus on sharing best practices, educating the community, enhancing the role of design for the future, and creating an incredible experience for attendees,” they said in a statement. Among the programming highlights: a trend presentation from WGSN, a keynote from Snøhetta, a panel discussion with Be Original Americas, and the annual ICFF Editors Awards.

New & Notable is a cultural catchall that highlights interesting new products and projects from our brilliantly creative members of The List. With new releases, events, and goings-on, these moments indicate their power to move the needle within and beyond realms like architecture, design, fashion, and art.

In 2008, billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal of Saudi Arabia revealed ambitious plans for the Jeddah Tower, the first skyscraper intended to reach a height of 3,281 feet. The record-breaking supertall is slated to become the crown jewel of Jeddah Economic City, a sprawling urban oasis envisioned as the country’s very own Dubai. Nearly 15 years later—and six years after its projected opening date—only one-third of the tower is complete, drawing comparisons to North Korea’s hulking “Hotel of Doom.”

The skyscraper is perhaps the most visible symbol of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s high-stakes scheme to overhaul Saudi Arabia’s economy and poor international reputation through dozens of “giga-projects” on a $719 billion budget. As part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan, the country has conceived a multitude of mammoth developments purported to reshape its oil-based economy into one that attracts international tourism dollars. On the cultural front, Desert X AlUla and the inaugural Jeddah Biennale have attracted major art-world figures, and the new Saudi-backed golf league LIV enticed some of the sport’s marquee names with exorbitant contracts.

Hacin + Associates is a multidisciplinary architecture firm dedicated to design excellence and client service. Working at all scales, the firm’s services include architecture and interior design, graphic design and branding, and adaptive reuse and historic preservation.

Surface Says: Hacin + Associates imbues its work with a strong sense of place, especially in Boston. Just look at the award-winning Whitney Hotel in Beacon Hill for proof: its thoughtfully expressive design has a pinch of New England flair and exudes a casual sophistication that impeccably matches the Beantown vibe.

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