What’s Happening: The great American architect’s titular foundation is helping to digitally render his unbuilt structures and reintroduce office furniture pieces pulled from the archives. Both projects suggest there’s still ample wisdom to plumb from Wright’s work—and he would’ve loved experimenting with DALL-E.

The Download: Frank Lloyd Wright is widely regarded as one of history’s great and most prolific architects. By the time he died, in 1959, the visionary designed more than 1,100 structures stretching over seven decades. But a whopping 660 of those buildings remain unrealized, seemingly relegated to obscurity. Given how he masterminded some of modern architecture’s most iconic hallmarks—Fallingwater, the Guggenheim Museum, and Taliesin among them—it’s difficult to grasp how different today’s design landscape might look if his lost buildings were actualized.

Thanks to a collaboration between Spanish architect David Romero and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation (FLWF), design enthusiasts can finally do so. Romero started recreating two seminal Wright structures—Buffalo’s Larkin Administration Building and the Pauson House in Phoenix—to fine-tune his rendering skills. Their crisp visuals impressed Stuart Graff, the FLWF’s president and CEO, who encouraged Romero to continue the project and publish the renderings in its magazine.

The latest batch is stunning: a needle-like mile-high skyscraper along the Chicago River; a foliage-filled bridge to serve as a southern crossing of San Francisco Bay; a rotund planetarium near Maryland’s Sugarloaf Mountain, which Romero thinks would be one of Wright’s most celebrated designs had it seen the light.

Wright’s architecture embodies early 20th-century cultural values, extolling a country of citizens harmoniously connected to each other and the land. Some may bristle at the notion of using digital technology to visualize buildings that never left the drawing board, especially as rapid advances in AI is casting a mood of uncertainty over creative industries.

However, Wright’s past statements—“that technology could and should be embraced as a powerful tool for a wide variety of creative and stylistic expressions,” as described by the FLWF—suggest maybe he would embrace exploring digitally generated architecture. “[Our] focus is how to use Wright’s work to inspire a new generation of designers,” Graff told AD, “and present Wright in ways that encourage people to take his ideas and act on them.”

If the FLWF’s latest feat is any indication, there’s still wisdom to glean from Wright’s work. The Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, endures as one of his most beloved structures and a marvel of 20th-century engineering. Upon the building’s completion, in 1939, he even hailed it as “an inspiring place to work as any cathedral ever was to worship in.”

Looking upon the interior’s grid of towering lilypad columns and range of furniture designed specifically for the office, it’s hard to argue with that sentiment. Guided by organic design principles, the collection encompasses rounded desks, matching chairs, and rolling carts that rebuffed the era’s embrace of hard-edged office furniture.

Thanks to a new partnership between the FLWF and Steelcase, the original manufacturer of the office’s furniture, the collection is being faithfully reinterpreted for the work-from-home era. The newly reintroduced pieces include a tiered desk, lounge chair, and utility table in Wright’s original burnished red and spruce, available in a range of new dimensions. Given that the original pieces allowed for greater flexibility in the workplace, Graff says it feels apt to reintroduce the renditions at a time when modern work is undergoing a paradigm shift.

In Their Own Words: “As we stride into a new millennium, and grapple with architecture’s responsibility to embrace the tools and embody the values of our time and place,” the FLWF notes, “we must acknowledge that in all of this, Wright walked before us.”

Surface Says: Society if Frank Lloyd Wright designed using DALL-E:

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More details have emerged about Nike and Tiffany’s hotly anticipated collaboration, which was teased by Tiffany executives on Instagram earlier this week. The two brands are teaming up to celebrate the Air Force 1’s 40th anniversary with a limited-edition sneaker—officially called the Nike x Tiffany & Co. Air Force 1 1837—and shoe-themed sterling silver accessories like a whistle chain and dubrae for the laces. Packaged in a pristine Tiffany Blue box is a black suede sneaker emblazoned with the same turquoise swoosh. The sneaker will be available for purchase March 7 at two Tiffany locations in New York City, the Nike Snkrs app, and select Nike stores across the country.

Though the collaboration marks Tiffany’s first official foray into footwear, sneaker enthusiasts may recall the brand’s signature turquoise adorning one of Nike’s most hyped drops ever. The sports giant enlisted Nicholas Tershay, founder of skater label Diamond Supply Co., to design a pair of low-top dunks in 2005. He layered black crocodile leather and a silver swoosh against a backdrop of turquoise mesh and leather, calling it the “Tiffany.” Now considered a classic, the rare sneaker is currently going for $3,850 on Sotheby’s. Perhaps that price tag intrigued LVMH, which has launched a spate of Tiffany collabs (Supreme, Fendi, Patek Philippe, and Daniel Arsham) since acquiring the brand in 2021.

Seth Rogen is joining forces with Airbnb to host an L.A. retreat that encapsulates a mixture of midcentury design, handmade ceramics, and, of course, Mary Jane. Anyone familiar with the actor-turned-ceramicist’s films will attest to Rogen’s highly refined knowledge of ganja and appreciation for beautiful design—a confluence seen in the subtle but profound details of the products released by his brand Houseplant.

Decorated with handmade ceramics and design-forward furnishings, the experiential pop-up will offer guests a window into the world of Houseplanet, whose co-founders include Evan Goldberg, Michael Mohr, James Weaver, and Alex McAtee. Activities include Rogen-guided pottery classes and a listening session featuring the brand’s collection of vinyls—tracklists curated by Rogen and Goldberg inspired by different cannabis strains—and an exclusive premiere of their new Vinyl Box Set Vol. 2. Held from Feb. 15-17, both three and one-night stays are available to book. Whether Houseplant’s Sungrown Crafted Pre-Rolls will be one of the guest amenities remains to be seen, but we certainly won’t count it out.

On Monday night, Oscar de la Renta and Monse co-creative director Laura Kim and U Beauty’s Tina Chen Craig rang in the Lunar New Year with a dinner party at Hutong New York. Guests mingled over glasses of Champagne Telmont and a cocktail and caviar hour before sitting down to a dinner of Northern Chinese cuisine and dim sum. Before dessert, the crowd was treated to a guided tasting of Louis XIII Grande-Champagne cognac and a Chinese ribbon dance performance.

When was it? Jan. 30

Where was it? Hutong New York

Who was there? Phillip Lim, Nicky Hilton Rothschild, LaQuan Smith, Prabal Gurung, Wendi Murdoch, Amanda Nguyen, and more.

The fabled four elements of hip-hop are rapping, DJing, breakdancing, and graffiti; a fifth is often said to be fashion. A massive exhibition at New York’s Fotografiska might propose a sixth one: bearing. Not posing, exactly. “Hip-Hop: Conscious, Unconscious,” which gathers 200 photographs taken in the half-century since the sound stormed out of the South Bronx, isn’t here to call out the phonies. And its curators, Sacha Jenkins of Mass Appeal and photo director Sally Berman, aren’t necessarily arguing the subjects are muses.

What these extraordinary portraits do, when viewed as a whole, is prove how their subjects’ gargantuan talents also extend to connecting with the camera. In Geoffroy De Boismenu’s iconic 1994 photo of Christopher “Biggie” Wallace, his personality is so potent you can smell the blunt smoke; in a rare outtake, smoke obscures his face but can’t hide the notoriety. In the sunny Janette Beckman shot of Salt-n-Pepa goofing off in 1986, or a 1998 Christian Witkin close-up of Missy Elliott twirling bubblegum, or a waggish Angela Boatwright black-and-white of Nicki Minaj, you’re confronted with unparalleled charisma machines. Their poise is power.

The Malin offers spaces that inspire members to work beautifully—in workspaces surrounded by thoughtful design, not distraction. The Malin provides the services, amenities, and perks that its members need to make working a pleasure.

Surface Says: Co-founders Ciaran McGuigan and Charlie Robinson both envisioned a stylish co-working space that checks all the boxes for an ideal post-pandemic return to the office. With its central locations, thoughtfully delineated zones for different types of work, and a design that’s both comfortable and inviting, the Malin is set to deliver on all fronts.

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