What’s Happening: Miami’s Little Santo Domingo and Chinatowns in both Seattle and Philadelphia appear on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual Most Endangered Places list, highlighting the perils gentrification poses to heritage districts.

The Download: For a historic site, being listed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of Most Endangered Places can be a one-way ticket to survival. The organization first launched the list in 1988 to draw attention to places across the United States in danger of irreparable damage, whether from vandalism, fire, dilapidation, or gentrification. Historical weight—not flashiness—is the main prerequisite for inclusion. Since launching, the organization has spotlighted more than 350 cultural sites, and only a handful have met the wrecking ball. Some, such as Arizona’s long-abandoned Camp Naco, secured $8 million in grants and have since been restored for community use.

This year’s list highlights a cross-section of historic sites reflective of the perils faced by dated urban areas. The Century and Consumers Buildings may be two of Chicago’s most iconic early skyscrapers, but nearly two decades of deterioration after the General Services Administration vacated them is raising security concerns. Union Pier played a crucial role in Charleston’s early economic vitality and served as a major point of arrival for thousands of enslaved people, but a proposed 65-acre mixed-use development may undermine its original character. Ditto for Miami’s Little Santo Domingo, whose proximity to in-demand and speculative real estate threatens the Dominican enclave with displacement.

Two of this year’s selections spotlight existential issues facing Chinatowns on opposite ends of the country—especially as developers’ hunger for their lucrative downtown-adjacent real estate grows. A mammoth highway built in the 1960s continues to scar Seattle’s Chinatown-International District, one of the West Coast’s oldest Asian-American locales and the country’s only area where Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, African American, and Vietnamese people settled together to build one neighborhood. Preservationists are resisting development to maintain the area’s character, but local agency Sound Transit is bullish on building light rail nearby that threatens to spark further gentrification.

Philadelphia’s Chinatown, meanwhile, is fending off plans by the owner of the NBA’s 76ers to build a giant basketball arena on the neighborhood’s southern tip. Local groups strongly oppose the project, citing the deleterious effects other gargantuan sports stadiums have wreaked on communities. Besides its status as one of the nation’s oldest remaining Chinatowns at 152 years old, the district is also home to 40 locally designated landmarks and serves as an enclave for working-class Asian immigrants. A stadium may spark gentrification and drive up congestion, dissuading visitors from patronizing Chinatown businesses, many of which are still recovering from the pandemic-induced economic slowdown.

In Their Own Words: “The most endangered historic places list looks like America,” Katherine Malone-France, the National Trust’s chief preservation officer, tells NPR. “It tells our layered and interconnected stories. Each site on it, of course, is a powerful place in its own right, but I think there are also common themes, like creativity and entrepreneurship, perseverance, and cultural exchange.”

Surface Says: William Murtagh, the first keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, said it best: “At its best, preservation engages the past in a conversation with the present over a mutual concern for the future.”

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Please join Surface, Kouros Maghsoudi, Spring Studios, and Mortlach Single Malt Scotch Whisky on May 19 for a one-night celebration during NYCxDesign. The occasion will toast the launch of The Bundle Collection, Maghsoudi’s latest series of furniture and accessories inspired by gauche New York hedonism and unapologetic self-indulgence.

The fête will take place at Spring Studios (6 St John’s Lane, New York) on Friday, May 19, from 5:30–9:00 PM. Fabulosity and cocktail attire are encouraged. Get to know Maghsoudi more by reading our 2021 interview with the designer and be sure to RSVP below.

Talking with Natalie Shook, you get the feeling that she’s actually many people trying to be one person. Born and bred in the Midwest, the Cuban-American artist moved to New York to study painting at the famed Cooper Union but quickly discovered an affinity for carpentry and fabrication. A taste of the polymathic led her to launch Piscina, a design studio and collective in Red Hook, Brooklyn, showcasing the talents of woodworkers, ceramicists, and metalsmiths.

All, appropriately, feature in her debut collection. Headlined by a showstopping oak shelving unit and rounded out by ceramic and cast-iron pieces, it launched to considerable acclaim at ICFF 2022. She won Best New Designer and, for good measure, Best in Show. “Moving from painting into the applied arts was a big shift,” Shook says. “I needed to build a space where I could explore new media. To have the collection percolating and seeing it so well-received was so affirming.” With that shift came a realization: despite committing herself to the practice every day since she was 14, she was no longer just a painter.

Alteronce Gumby has crossed a number of career “firsts” off his list. With numerous profiles, gallery exhibitions, and his inaugural museum show behind him, he’s now turned his attention to Color, his forthcoming documentary. The film follows Gumby on his journey to catalog the cultural and creative significance of color in such places as New Orleans’ Mardi Gras celebrations, India’s Holi festival, and even the Northern Lights. Gumby has invited friends and fans to support Color and earn exclusive perks like a tour of his studio, acknowledgments in the film’s credits, and a complimentary copy of his new Dark Matter exhibition catalog.

Last week, a rising generation of collectors turned out in the East Village for the art week edition of Standard Talks, hosted by Alma Communications and moderated by journalist Annie Armstrong. Art advisors Nazy Nazhand and Maria Vogel joined artist Zoe Buckman to pull back the curtain on the industry’s changing landscape, with a special focus on the new world of art advising and artist support. Afterwards, guests and panelists mingled over drinks at No Bar for a lively kickoff to the following week’s festivities.

When was it? May 12

Where was it? No Bar at the Standard East Village

Who was there? Caleb Quintana, Hannah Gottlieb-Graham, Kathleen Lynch, Michael Yuan, Sally Hughes, Tamara Warren, and more.

When: Until Dec. 10

Where: Hetzler Marfa

What: The Vermont-born painter depicts a medley of characters lounging in domestic settings, delving into the range of emotions one experiences in solitude. Through her larger-than-life figures and everyday objects, Weaver emphasizes mundane moments and the potential of finite spaces to evoke a rich gamut of emotions. Skillfully merging naturalistic and synthetic colors, the new paintings expose her process through visible brushstrokes and textural spikes of paint, while the figures reflect our sense of distraction in a fragmented world.

Objects of Common Interest recently lit up Milan Design Week with iridescent resin furniture at Nilufar Gallery. Splitting time between Brooklyn and Athens, founders Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis’s next project looks back—to the ancient inspiration of their Greek heritage, and the midcentury spell the country cast over Japanese genius Isamu Noguchi—in the form of a two-volume archive, Noguchi and Greece, Greece and Noguchi (Atelier Éditions/D.A.P.) The collected essays, archives, and artworks broaden the context of the sculptor’s famed use of Greek marble and his interactions with mythologies and philosophies in collaborations with Martha Graham and Buckminster Fuller, among many others.

Shortly after the book’s publication this May, Petaloti sat down with Surface to talk about Noguchi’s travels, his presence, and why he considered the country his “intellectual home.”

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Tyler Ellis, the daughter of revered fashion designer Perry Ellis, channels her fascination for traveling into an endless current of inspiration. Her eponymous accessories line is defined by an array of luxe materials and thoughtful details that embody her worldly palette. Brought to life in a father/son-owned and operated atelier in Le Sieci, Italy, Tyler Ellis represents an ardent commitment to couture and quality craftsmanship.

Surface Says: Thanks to their sleek silhouettes, Italian hand-craftsmanship, and Ellis’s own keen eye, these expertly made handbags are well-poised to become a new classic in the competitive accessories space.

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