Warning: this story discusses suicide. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK).

What’s Happening: Much of the flagship programming of New York Art Week and NYCxDesign took place at or near Hudson Yards. As the week draws to a close, we reflect on the lives lost to The Vessel—the development’s resident selfie monument—and how architects and developers can work together to prevent further suicides.

The Download: This past week brought New York’s art and design cognoscenti out to Hudson Yards for a week of marquee fairs. While traversing the manicured square on Manhattan’s West Side, our thoughts strayed away from furniture debuts and blue-chip art and instead onto the preventable suicides of four young people who jumped to their deaths at the Heatherwick Studio–designed Vessel since its 2019 unveiling.

Despite ample research showing that barriers and fences are effective at preventing suicides at places like bridges and viewing platforms, The Vessel opened with only four-foot-high glass barriers between its platforms and the open air. (The safety risk was presciently called out by writer Audrey Wachs when plans for The Vessel were first made public.) Following a spate of suicides there, the structure has closed and reopened several times without the increased safety barriers called for by suicide prevention researchers and the local community board. In 2021, a Heatherwick Studio employee even told the New York Times that such preventive measures were designed “a while back.”

The Vessel has partially reopened in the years since, and with no explanation from either Heatherwick Studio or Related Companies about why it still lacks higher barriers. In a statement to the Times, a Related spokesperson declined to discuss barriers but cited a desire to “make the Vessel safer while staying true to the intent of its design.”

Joel Sanders, who augmented the soaring atrium of NYU’s Philip Johnson and Richard Foster–designed library with aluminum-cut panels to prevent deaths by suicide, told Artnet News about a pervasive unwillingness to discuss the topic—and the damage inflicted by such stigma. In the decade since his panels were installed, the floor-to-ceiling barriers seem to have made future deaths in the building all but impossible.

“Architects need to be part of this conversation so that moving forward we can generate new design strategies which would bring the public to the table to collaborate on spatial solutions,” he told the publication, which reported on a recent suicide at the Centre Pompidou. When reached by Artnet News for comment on whether suicide prevention measures will be part of its upcoming architectural refit, both the museum and the office of Renzo Piano, its designer and renovation advisor, called the issue a “delicate” matter and declined to comment further.

The future of designing for this particular public health crisis can be addressed during the design process. According to Nathalie Pauwels of Papageno, a suicide prevention program that offers guidance to architects and institutions in France, code and education are two underutilized tools. There are standards and norms for people living with disabilities and the opening of windows, she says, “but not yet for suicide prevention.”

In Their Own Words: “I understand that The Vessel is seen as a work of art and architecture, and there’s a certain aesthetic involved with that,” Lowell D. Kern, who chaired the community board that advocated for safety barriers at The Vessel, told the Times. “But you’re trying to balance an artistic aesthetic versus loss of life, and there’s no choice there.”

Surface Says: If architects can design for bird safety, they can certainly design for human safety, too.

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Last week, Surface hosted a lively cocktail with Spring Studios and Mortlach Single Malt Scotch Whisky to toast Kouros Maghsoudi’s latest furniture collection. The one-night soirée showcased the designer’s Bundle Collection, a line of metal-based pieces inspired by gauche New York hedonism and unapologetic self-indulgence. Guests mingled at the Spring Place rooftop over craft Mortlach cocktails while enjoying live performances by Meilgaarden, X3Butterfly, and Jonah Almost.

When was it? May 19

Where was it? Spring Studios, New York

Who was there? Fashion, Michael Cuby, Djivan Schapira, Jean Tior, Xavier Cruz, Tania Leipold, Rubby Valentin, Vince Patti, and more.

Gustavo Barroso won’t be restricted to a single artistic medium, but the Brazilian sculptor often flips everyday furniture on its side in order to investigate life’s absurdities. In his hand, slimy blobs seem to assert their dominance over mundane tables and chairs, perhaps signaling the value of exploring new ideas and embracing ridiculousness. It’s an approach that caught the attention of fashion rule-breaker Heron Preston, who collaborated with Barroso on a low-slung table for his new experimental venture L.E.D. Studio; and the multihyphenate KidSuper, who is currently presenting five new consumerism-inspired chairs by Barroso at his Brooklyn gallery.

Originally a synagogue built in the 1950s, the Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Center is a cornerstone of the local Vista Del Mar Family & Child Services therapeutic performing arts program. AUX Architecture pursued material innovation when revamping the space, which engages families of children with learning and behavioral challenges. Now, as one of the region’s largest structures made of recyclable polycarbonate, its translucent exterior harnesses Southern California’s abundance of natural light to striking effect. At night, a glowing façade welcomes students and curious locals to a variety of classes and performances for children and adults of all abilities.

When: Until July 1

Where: Gavlak, Los Angeles

What: Queerness comes in many forms—an underlying thesis of Anthony Sonnenberg’s latest array of sculptural objects that seek to challenge conventional expectations and explore the idea of “soft power.” To that end, the Arkansas artist follows a one-of-a-kind process that involves building clay understructures and covering them in silk flowers, porcelain tchotchkes, and yards of textile trimmings before coating them in liquid ceramic slip, unifying a specter of their composite parts in a fine shell that remains post-firing. Lustrous mauve and frosty blue finishes invite both darkness and depth, empowering each object to take pride in their differences and radiate unabashed queerness.

Our weekly roundup of the internet’s most preposterous headlines, from the outrageous to the outright bizarre.

Revenge of the Orcas? Killer Whales Have Sunk Three Boats in Unusual Attacks [Washington Post]

German Surgeon Fired After Asking Hospital Cleaner to Assist Amputation [HuffPost]

Tate Britain Rehang Review: This Is Now the Museum Where Art Goes to Sleep [The Guardian]

What’s That Grotesque Sculpture on Jeff Bezos’s Megayacht? [Hyperallergic]

A Disgruntled Florida Man Just Plowed His Car Into a $200,000 Blue Bunny Sculpture—His Second Time Vandalizing Public Art [Artnet News]

Banksy Painted a Mural on a UK Couple’s Home. They Paid Nearly $250,000 to Get It Removed. [Robb Report]

Chirping Sounds Lead Airport Officials to Bag Filled With Smuggled Parrot Eggs [AP]

Editions aren’t a common sight at Frieze New York, but this year’s attendees had the opportunity to acquire limited-edition fine bone china designed by the market’s leading artists. Thanks to the Coalition for the Homeless, Prospect New York, and 40 participating artists and estates, the Artist Plate Project gave Frieze attendees first pick of limited-edition plates by the likes of Rashid Johnson (pictured), Mickalene Thomas, Derrick Adams, and more. The initiative, co-founded and curated by Michelle Hellman in 2020, has to date raised more than $4.5 million to benefit the Coalition for the Homeless. Couldn’t make Frieze? Surface readers can shop the plates now at Artware Editions.

Since 1852, Hästens has taken up the challenge of designing the best sleep possible. The skillful craftsmen at Hästens’ atelier in Köping, Sweden, have perfected the bedmaking craft for generations. Every bed is handmade using only premium natural materials.

Surface Says: It doesn’t get better than these made-to-order beds, which marry ingenuity with craftsmanship to deliver the market’s highest-quality mattresses.

A rare “technicolor” sea slug indicates warmer waters due to climate change.

Divers believe they’ve finally found the Atlantic’s most infamous shipwreck.

A paralyzed man is starting to walk again thanks to electronic brain implants.

Jeff Koons shares how his seemingly simple art is actually hard to create.