What’s Happening: While unionization efforts have now fallen short at Snøhetta and SHoP Architects, they illustrate a beleaguered workforce antsy for change in a profession often grueling toward the rank and file.

The Download: For aspiring architects, entering the field and securing stable employment can be a no-frills proposition. Entry-level jobs usually require burning the midnight oil for a meager salary, often to carry out tedious executive decisions from managers who view junior staff as disposable (and often don’t hesitate to conduct layoffs when projects wrap up). Then there’s the lack of diversity and imperious bosses who might put in a negative word for whistleblowers. It can be treacherous for those not well-versed in its inner workings—circumstances that make a decent case for unionizing.

That’s the path Snøhetta’s stateside workers sought in May, when they filed with the National Labor Relations Board to form a union and join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Known for its visionary architecture and landscape design in far-flung locales, the Norwegian firm was set to become the first private-sector architecture practice to get a union vote in more than 50 years. Despite this, the firm opted against recognizing the union and hired a union-busting law firm. That perhaps led to the unionization efforts ultimately falling short—workers across the firm’s two offices in New York and San Francisco recently voted against unionizing, 35-29.

Unions for architectural workers are common globally—France, Portugal, Australia, and Turkey all have them—but stateside efforts have largely failed. SHoP Architects launched a historic drive with a campaign led by Architectural Workers United (AWU) last year, but their efforts ended a month after going public. Whispers of misinformation and “fear of the unknown” allegedly colored conversations there—one associate principal anticipated financial blowback.

SHoP and Snøhetta are both well-regarded firms with positive cultures, but the job’s grueling demands can still push employees to the brink. Both episodes prove that “organizing toward making architecture more equitable, the profession more just, and our built environment more resilient,” as the AWU website states, is gaining momentum.

In Their Own Words: Snøhetta and SHoP’s efforts may have failed, but architects eager for change remain hopeful that they’ve at least started some conversations. “Architecture is a very personal thing for all of us,” Danielle Tellez, an associate architect with SHoP, told Curbed last year. “Too often our work consumes our entire lives, and because of this, it’s hard for people to see an alternative way of doing things.”

Surface Says: A certain folk song comes to mind…

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Bogotá’s hot new culinary arrival IDEAL brings New American cuisine into a striking space rooted in everyday building materials. Local architects Lorenzo Botero and Martín Mendoza transformed a former three-story house into a gastronomic sanctuary, where brick-lined rooms play host to a feast for the senses. The design is a masterful blend of natural materials such as wood, copper, terracotta, and linen, creating an atmosphere of harmony that Botero likens to a textured symphony.

The walls, adorned with stacked bricks and plaster made from white paint and river sand, serve as the canvas for shafts of sunlight streaming through generous windows. The outdoor areas are adorned with olive trees, lavender, rosemary, wild grass, and other unusual plants, inspired by the flora found in the restaurant’s location in the historic town of Villa de Leyva. The menu is a modern take on American fare, featuring dishes such as brisket tacos, sweet chilli and orange salsa pork belly, and seafood stew with white fish, mussels, and prawns. The perfect complement: a dried-fruit guava spritz.

Glassblowing is an inherently experimental practice—and Kathrin Zelger approaches the art’s ever-changing nature with refreshing ebullience. Under the guise of her alter-ego, Ursula Futura, the Vienna-based artisan captures the mystery and magic of glass’s water-like properties, imbuing each of her spirited objects with curiosity-piquing touches that reflect the material’s strength, fragility, and ability to conjure emotion.

Recently, luminaries of the Los Angeles design sphere descended on Chet Callahan’s lush Los Feliz estate for an intimate dinner to celebrate Mondos, a furniture collection he designed in collaboration with Molly Purcell and Rachel Bullock of local studio Laun. Each item in the collection evokes the joyful energy of the namesake Ventura beach, from its ocean-like curves to a surf-inspired color palette. It surely set the tone for the evening, which channeled low-key energy with a special Mediterranean-inspired menu by Sera Domenica of Domenica Dinette.

When was it? June 28

Where was it? Cummings Estate, Los Feliz

Who was there? Ben Medansky, Jake Rodehuth-Harrison, Staci Steinberger, Diedrick Brackens, Nikolai Haas, Alex P White, and more.

First they ditched social media, then they launched their own online magazine and revived a niche favorite. Bottega Veneta continues to eschew fashion-industry norms and reiterate its love for print with its latest undertaking, the support of art producer and publisher Paul Olivennes’ newly launched Magma journal. Inspired by the avant-garde and intended as “a forum for artistic expression,” Magma’s first issue is a guaranteed heavy hitter with an introduction penned by Hans Ulrich Obrist and previously unpublished contributions from luminaries like India Mahdavi, François Halard, and Agnès Varda. 60€ ($66)

The tides may be turning for Portland, long regarded as a safe and clean city that weathered a 23 percent population surge between 2000 and 2020. In recent years, however, Oregon’s hipster haven has struggled with crime and homelessness, causing the population to recently shrink by 17,400, or about three percent. Open-air drug use, boarded-up storefronts, and surging housing costs are fostering a pessimistic mood: “I’ve always been a really big booster of Portland, but I can’t recommend it right now,” says Thomas Lauerdale, an active Portlander who founded the band Pink Martini. “It’s too expensive for what it is.”

SinCa Design is a furniture design studio founded by wife and husband Maria Camarena and Dave Sinaguglia. The couple is known for their humble aesthetics, meaningful designs, and meticulously hand-crafted furniture using traditional woodworking techniques.

Surface Says: SinCa’s “less is more” approach embodies the studio’s dedication to thoughtfully crafted sculptural furniture.

Women on TikTok are showing off “girl dinners”—and courting controversy.

The mushroom boom means more volunteers to help with bad trips.

Archaeologists find a complete Bronze Age town with elite tombs in China.

Brazilian beef lovers have become obsessed with… Outback Steakhouse?