What’s Happening: The thrill-seeking practice of scaling skyscrapers and riskily documenting yourself dangling off narrow ledges might make for Instagram gold, but the urban exploration community is speaking out as young rooftoppers are increasingly plunging to their deaths.

The Download: Centuries after Piranesi sketched Roman ruins and decades after Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers, a distinctly 21st-century brand of thrill-seeking urban exploration is scaling new heights. Members of the “rooftopping” subculture climb atop tall buildings—often by trespassing—in order to riskily document themselves clinging to antennae, scrambling up spires, and dangling from narrow ledges. (See model Viki Odintcova’s 2017 video of her leaning from a Dubai skyscraper without safety equipment.) The journey to breathtaking heights can spark an adrenaline rush and the results make for Instagram gold, but young rooftoppers are increasingly plunging to their deaths.

That’s what happened last week when Remi Lucidi’s body was found beside a skyscraper in Hong Kong, where he was last spotted knocking on the window of a 68th-floor penthouse. Friends described Lucidi, a 30-year-old French Army sergeant, as an experienced rooftopper who scaled dizzying heights in London, Bangkok, and Mexico City for the perfect shot. His demise echoes that of Wu Yongning, who became a social media star for his dramatic selfies captured teetering on ledges high above Chinese cities. In late 2017, footage of Wu losing his grip—and falling 60 stories to his death—was shared widely. Early rooftopper Neil Ta called it: three years earlier, he penned an impassioned blog post about how the practice had devolved into a spectacle over who can get the most dangerous pictures.

Rooftopping is a hot topic in the broader “urban exploration” movement (often shortened to “urbex”), whose members film marginal urban landscapes like dead malls, abandoned theme parks, and disused mental hospitals. Though documentary and educational in nature, the practice comes with its own risks. Prominent urbex group The Proper People meandered across a narrow beam in a former Philadelphia power plant, where large chunks of concrete dangle from ceilings; they’ve also found squatters stripping scrap metal to help fund their drug habits. The videos evoke nostalgia for bygone eras—snapshots of hope lost, humanity’s embrace of throwaway culture, and our morbid curiosity to experience what once was. Perhaps there’s a reason they derisively refer to rooftoppers as “dangle kiddies.”

In Their Own Words: “Remi’s Instagram is full of the same tropes,” the sociologist and professor Theo Kindynis, who has studied rooftopping, told the New York Times. “Legs dangling in front of a cityscape, selfie stick on top of a mast, silhouetted figure on a ledge, that were already becoming cliché in 2016.”

Surface Says: Gaming the algorithm and monetizing what might be one of the riskiest activities out there is something we wish J.G. Ballard was still alive to satirize.

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Jaeger-LeCoultre celebrated the magic of the golden ratio—and the Swiss brand’s signature Reverso timepiece—through a captivating traveling sound and light concert in the outdoor central courtyard at Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles. The event highlighted the profound influence of the mathematical concept that resonates in art, architecture, and balance, featuring the renowned British pianist, composer, and music producer, Tokio Myers, who took center stage against a backdrop of mesmerizing digital projections. His 10-minute symphony, titled Timeless, served as a musical embodiment of the ratio, weaving together elements representing nature, science, art, and design, in harmony with the Reverso’s elegant lines—a symbol of classic design inspired by the Art Deco movement.

Jaeger-LeCoultre’s collaboration with Tokio Myers is part of the brand’s Made of Makers program, which invites world-class artists to collaborate with the brand’s expert artisans to explore the intersection between the creative industries and horology. The performance not only accentuated this connection, but marked the first time the program involved a musical artist. “This was the objective,” says Catherine Rénier, the brand’s chief executive. “To embark on a totally different experience, to showcase the golden ratio from another angle, maybe less expected than architecture and design.” The show debuted in Shanghai earlier this summer, but will be presented again in London’s Battersea Power Station in September before traveling to Dubai in December.

Known for its mission to bring contemporary art to second cities, 21c Museum Hotels has landed in its next destination: St. Louis. Breathing new life into a century-old Renaissance Revival–style YMCA building, architects Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel and interior designers Hufft Projects and Bill Rooney Studio teamed up to transform the historic structure into a place that resonates with its storied past while pushing to future-forward.

The property now features more than 14,000 square feet of museum exhibition space, housing site-specific installations such as Serkan Özkaya’s eight-foot diameter orb O and Fallen Fruit’s immersive The Way Out West, along with 173 artistically appointed rooms adorned with custom works from Missouri-connected artists. Beyond the gallery space and accommodations, the property is home to the Locust Street Athletic and Swim Club, a nod to its past as a community recreation center, and the chef Matthew Daughaday’s Spanish-inspired Idol Wolf.

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WeWork, which once geared up for a major IPO four years ago, is now sounding bankruptcy alarms. The company’s filing with the SEC states: “Our losses and negative cash flows from operating activities raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.” The combination of the pandemic prompting remote work and subsequent economic challenges led to debt accumulation and cash flow problems, with WeWork’s stock plummeting and the company considering various measures including restructuring, refinancing, or even seeking relief under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The once high-flying company’s net loss in H1 2023 was $700 million, following a $2.3 billion loss in 2022.

With a history that spans more than 100 years, Georg Jensen represents craftsmanship and timeless design, with lifestyle products ranging from watches and jewelry to home goods.

Surface Says: From silverware and cutlery to jewelry, Georg Jensen’s reverence for artisanal skill translates across mediums. The purveyor of fine silversmithing references nature and simple Nordic living in its designs, keeping the founder’s aesthetic values alive.

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