What’s Happening: Studio Gang and Scape transform an underused section of the Memphis riverfront into a thriving public park replete with biodiversity that honors an overlooked hero.

The Download: Tom Lee became a national celebrity in 1925 when the Black Memphian heroically rescued 32 people from the frigid Mississippi River’s turbulent waters after a steamship capsized near his hometown. Lee’s bravery is mostly forgotten today, but the Tennessee city named a riverfront park after him and erected two monuments there in his honor. Though Tom Lee Park’s vast open spaces served as grounds for springtime music and barbecue festivals, it had fallen into disrepair a century later. A four-lane road limited access, a clay cap practically compacted the soil into concrete and prevented flora from thriving, and it was used as a dumping ground. Its rugged terrain even drew comparisons to the moon.

Local lawmakers envisioned a brighter future for Tom Lee Park and, in 2017, tapped Studio Gang to develop a master plan for improving six miles of the riverfront. They partnered with landscape design firm Scape to transform the 30-acre field into a community resource. Increasing accessibility to nearby Black and low-income neighborhoods and planting for biodiversity were key—they added 1,000 new trees and an array of native Tennessee species like goldenrod and milkweed while reshaping the topography for flood resistance. The flora helps shade imaginative play sculptures designed by Danish company Monstrum that mimic aquatic creatures. A central plaza houses the Sunset Canopy, a glulam-clad pavilion demarcated by a vivid pavement mural dreamed up by local painter James Little.

At a modest price tag of $61 million, the transformation of Tom Lee Park is an infrastructural feat—and a step forward as Memphis grapples with memories of racism. Parks access was once segregated in the city; the Memphis River Parks Partnership recently rechristened two downtown parks once named after Confederate leaders. Studio Gang even named the Sunset Canopy in honor of Tyre Nichols, the Black man who loved taking pictures during twilight but died this year while in police custody. Near a statue honoring Lee’s memory is A Monument to Listening, an installation by Theaster Gates that arrays 32 basalt chairs—one for each life Lee saved—near the hero’s own throne. They overlook the river that Memphians now enjoy much more. “Use this park as a manifestation of love,” Gates said at the opening.

In Their Own Words: “It’s the most visible piece of real estate we have in the city, and it’s important to tell it right there that Memphis is not a sleepy river town,” Carol Coletta, president and CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, tells Fast Company. “It’s an ambitious place that invests in itself.”

Surface Says: Behind almost every great public park is an acidic legal battle.

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La Mamounia is celebrating its centenary with complete restorations and refreshments of nine of the iconic Marrakech destination’s most beloved areas, each conceived by Jouin Manku. Following its 2020 work on the Churchill Bar and new Pierre Hermé tearoom, the studio has brightened up the main entrance and improved connections with the famed 37-acre garden. A central seating now anchors the wicked-walled Salon d’Honneur, while low banquettes kept intimate by glass screens and backlit moucharabieh ceiling panels now define the Alcôves lounge. Deeper in, the hotel’s beloved bars now reference those gardens and the local legacies of Moroccan crafts more vividly, while staying true to original Art Deco spirit.

The circulation path from the lobby to the garden voyages through several salons and bars; fittingly, Jouin Manku brought a touch of the outdoor greenery into them. Ceiling frescos inform motifs in the Allée Majorelle display cases, which beckon with colored petals. The Salon Majorelle’s former colored-glass windows are now transparent, all the better to view nature’s own palette—and the 100-year-old carob tree planted for this anniversary—from the new leaf-shaped high-back seating, while the bar is a sparkling mass of faceted glass ingots.

But the shining achievement of the new spaces is surely the Centenary Chandelier, which seems to drape two “necklaces” across the pyramidal Grand Hall. Made in collaboration with the Czech Republic’s Lasvit, the chandelier comprises an inner necklace of red rope strung with some 500 silver and nickel pendants, intertwined with other strands of ribbed, sandblasted, and twisted glass.

A new series of stained glass landscapes by Darryl Westly creates a serene tableau in the Long Island Railroad Westbury station. As commuters rush to and fro, the New York artist and curator presents Illuminations: a series of dreamlike scenes inspired by archival photography of Westbury citizens and landmarks. He uses stained glass, illumination, shadow, color, and cast metalwork to nod to Wampum belts, Tuskegee Airmen, farm stands, civic architecture, and floral skies that reference the sprawling gardens of the historic Orchard Hill Estate.

Last week, Powerhouse Arts headed uptown to the swanky interiors of the Times Square Edition to celebrate the Brooklyn arts organization’s newly launched publishing program. Inaugurated by photographer and performance artist Ivan Forde’s The Fall of Man, the initiative gives collectors an inside look at the printmaking process and directs 50 percent of the revenue directly to the artist. Attendees were given a first look at Forde’s cyanotype over martinis at the hotel’s verdant terrace restaurant.

When was it? Nov. 2

Where was it? The Times Square Edition, New York

Who was there? Michael Joo, Sonia Louise Davis, Jessica Vaughn, Eric Shiner, Oluremi Onabanjo, Regan Grusy, Adriana Farietta, and more.

When: Until Dec. 23

Where: Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum, Georgia

What: A groundbreaking show at the 2023 Tbilisi Photo Festival, this audio-visual experience explores the profound impact of climate change through a fusion of art and sound. Hosted by creative-driven Rooms Hotels, it features eight one-of-a-kind pieces that invert the relationship between sound and image, offering an immersive journey into historically significant environments affected by climate change.

ROOM is reshaping the modern workplace to create the offices of the future around the world with simple and inspired modular architectural solutions that allow teams to create and recreate their work environment with ease. Purpose-built rooms cater to private, focused work, or collaborative teamwork that builds meaningful connection. The result is a dynamic, ever-changing workspace that alleviates the reliance on fixed construction and fixed ideas.

Surface Says: ROOM’s sleek, soundproof cybertecture pods provide a salve for the clamorous open-plan offices of the past decade and unlock a world of possibilities for the post-pandemic future.

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Ass-naked visitors toured Barcelona’s Archaeology Museum of Catalonia.

A new seven-room hotel in Indonesia occupies a site that’s only nine feet wide.