What’s Happening: At the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, Hiro and producer Kristie Macosko Krieger pulled back the curtain on the 15-year saga of getting Leonard Bernstein’s marriage story made—and the most impactful stamp of approval on recreating “Lenny’s” likeness.

The Download: By now, it’s practically trivia that Bradley Cooper, who stars as Leonard Bernstein in the newly released Maestro, spent six years learning how to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for a riveting six-minute-long scene at the crux of the film. The movie hits theaters today and isn’t so much a biopic of the epic conductor as it is an intimate dramatization of his marriage to Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan. The movie was 15 years in the making, and not without controversy.

In 2008, the project landed with Martin Scorsese before shifting to Steven Spielberg, under whom Cooper was tapped for the starring role. When Spielberg became unavailable, Cooper threw his hat in the ring and invited the director to see an early cut of A Star is Born. After about 20 minutes, Krieger recalled, “Steven leaned over and said [to Cooper], ‘You’re directing this fucking movie.’” Even though Bernstein’s children have been deeply involved with the project from the beginning, there has been no shortage of online chatter about Kazu Hiro and Cooper’s decision to use a prosthetic nose to portray the late conductor. After stills of the film were released in August, some decried the actor’s use of the prosthetic as antisemitic—a claim the Anti-Defamation League and Bernstein’s own children refuted.

Hiro is a master of his craft. A protégé of Dick Smith, whose genre-defining makeup effects played a pivotal role in catapulting The Exorcist and The Godfather to fame, Hiro’s transformative skill has earned him numerous awards and unanimous industry recognition as the best in his field. He applied that prowess to three intense years working alongside Cooper to create prosthetics that would allow the actor to portray a 50-year span of the conductor’s life. Hiro worked with 3D scans of Cooper and Mulligan’s faces and bodies, which, over the last 20 years, has replaced the one-time industry standard of making life casts of actors from materials like oxygenating plaster. While life casts have a tendency to distort the face, or in Hiro’s words, “look like death masks,” the newer technology creates “a copy of the living actor,” he said. “I 3D printed his head cast and sculpted the five different stages.” From that sculpture, Hiro created a mold and cast silicone ears and applied those pieces on him.

“It’s the actor underneath you have to work with, so I can’t simply make the likeness of Lenny on Bradley because I have to understand how he acts with it and what would be comfortable for him to wear every day,” Hiro said during a panel conversation at the film festival. That brings up the application time. “The youngest stage [took] around two hours and 15 minutes, and the oldest almost took five hours,” he said, explaining that as Bernstein aged, prosthetics crept from the actor’s face to his neck, chest, and arms. “He was just amazing,” Hiro said. Towards the later stages of the movie, it made for a 1:00 AM call time for the actor-director, who reported to the set ready to work by 7:00 AM.

In Their Own Words: In addition to providing the rights to Bernstein’s music to Cooper for the film, the Bernsteins were involved in numerous other ways throughout. Beyond permitting the production design team to shoot on-location at their Connecticut home, they also worked with the costume design team and shared photos of their father with Hiro to better inform his prosthetics. “Then we showed the kids,” Krieger recalls. “Bradley FaceTimed the kids, and when Alexander Bernstein burst into tears, we kind of knew we were going in the right direction.”

Surface Says: If only we all had Gary Oldman to talk us out of quitting our jobs.

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The Raffles Boston has generated a torrent of local buzz since debuting this past September, injecting fresh energy into the staid luxury hotel scene. On its heels comes the unveiling of The Long Bar, a suave cocktail lounge and restaurant nestled on the 17th floor designed by Studio Paolo Ferrari. Distinguishing itself with an aesthetic deeply rooted in the essence of early 20th-century Boston and drawing parallels to the prestigious Harvard Club, the space balances modernist and classical elements: travertine carved block arches, oak flooring in a herringbone pattern, and sage-green banquettes swooshing around the room beneath dim midcentury-inspired lighting.

The bar itself is a sculptural showpiece crafted from Paonazzo stone that gives way to a cheery terrace with sweeping views of Back Bay. Bites stay true to local flavors, from New England lobster rolls to tinned fish with housemade sourdough toast to the burger adorned in pepper jam and Harbison cheese from Vermont. Wash it down with a refreshing pick from the sparkling cocktail menu or the Singapore Sling, the drink that etched the hotel brand in bartending lore.

Gaining professional experience at Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Howeler+Yoon Architecture, and IwamotoScott enabled J. Roc Jih to launch their own firm focused on figures, both in the sense of architectural form and the bodies inhabiting it. Their research-focused approach zeroes in on “cultural geometry,” in which they design around the dimensions and proportions that make spaces feel familiar without relying on caricatures. It makes their projects feel ambitiously sculptural and wide-ranging—houses anchored by dramatic staircases, a proposal for a memorial to victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles—while incorporating their study of material systems and identity as an associate professor at MIT.

On Nov. 13, art-world notables gathered to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Center for Art, Research, and Alliances with the organization’s inaugural Fall Feast. The evening honored the living works and legacies of two artists—photographer Marilyn Nance and installation artist Javier Téllez—with an award ceremony. Attendees enjoyed a cocktail hour at CARA’s Greenwich Village townhouse, which included a live performance by Ligia Lewis before heading to Church of the Village for dinner and the ceremony.

When was it? Nov. 13

Where was it? Church of the Village, New York

Who was there? Anne Pasternak, Jasmine Wahi, Heather Hubbs, Carla Shen, José Esparza Chong Cuy, Michi Jigarjian, Sheree Hovsepian, and more.

When: Until Jan. 19

Where: Sélavy by Di Donna, New York

What: Architect and Collective Design founder Steven Learner lends his curatorial talents to Di Donna Gallery in the form of this group show named for its collection of works in stone, metal, and paper. The objects are assembled with an emphasis on their playful construction: highlights include the cuts Lucio Fontana applied to Concetto spaziale, Attese and Alicja Kwade’s mobile-like array of granite boulders.

Vitra is a Swiss furniture company known worldwide for creating innovative products with lauded designers. Vitra’s catalog includes furniture, lighting, and objects from mid-century titans Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Alexander Girard. and Jean Prouvé, as well as works from Antonio Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Alberto Meda, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and Hella Jongerius. Vitra products are installed worldwide by architects and designers in living, working, and public spaces that inspire comfort and productivity.

Surface Says: The Swiss furniture brand’s eye for comfort, sleekness, and versatility makes it a standout in a crowded market of beloved brands. Through its collaborations with the industry’s top minds, Vitra goes the extra mile.

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