What’s Happening: In a debut presentation, photographer Tony Notarberardino shows off the fruits of some 25 years spent making portraits at the Chelsea Hotel.

The Download: The Chelsea Hotel is legendary for generations of bohemian habitués, from the Dylan Thomas and Burroughs and the Beats scene of the 1950s through the 1960s Warhol superstars and late-‘70s and early-‘80s queer art and punk scenes. Nico immortalized the place in her eternal ode, Chelsea Girls; Stormé DeLarverie and Candy Darling spent much of their lives there; and Sid Vicious (allegedly) murdered his wife Nancy Spungen there.

Its story doesn’t end in the 20th century—and hopefully its home as an incubator of counterculture will live on despite its conversion into a luxury hotel—as proven by a fabulous new show at ACA Galleries. “Chelsea Hotel Portraits” picks a few dozen from the 1,500 photographs Tony Notarberardino has taken over the past 25 years with his vintage 1960s Toyo-View 810GII camera. “It’s actually the first time I’m seeing a lot of them blown up to life size,” he tells Surface, “so I’m kind of seeing them for the first time in a way—it’s quite thrilling.”

Viewers will thrill to some of the characters on display, including Grace Jones, Amanda Lepore, Dee Dee Ramone peacocking his own chest tattoos, and a glamorously nonplussed Debbie Harry in a trucker hat with her own name on it. Notarberardino photographed each of his subjects in his own hallway at the Chelsea. “Not only did I have to convince them to get their photo taken, but I had to convince them to come to my hotel room—that was the hard part,” he notes.“Being invited to someone’s hotel room—especially at 2 or 3 in the morning—was sort of dodgy. It took me a long time to get the confidence to approach them, and for them to get to know me before agreeing to get their photograph taken.”

Notarberardino says it took a decade to win some of them over: “You need to wield a certain kind of magic to make it happen.” Refreshingly, he wielded it not only to convince the freaks and the stars, but the hotel staff and other workers whose labor made everyone’s magic possible. His photographs eschew mythmaking; they take the subjects on their own terms with a minimalist framing allowing for maximum empathy.

In Their Own Words: “[This project has] always been about the people of the Chelsea, regardless of how famous they are,” he says. “I find a picture of the trash man as important as the picture of Grace Jones. To me, it’s like a portrait of a person, not so much what they do, or who they are, or their status or fame.”

Surface Says: Notarberardino reminds us that, at its best, the idea was that anyone could be a Chelsea girl, as long as they had a little charisma and the luck to be there.

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In 1905, an artist built an opulent mansion as a gift for his wife, which came to be known over the next century as the “Grande Dame of Carmel.” Thanks to a respectful refresh from Post Company, the California institution now known and beloved as the La Playa Hotel has never looked better. Nestled between verdant arcades and basket-woven brick pathways, the building honors its past while feeling utterly contemporary.

Wood box beams and corbels compliment the dark warmth of the terracotta floors in the lobby and reception, while sunshine floods the breakfast room (and its Champagne buffet) and nearby series of parlors. Each of the 75 rooms comes with a view, be it of the estate, the gardens, or the Pacific itself, but the interiors are worth gazing upon too, with timeless details including plaster shell pendants, tasseled cabinet pulls, and bathrooms fitted with blackened nickel Waterworks fixtures.

Bud’s Bar has long been the heart of La Playa, and Post Company keeps it cozy: amber-toned mirrors reflect just the right amount of light, picked up by unlacquered brass accents and richly patterned textiles. It’s just the spot to do a little time travel—back to Carmel’s bohemian heyday of 1965 with the Bud’s Martini, the gin-vodka-Lillet concoction served straight up—or maybe be in the right time at the right place, when the bartender decides it’s “Dime Time” and all drinks, for ten minutes, are ten cents if you’ve got the change. If not, never fear: back in the guest room, a curated bar beckons with ingredients sourced in the surroundings at the ready for you to shake up some new history.

From her grounded Google retail space to last summer’s empathetic, psychedelic installation in the Great Hall of the National Building Museum, Suchi Reddy has been making people talk for years. A conversation with Ewan Morgan, the luxury ambassador for global alcohol brand Diageo, sparked the architect’s latest feat: Rare, a carved disc of tiger’s eye stone with copper overlay that forms an ersatz altar when activated with the burning of bespoke incense paper. The scent not only combines notes of cedar, clove, and tobacco, but complements the Mortlach 30 Year Old Scotch that Reddy suggests you sip alongside it. With each burn, the incense marks the copper, transforming the object into a conversation piece in its own right.

The European design fair Collectible is expanding to the United States, with its inaugural overseas edition taking place in New York City this September alongside the Armory Show. The news arrived as the six-year-old fair, which focuses exclusively on 21st-century collectible design, opened its latest edition in Brussels this past weekend. “New York came across as an obvious outpost,” founders Clélie Debehault and Liv Vaisberg told Dezeen. “European designers want to show in New York, American designers want a European crowd—it all just felt right.” The fair will take place at Water Street Projects in Manhattan’s Financial District.

In other people news, the scandal-prone Museum of Chinese in America has chosen nonprofit executive Michael Lee as its new director; he’ll be tasked with restoring trust following a series of protests, resignations, legal problems, and a fire. Creative Capital announced Angela Mattox as director of artist initiatives, which oversees grants and development. Antje Steinmuller is taking the reins as chair of the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, replacing interim chair John McMorrough.

During Frieze week, Art For Change hosted a VIP opening party for “Fully Bloomed,” a group exhibition at Phillips L.A. While Art For Change is known for its hand-finished prints and editions, “Fully Bloomed” featured original works from 12 artists who used the occasion to confront issues of environmentalism, conservation, sustainability, and humanity’s place within those constructs. Exhibiting artists Caris Reid, Amir H. Fallah, Pedro Pedro, Becky Kolsrud, Margaux Ogden, and Kour Pour were joined by Wendell Gladstone, Phillips director Blake Koh, and Art For Change’s Jeanne Masel and Ariel Adkins.

When: Until June 30

Where: Yorkshire Sculpture Park, U.K.

What: The Huddersfield-based sculptor brings 55 works ranging in size from one inch to more than three feet to Yorkshire’s 500-acre open-air park. Akama works with singular pieces of wood to create houses with clay and pebble-effect detailing. Each is inspired by Japanese temples and ruins from the country’s Jomon era—a period of history more than 4,000 years ago. The title speaks to Akama’s desire to create houses evocative of the bucolic landscapes in which he has found his calling as a maker, rather than his previous career as an architectural technician.

Since it was founded in 1915, Caran d’Ache’s history has been intertwined with creativity and emotion. Originally known as Fabrique Genevoise de Crayons, the brand was rechristened Caran d’Ache in 1924 at the suggestion of Arnold Schweitzer, the company’s head at the time. Caran d’Ache means “pencil” in Russian and has roots in the Turkish word kara-tash, which means “black stone” in reference to graphite.

Surface Says: Behind every great artist is a trove of best-in-class materials. Caran D’Ache has supplied leading artists since 1915 by offering lightfast pastels, colored pencils, and acrylic paints, helping them to preserve the integrity of their visions.

Surging demand for mezcal around the world may threaten the spirit’s existence.

Dune’s alien language draws from Arabic, but you won’t see that in the movies.

Karl Lagerfeld’s Paris apartment, which he called a “spaceship,” heads to auction.

A new book claims to teach kids how to count using Hermès and Chanel bags.