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Even then, the gender imbalance was glaring. The so-called Million Dollar Staircase, spanning 444 steps and four floors of the New York State Capitol, memorialized the faces of dozens of distinguished figures in delicate carvings, but not one was a woman. Scrutiny prompted a state official to hastily authorize the addition of several women to the staircase’s lower level. The year was 1898. — The New York Times
After 125 years, New York State will make its first new addition, Brooklyn native and late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The carving will be formed from the same Scotland-sourced Corsehill sandstone used for the original stairs. It is expected to cost around $150,000 and complete... View full entry
After years of delays, New York City finally has a shiny silver bean of its own. A new sculpture by Anish Kapoor—modeled after his famous Cloud Gate, known as the Bean, in Chicago—was officially unveiled this week. [...]
Despite its resemblance to Cloud Gate, is different in several key ways, reported Tribeca Citizen in 2018. For example, while Chicago’s Bean is bolted securely to the ground, Manhattan’s mini-Bean is more free-flowing, able to move and shift depending on the weather.
— Smithsonian Mag
The $8 million freestanding sculpture has been teased since 2008 when renderings for Herzog & de Meuron’s domineering 56 Leonard Street tower were first revealed to the public. It has a less-expensive twin at the MFA Houston and will get an official name later in the coming months... View full entry
The wait for artist Hank Willis Thomas and MASS Design Group’s public memorial to Martin Luther King on the Boston Common finally ended over the weekend with a ribbon-cutting ceremony that included the sculpture's design team and a host of local political dignitaries. They were on hand to... View full entry
Following last week’s look at an opening for an Architect at the NYC Department of Citywide Administrative Services, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an open position on Archinect Jobs for a Shop Manager at Studio Sanford... View full entry
One of Los Angeles’ most significant cultural landmarks, Simon Rodia’s monumental Watts Towers sculpture, finally re-opened last month after a five-year multimillion-dollar restoration effort spearheaded by LACMA. The project was overseen by the museum’s Senior Conservation Scientist... View full entry
The long-awaited public opening of land artist Michael Heizer’s monumental earthwork City is just around the corner, and the Triple Aught Foundation, the group which manages its remote Lincoln County, Nevada site, has shared some amazing new photos that offer a sense of the scale and stasis of... View full entry
City, a vast complex of outdoor structures and landmasses the Land artist Michael Heizer began constructing in the desert of Nevada in 1970, will finally begin welcoming public visitors next month. The site’s opening on 2 September, more than 50 years after work at the site began, marks the fulfillment of Heizer’s most ambitious and career-defining project. — The Art Newspaper
Get ready to weep (assuming you are among the select art tourists willing to travel to the site-specific installation, as Heizer intended): The 50-year saga surrounding the National Mall-sized sculpture is over, and the Triple Aught Foundation, which manages the site, will begin accepting up to... View full entry
The January 2021 issue of Architectural Digest featured a remodeled $42 million San Francisco residence described as a Spanish Renaissance Revival palacio. [...] ...shows ancient Khmer sculptures resting on the same pedestals.
The Cambodian government says those stone relics, depicting the heads of gods and demons, match a set that was looted years ago from one of the nation’s sacred sites.
— The Washington Post
The tony $42 million Peter Marino-designed San Francisco manse was the subject of a multi-page spread in the January 2021 edition of the magazine. A spokesperson for Architectural Digest said that photoshopping was required by “unresolved publication rights around select artworks,” but an... View full entry
The forthcoming Obama Presidential Library, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien, will now include a sculptural installation from Maya Lin, according to an announcement made on August 4 by the Obama Foundation. The sculptural piece, titled “Seeing Through the Universe,” will anchor... View full entry
Construction has begun on a mixed-use building by MVRDV that, at 279 feet tall and sculpted into the shape of a bust of Albania’s national hero, will be one of the world’s largest buildings that double as a sculpture. The Skanderbeg Building, officially known as Tirana’s Rock, will provide... View full entry
One of Chicago’s iconic pieces of public art will be getting a new home. French artist Jean Dubuffet’s sculpture “Monument with Standing Beast,” in place in front of the Thompson Center since the building opened in 1985, is moving to a different spot in the Loop. — Chicago Sun Times
Following last week’s $105 million sale of the Thompson Center to Google, the famed Dubuffet sculpture will be relocated to a former bank building at 115 S. LaSalle Street, a space purchased by the state of Illinois to house office space lost with the sale. The 29-foot, 10-ton... View full entry
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced that Hew Locke will be the next artist featured in its provocative Facade Commission series. The Guyanese-British artist’s effort is titled “Gilt” and will follow recent interventions by Carol Bove and Wangechi Mutu for the third version of the... View full entry
Two sculptural pendant crocodile designs that once formed the centerpiece of Frank Gehry’s most significant mid-career designs are now for sale at Bonhams as part of the auction house’s first Modern Designs | Art sale of the year. Frank Gehry, Illuminated Pendant Crocodile... View full entry
New renderings have been unveiled following the city’s Cultural Affairs Commission approval of the recently announced first slate of sculptural installations set to line the forthcoming Destination Crenshaw development in Los Angeles. The $100 million community redevelopment scheme features a... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has once again come together with American artist Janet Echelman for a site-specific sculptural installation in Munich’s historic Odeonsplatz Square. Images courtesy of Studio Echelman The atmospheric sculpture is in constant motion, activating the public space below... View full entry
