A Fishing Map of the Detroit River by: Joanne Coutts I created this map as part of a project with Friends of the Rouge and the University of Michigan Detroit Center to share the importance of shore fishing to the Boynton, Delray and…

Doesn't go far enough south to Downriver, but a good start:

A Fishing Map of the Detroit River detroitography.com/2026/04/20/a... via @detroitography.com

Coming this Thursday, 23 April, in Rome:

Bernini's Architectural Drawings book launch!

#earlymodern #arthistory #architecture #drawings

web.archive.org/web/20260416...

Iconic downtown Minneapolis building to become a hotel Another historic downtown Minneapolis office building is about to undergo a major shift.

Iconic downtown Minneapolis building to become a hotel.
It's by Minoru Yamasaki.
www.youtube.com/watc...
I remember well how my father took me to see it when I was a little kid

Adaptive reuse is often a good historic #preservation technique; it seems quite possible here

But they have a Breuer library, so there's that.

Filmstart: Barbara Buser, Geschichte einer Baupionierin Barbara Buser prägt Basel mit dem Erhalt von alten Gebäuden. Sie gilt als Pionierin. Nun gibt es einen Film über sie.

Barbara Buser prägt Basel mit dem Erhalt von alten Gebäuden. Sie gilt als Pionierin. Nun gibt es einen Film über sie.

www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/film-ueber-...

Coming this Thursday, 23 April, in Rome:

Bernini's Architectural Drawings book launch!

#earlymodern #arthistory #architecture #drawings

web.archive.org/web/20260416...

Oh, right, I know the one in the Chicago Cultural Center too! But not Winston-Salem, makes total sense though.

The haiku one is so cool!

Two images. On left, a photo of a cigarette-box sized Kunstautomat package. The package is olive green and white and has black lettering which reads "Kunststück. Kunstautomat. das Original" and has a pseudo-health warning below, (but for art) as on a box of cigarettes. The top of the box is open and the artwork it holds is sticking out: a pen-and-ink portrait of a person with short curly hair. The portrait features highlights in marking pen: pink, red, and yellow. On the right, an image of an art vending machine hanging on the wall of a building. It is an old cigarette vending machine repainted, in this case with a view out a window. At the top, lettering reads "Kunstautomat".

Reminds me of the Kunstautomaten (art vending machines) in Germany.

They're repurposed old cigarette vending machines, so the artworks have to fit in a cigarette box format.

www.kunstautomaten.com

Photo of a small vending machine full of blue and clear balls containing tiny zines, inside a bookstore. A label on the front of the machine says “minor transient documents of everyday life. Katherine Montalto” and features a QR code.

Photo of my hand with long lavender nails holding a ball from the vending machine.

Photo of my hand with long lavender nails holding a tiny zine with a fingerprint or tree rings looking design. The text reads, “minor transient documents of everyday life. Katherine Montalto.”

Photo of my hand holding open the haiku zine. On the left is Katherine Montalto’s pyramid logo. On the right is a haiku entitled “rain.” It reads, “tiny particles/ like sand in an oyster shell/ form clouds in the sky”

We visited @katherinemontalto.bsky.social’s haiku vending machine, currently on display at Whistler’s Daughter Books in Ferndale, MI.

We each got haikus. Here is mine. Each haiku costs fifty cents and you also get a piece of candy.

This is for @johnmunro.bsky.social . Another way is possible.

Watercolor of a longitudinal double-aisled church cross section. Domenico Tasselli da Lugo, view of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica looking west toward the altar, watercolor in Giacomo Grimaldi, Monumentorum veteris basilicae vaticanae delineationes et exempla picta vel adumbrata, c. 1576–1625 (Vatican Library; MS Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.A.64.ter, folio 12 recto)

It's not easy to write about things that no longer exist, but Dr. Hendrik Dey, one of Smarthistory's over 850 contributors, knocked it out of the park for this info-filled essay on Old St. Peter's. We read it and said, "Finally!" smarthistory.org/old-saint-pe...

They were some of the few things you could spend your Zwangsumtausch money on during those DAAD or tourist day trips to East Berlin. Foreigners were nearly forced to buy them.

(Often on lousy paper, though, that has totally yellowed over the years.)

Two images. On left, a photo of a cigarette-box sized Kunstautomat package. The package is olive green and white and has black lettering which reads "Kunststück. Kunstautomat. das Original" and has a pseudo-health warning below, (but for art) as on a box of cigarettes. The top of the box is open and the artwork it holds is sticking out: a pen-and-ink portrait of a person with short curly hair. The portrait features highlights in marking pen: pink, red, and yellow. On the right, an image of an art vending machine hanging on the wall of a building. It is an old cigarette vending machine repainted, in this case with a view out a window. At the top, lettering reads "Kunstautomat".

Reminds me of the Kunstautomaten (art vending machines) in Germany.

They're repurposed old cigarette vending machines, so the artworks have to fit in a cigarette box format.

www.kunstautomaten.com

PETRA BLAISSE with Nile Greenberg | The Brooklyn Rail Petra Blaisse has spent four decades transforming spaces through textiles, landscapes, and installations. She is the founder of Inside Outside, now operated with partners Jana Crepon and Aura Luz Meli...

One thinks of the work of Petra Blaisse with Rem Koolhaas:

brooklynrail.org/2025/04/arch...

Color photo of zillions of lovely two tone magnolias blooming on a branch that still looks half dead from winter. These are the ones that are magenta in the center, with the intense color fading to white along the petals.

Purplish-pink magnolias beginning to bloom on a tree.

Color photo of brilliant dark pink magnolias just starting to bloom. A brick bungalow and other blooms are visible in the hazy background.

Color photo of pink and white magnolias glowing in the golden hour.

Beverly's magnolias a few evenings ago, when I took such a sensory-filled walk I lost track of time. With the gentle heat of the setting sun on my skin, the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze & the fragrance of thousands of intensely colored blooms everywhere, I completely forgot I had a meeting.

Invitation card for the book presentation of Bernini's Architectural Drawings, edited by Tod Marder. Details: Thursday, 23 April 2026, at 16:30, at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, sala Dante, via Poli 54, Rome. Speakers include Marcello Fagiolo, Claudia Conforti, Mario Bevilacqua, Gabriella Pace, and Marieke von Bernstorff.

Next week: the book presentation for our Bernini's Architectural Drawings @ Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Rome.

Thursday, 23 April @ 16:30, sala Dante @ Palazzo Poli (enter via Poli 54, behind the Trevi Fountain). @bhmpi.bsky.social

istitutocentraleperlagrafica.cultura.gov.it/in-evidenza/...

I should go out and look for the pot of gold...
🌈

Invitation card for the book presentation of Bernini's Architectural Drawings, edited by Tod Marder. Details: Thursday, 23 April 2026, at 16:30, at the Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, sala Dante, via Poli 54, Rome. Speakers include Marcello Fagiolo, Claudia Conforti, Mario Bevilacqua, Gabriella Pace, and Marieke von Bernstorff.

Next week: the book presentation for our Bernini's Architectural Drawings @ Istituto Centrale per la Grafica, Rome.

Thursday, 23 April @ 16:30, sala Dante @ Palazzo Poli (enter via Poli 54, behind the Trevi Fountain). @bhmpi.bsky.social

istitutocentraleperlagrafica.cultura.gov.it/in-evidenza/...

Particularly happy to see Richard Wittman's fine book on San Paolo fuori le mura win an award!

Dôme des Invalides 1676-1691, designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, born #OTD 1646, French Baroque architect & city planner to Louis XIV. Works include Place Vendôme Paris, Grand Trianon & Galerie des Glaces, Versailles.
Portrait by Hyacinthe Rigaud 1685 Musée du Louvre | Musée d’Armée

Leo for president

The April Kunstchronik, including a disturbing letter to the editor regarding the future of architectural history at the universities in Berlin.

"Architekturgeschichte an den kunsthistorischen Instituten Berlins in ihrer Existenz bedroht"

ahnp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/kch...

Indeed.

Interior shot looking up at the dome of a 17th century church designed by Christopher Wren in London

St. Stephen Walbrook church, London. 1679, Sir Christopher Wren

Cover of Builder of Heavens: How Eise Eisinga Created the Greatest Planetarium of his Time

Book Review:
thonyc.wordpress.com/2026/04/15/a...

💔

One of the artists featured in this exhibition on outsider architecture lives near us.

We see him in the train often, and he gave a sculpture workshop at my youngest son's school around 10 years ago.

*Extremely* colorful character in the community!

I just told our sustainability students that Berlin topsoils still are 55-70% WWII rubble, and Gaza dwarfs these numbers and, I’m sure, the toxicity of the substances

Isamu Noguchi: “I am not a designer”

Because you all like Noguchi, a reminder that there is a big, beautiful show on all of his design work that just opened at the High Museum in Atlanta high.org/exhibition/n...

I wrote about all of his playgrounds for the catalog www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9780847...

The RSA is participating in a social media campaign with @acls1919.bsky.social this week, and we invite you to join in! The message is simple & proactive: we need more humanities and social sciences scholars and research! #earlymodern #RenTwitter #TalkAboutHumanities