The chief executive of @wildjustice.bsky.social
said: “While #NaturalEngland dithers and ‘reviews processes’, irreplaceable wildlife sites are being trashed, damaged, and even built over. That is not a technical failure, it’s a dereliction of duty.”
#naturecrisis
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Imagining Best Products May 7 – June 21, 2026 Branch Museum of Design 2501 Monument Ave. Richmond, Virginia branchmuseum.org Overview: Imagining Best Products is an exhibition of the ideas and artifacts of BEST Products that will be held at the Branch Museum of Design in May-June 2026. About the Show: This exhibition will bring together the legacy of Best Products in architecture, graphic design, business, and artistic patronage. Beginning in the 1970s, Best Products, a retail company founded by Sydney and Frances Lewis in 1957, commissioned a series of experimental stores that transformed our expectations of suburban architecture. Stores designed by James Wines / SITE created a media frenzy in the 1970s and 80s. So did the designs featured in the 1979 exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York entitled “Buildings for Best Products,” which invited prominent young architects to re-imagine big box retail. The Best Headquarters and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts West Wing, both designed by Malcolm Holzman of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates (now Steinberg Hart), further cemented Best’s place in architectural history. The company’s iconic graphic identity, designed by Tom Geismar of Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, is also an important milestone in corporate design. Together with the Lewis Family’s pioneering patronage of the arts, the story of Best Products is one of the most significant chapters in the history of 20th century American visual culture. “Imagining Best Products” will bring this story to the public, asking us to reconsider the relationships between, art, design, culture, commerce, and the landscapes of everyday life.
Imagining Best Products May 7 – June 21, 2026 Branch Museum of Design 2501 Monument Ave. Richmond, Virginia branchmuseum.org Goals & Audience: 1. To welcome a broad spectrum of society to explore the legacy of Best Products and the Lewis Family. 2. To inspire people in the arts, the business world, and beyond to reconsider the role of culture in commerce. 3. To illustrate the rich connections between architecture, graphic design, and other disciplines. 4. To reach both the general public and those deeply engaged in design. 5. To include an educational and research component in partnership with the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Content: Imagining Best Products will bring together architectural drawings, models, photographs, printed materials, sketches, and other artifacts related to the design of Best Products. The cornerstone of the show will be original materials from globally significant designers including Malcolm Holzman, Tom Geismar, Stanley Tigerman, Robert A.M. Stern, and James Wines / SITE. Other items to be exhibited by the museum will include promotional materials, sketches, graphic works, and drawings related to Best. Historical photographs and interpretative texts will tie together the story of the company and of Frances and Sydney Lewis’s journey in business and in life. Students at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design will also assist in preparing the exhibition. Programing such as talks, tours, and screenings will compliment the exhibit. Dates: May 7th - June 31st, 2026 (provisional) Curator: Don O’Keefe AIA AIJ CPIJ, Architect, Lecturer in Architecture, Harvard University Advisory Committee: James Wines SITE New York Suzan Wines SITE New Yor kMalcolm Holzman Architect, Partner, Steinberg Hart Tom Geismar Founding Partner, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv Janet Parks Emeritus, Avery Architectural Library, Columbia University Edwin Slipek Writer and architectural historian Elizabeth Cogar Writer and editor
#PoMo architecture heads, and fans of James Wines' provocative 1980s Best Products showrooms & Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer's stunning glass block Best Products Corporate Headquarters will want to mark their calendars, and *not miss* this upcoming exhibition at the #BranchMuseumOfDesign in Richmond VA.
As my maternity leave comes to an end, a reminder that I’m now offering an archive photography service primarily for museums/archives in the south east England (IWM, TNA, BL etc etc) to help make ends meet. Details below:
lucybetteridgedyson.com/archive-rese...
From seahorses to sharks, more than 3,000 fish species have been caught in bottom trawls, including many at risk of extinction -new research
They are depleting the ocean of life and if they are not stopped we will soon have a dead lifeless ocean
science.ubc.ca/news/2026-04...
Do consider signing this 👇
Nearly 1 in 6 UK species are threatened with extinction.
We've lost 97% of our wildflower meadows since the 1930s.
We have 73 million fewer birds than in the 1970s - a decline of almost a third.
And yet some politicians still just see wildlife as a blocker to progress.
An image of a contextual streetscape with houses faced in brick, render and boarding with tiled roofs
Now out, an Open Access article on Essex's 1973 "Design Guide", which fundamentally shaped the design of housing in England: doi.org/10.1080/0266....
Thank you to @rproctor.bsky.social @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social & others for encouragement & comments, and @britishacademy.bsky.social for funding
Did they confiscate your permanent marker?
The monument is carved from red sandstone in the Mughal architectural style. It is a pillar with lotus bud finial. The upper section is tetragonal with vertical blank cartouches. The lower section is a column with a central floral motif. There is a plinth of red sandstone and this rests on a very eroded plinth of (English) yellow sandstone.
The memorial of the lawyer Daboda Dewajee in Kensal Green Cemetery. It is carved from a block of red Bhander Sandstone, probably from the Dholpur region of Rajasthan. This sandstone from the Vindhyan Basin is a Global Heritage Stone and this is a remarkable use of it here in London #urbangeology
The cover of Thin Places in Hard Concrete with a floating brutalist staircase and a pale blue to purple gradient.
A quote from Rose Ruane, author of Birding: “Ray’s books are masterpieces of uncanny atmosphere, claustrophobic, tautly plotted, exquisitely evocative prose, written with an artist’s eye for detail and architecture, an M.R. James or Robert Aickman of crumbling concrete and civic buildings. His incredible eerie tales of the urban weird will haunt you in the most welcome way.”
My new collection ‘Thin Places in Hard Concrete‘ is out on 30 April as an eBook and paperback with 10 brand new weird stories.
Pre-order the eBook here 👉 www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DC5PL7T4
May I interest you in £10k for humanities or social science research? Our small grants scheme is open. Apply by 3rd June.
We allocate through partial randomisation - awarding randomly between all applications that meet our quality threshold
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...
Image of a library with "Scrap tuition fees" written in big bold writing. Real hope real change written at the top and Green Party logo with imprint at the bottom.
Capping student loan interest rates at 6%? Not good enough.
After months of criticism this is the Labour government's insufficient response to the debt trap that is student loans.
It's time to scrap tuition fees altogether.
We support this campaign to stop developers demolishing Gipsy Hill's historic, local pub, the Railway Bell. Please object to the planning application by 11th April. Full info on how to quickly mask your object here: railwaybellfriends.org
📷 CAMRA
City of London is closing Golden Lane Leisure Centre after Fusion went into administration. Staff were given just 30 mins notice and the centre at the heart of the estate will lay derelict for at least a couple of years, affecting residents' wellbeing. Please sign the petition! c.org/5sx4qbKZPL
Urban History Book Reviews
And last but not least
📚 @geraintfranklin.bsky.social on @alistairfair.bsky.social, @lynncabrams.bsky.social, Kat Breen, @milesglendinning.bsky.social, Diane Watters and @vawright10.bsky.social's Building Modern Scotland
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/S096...
🙋♂️I do, in September! Max Bond: The Life and Work of the People's Architect. The first biography of the most prominent African American architect in the late 20th century and his lifelong effort to shape a better, more just world. Preorder anywhere but I endorse Bookshop: bookshop.org/a/121290/978...
Israeli soldiers are detonating entire villages in South Lebanon while taking selfies. Ancient mosques, churches, cemeteries, schools, hospitals - all being obliterated by the genocidal regime
www.instagram.com/reel/DWrg5xi...
Interesting-sounding PhD position in Bern: architectural history of the Swiss women's movement 1870-1930.
great 🧵 on digital advertising screens which are even more disgustingly power hungry than I realised
Fascinating paper. My office is a flimsy shed so I feel invested in this topic!
The Knesset passed a bill today mandating the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of terror - but not for Jews.
There is a word for a legal system where different legal standards apply to different categories of people.
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
The lack of a 'turn it off' option smacks of desperation
Poster yn hysbysebu cyfrifiad capeli newydd y Comisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru. Poster advertising the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales' new chapel census.
📢 New Census of Welsh Nonconformist Chapels Launched!
The @rcahmwales.bsky.social has launched a new census to record the current story of Welsh Nonconformist chapels and inform their future.
Take part here:
🔗 zurl.co/cNO1n
An aerial view of part of the Uni of Liverpool campus in the 1960s, showing demolitions and new buildings.
Do you know of someone who might be interested in doing a #PhD on the urban, architectural and environmental history of the University of Liverpool?
If so could you point them in my direction?
We need to remember the Triangle Fire not only because it was a tragedy but because it made people realize they can mobilize together and bring change. The fire made people understand why we need unions and then propelled them to do something about it. 🗃️
The historic Bernardine Monastery in Lviv, part of a UNESCO World Heritage site, is on fire after a russian drone attack.
🎥 Xenia Gerke on Facebook
We do hope KINKY IS BEHAVING.
