Hi Friends,
Greetings from chilly Brooklyn!
I visited Miami for the first time this week. Yes, it was slightly surreal to pack my flip flops and swim suit in the last days of January. But it’s the buildings that struck me the most. Even the most unassuming motel would peacock an array of bubble-gum pink, SpongeBob-yellow and flamboyant blue. It's amazing to me that it only takes a thin layer of paint to switch the backdrop of an urban walk from lifeless to delightful.
Miami wasn’t always so colorful. In the mid 1970s, many Art Deco buildings were falling into disrepair. To save them from demolition, a designer named Leonard Horrowitz came up with an idea: rekindle the public’s love for their architectural heritage by splashing it with pastel colors.
Color is used to elicit attraction in pretty much every object that surrounds us. And yet buildings seem to be the notable exception. They are overwhelmingly gray by default. In my neighborhood, developers went as far as electing charcoal black for what is going to become the tallest building in Brooklyn. Tell me this doesn’t look like Sauron’s Brooklyn abode.
Why do we systematically default to dull tones when it comes to buildings? What might be the impact of using color to ornate our concrete jungles?
Weekly Wisdom
🌋 Playful Science: Fire of Love is a documentary about an inseparable couple of scientists who share an unflinching dedication to understanding volcanoes. But what I found most compelling about it was the way Maurice and Katia push the boundaries of knowledge. They seem to be doing science the way a one-year-old learns how to climb the living room furniture. It’s a blend of ardent curiosity and utmost disregard for the likelihood of physical harm. Far from the halogen-lit labs we usually associate with science, the documentary is a tribute to playfulness and audacity as drivers of human progress.
📄 Ditch the Default: Behind every default choice lies an opportunity to train our taste. I never suspected this would also apply to Google Docs. In his latest piece, my friend Nate invites us to break up with Arial typefaces and Arctic-white backgrounds in favor of a craftier, more personalized canvas for our next piece of writing. Guaranteed to blow your socks off.
☕ Espresso Love: I bought an espresso machine last year with the goal of recreating the taste of the coffee I drank as a teenager when I’d spend the summer with my Italian family. I can’t say I’m getting close. But I did learn a ton about the capricious laws of espresso-making. In his excellent piece, my colleague Nick traces the evolution of the espresso machine in the last 50 years and the relentless pursuit of pulling the perfect shot.
🗽 Keyword Guide to New York: I’ve been thinking a lot about the best format to make recommendations when people ask me about cities I’ve lived in. The classic “restaurants/ bars/ top sights” format doesn’t quite work for me. It misses the nuances of how we experience places. So I put together a keyword guide to New York. It includes my favorite “experiences” of New York, each associated with a word. Let me know what you think!
Lateral Thought
“Sam’s grandfather had two core beliefs: (1) all things were knowable by anyone, and (2) anything was fixable if you took the time to figure out what was broken.”
Gabrielle Zevin
For the most part we have a fear of colour when it comes to architecture. When ever I go south, or even parts of Europe I'm entranced with colour. My palette changes.