Delayed Amazon Delivery: HQ2

You know how annoying it is when your Amazon package isn’t delivered on time? Imagine how pissed-off officials in Northern Virginia must be now that Amazon says it will be late in building its big HQ2 development. While the landmark Helix, a 350 foot tower resembling the Poop Emoji with an outdoor spiral of landscaped trees will be built as scheduled, other buildings on the sprawling development are on hold. So much for the vaunted local economic benefits the retail giant promised in return for big tax incentives.

You may recall that saner jurisdictions rejected the HQ2 project. Northern Virginia neighborhoods under the retail behemoth’s footprint are so embarrassed they’re changing their names.

More:

“Amazon says it is pausing construction at HQ2 in Arlington,” Teo Armus and Rachel Lerman, Washington Post

“Amazon pauses construction of 2nd headquarters in Virginia, dubbed ‘HQ2’,” Max Zahn, ABC News

“The Lie Behind Amazon’s HQ2 Sweepstakes Becomes Clear,” Davi Dayen, American Prospect

“Amazon suspends Virginia HQ2 construction in latest cost-cutting move,” Emma Roth, The Verge

Update:

“As Amazon’s HQ2 Stalls, Incentives Have, Too,” Sarah Holder and Linda Poon, Bloomberg CityLab

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Image (“Amazon HQ2 Helix Concept, after Jan Luyken and Willem Goeree, 1682″) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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How Ukrainians Are Saving Their Art

Ukraine’s cultural heritage seems to be a target of Russian military agression, a violation of the the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property. Violations are considered war crimes. Ukrainians are taking measures to defend their country’s historic relics, paintings, and monuments. A Vox video by Marie Cascione and Kim Mas.

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Street Artists: Robots Are Coming For Your Job

Mihkel Joala has invented SprayPrinter, which performs automated printing of giant outdoor murals.

More:

“Robot Spray Paints Large Murals Onto Buildings,” Ayda Ayoubi, Architect

SprayPrinter website

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Detroit Style

Detroit Institure of Arts gallery teacher Crystal Palmer takes us inside the museum’s exhibition “Detroit Style: Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020.”

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Hilma af Klint

Hilma af Klint (1862 – 1944) was the pioneering abstract artist you’ve never heard of. Paul Priestley explains.

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American Venus: The Tragedy of America’s First Supermodel

Audrey Munson (1891 – 1996), the “American Venus,” an artist’s model and film actress, was the model or inspiration for scores of statues in New York City and across the country. She appeared, nude, in the 1915 film Inspiration (re-issued in 1918 as The Perfect Model), the 1916 film Purity, and also in Heedless Moths (1921). Her long life didn’t end as glamously. After a series of scandals, she attempted suicide in 1922, and spent 65 years in an asylum before her death at age 104. Even though her likeness appears on sculptures and images across America, her grave was unmarked until 2016.

Henri Rousseau’s Woman In the Jungle

Henri Rousseau painted The Dream in 1910, a surreal vision of a woman lounging on a sofa in the middle of a jungle. It’s his last completed work. A video from The Art Assignment, hosted by curator Sarah Urist Green.

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Napoleon’s Hand

Why is Napoleon Bonaparte‘s hand always inside his shirt? Coleman Lowndes explains. A Vox video.

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Amazon HQ2 Helix Looms Over Virginia

After saner jurisdictions rejected the project, Amazon selected Northern Virginia for the site of its HQ2 development. Some neighborhoods under the retail behemoth’s footprint will change their names to protect the innocent.

The flagship of this tax-break-enabled building bonanza will be The Helix, a 350 foot tower resembling the Poop Emoji, with an outdoor spiral of landscaped trees available to hikers who relish a pointless trek to nowhere, very Zen. Suggested seasonal uses of the Helix’s outdoor path include a water slide and ski run, or perhaps it will follow the lead of the 150-foot tall Vessel scultpture at New York’s Hudson Yards and become a world-class suicide swan-dive magnet.

The best views of the giant tower will probably be across the Potomac in DC, where residents can shudder and draw the drapes.

More:

“Amazon’s next headquarters is a glass poop emoji covered in trees,” Jacob Kastrenakes,The Verge

“Soft Serve Cone Or Christmas Tree? Amazon HQ2 Helix Sparks Debate,” Michael O’Connell, Arlington Patch

“The Helix is a distraction. Amazon’s new headquarters will change more than just its Arlington neighborhood.,” Philip Kennicott, Washington Post

Update:

“Amazon’s ‘The Helix’ is too tall for airport standards, officials say,” Kristen Schneider, WJLA-TV 7

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Image (“Amazon HQ2 Helix Concept, after Jan Luyken and Willem Goeree, 1682″) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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The Peacock Clock

Prince Grigory Potemkin commissioned the workshop of London goldsmith and craftsman James Cox to produce a timekeeping automaton as a gift for Catherine the Great in 1777. Today the device is in The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

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