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New York-based visual artist Kehinde Wiley recently unveiled a bronze sculpture of an African American man riding a horse in the center of Times Square at Broadway Plaza between 46th and 47th streets. Titled “Rumors of War,” the statue references controversial Confederate War monuments that still stand in Richmond, Virginia over a century after they were erected. Commissioned by the Virginia Museum...

This summer, a new elevated circular bike path was built that winds through the Belgian forest about an hour outside of Brussels. ‘Cycling Through the Trees’ is part of the Limburg bike route, and works its way up to a height of 32 feet, placing riders inside the forest canopy. Unlike another recent circular tourist attraction, the bike path is...

As part of the 2019 London Design Festival, Paul Cocksedge’s ‘Please Be Seated’ has taken over Finsbury Avenue Square in the city’s Broadgate neighborhood. The undulating sculpture is comprised of concentric wooden circles that ribbon up and down to create functional spaces to socialize, rest, and walk through. Cocksedge collaborated with White & White to fabricate the massive steel and upcycled scaffolding wood installation,...

Textile artist Amanda Browder collaborates with the communities she’s working in to built site-specific architectural interventions. Using hundreds of yards of donated fabric with bright colors and patterns, Browder and her volunteer teams stitch together enormous panels that resemble crazy quilts. The panels wrap around bell towers, sheath elevated walkways, and drape from gables and eaves to give passersby a new...

In 2014 Auckland and Los Angeles-based Fearon Hay Architects were asked to convert a dilapidated 1950s building in Taichung, Taiwan into a boutique hotel. After a site visit, the studio decided integrate as many of the existing elements of the building as possible, embracing the original character of the raw industrial building. The resulting SOF Hotel still has the charm of the seven-decade-old...

South African photographers Bruce Boyd and Tharien Smith have spent the last two years photographing clusters of brightly colored flowers trapped in blocks of ice. The temporary sculptures are captured underwater, where the ice begins to crack and add further dimension to the floral compositions. Flowers are sourced from Cape Town’s gardens, hedges, and trees, which are then placed in plastic containers and frozen...

Apologies to anyone who shares the name, but two designers in Chicago are taking on electoral gerrymandering in a new font called Gerry. The font, created by Ben Doessel and James Lee, is composed of 26 districts whose absurd boundaries resemble alphabet letters much more than they resemble logical, cohesive population groupings. Alabama’s pronged 1st District bears a striking resemblance to the...

Colossal recently covered Utrecht’s efforts to green up their public transit with bee-friendly bus stops, and the Dutch city is at it again with the world’s largest bike garage. The multi-level structure, recently completed, is totally underground, allowing the public square above to be a pedestrian-first space. Designed by Ector Hoogstad Architects in collaboration with the Sant & Co firm...

Nearly a decade after completing the “Alphabet Street” project in East London, English artist Ben Eine has again painted all 26 letters from A to Z on over 40 shop shutters. “Alphabet City 2.0” uses 26 bespoke fonts and a wide range of spray paint colors to transform the area into a vibrant street art destination. Made in association with Global Street...

Michael Pederson takes note of small, peculiar moments with his outdoor interventions. Frequently using subtly humorous signage, the artist, who goes by ‘Miguel Marquez Outside’, draws the attention of passersby to places where perception of seemingly banal scenarios are reimagined in surprising ways. His most recent project was the Urban Weed Awards, for which Pederson created official-looking plaques to denote...