Friday Favorites 2/15/2013

Cheryl Katz, Contributing Editor
It’s taken a few days since my return from Istanbul to digest the beauty of this diverse city of 15 million people. It is both exquisite and in need of repair (I am told it is under construction always and everywhere).

The influence of the Ottoman Empire with its rich colors, intricate tile work, and textile handicrafts is omnipresent.

The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar are almost unimaginable in their abundance. The street food is delicious–baklava without a hint of sweetness and stuffed with emerald green pistachios; simit, covered in toasted sesame seeds and available on every street corner; and borek, thin layers of boiled dough and cheese cut in long thin strips with the aid of a narrow wooden paddle.

It is a city to return to often.

Paula M. Bodah, Senior Editor
Here’s a cheerful idea for spring: introduce a warm hit of yellow to your home. There’s a shade of yellow–whether a neutral like butter or wheat or something eye-popping like sunflower–that will complement whatever color predominates in your home’s palette. Hancock & Moore‘s new pieces upholstered in yellow leather kick classic up a notch.

Kyle Hoepner, Editor-in-Chief
Since our upcoming March–April 2013 issue includes a hefty editorial section on the glories of New England landscape design, my eye these days is particularly primed to catch references to the natural settings of architecture. How appropriate, then, that we recently received word of White Cube, Green Maze: New Art Landscapes, an exhibition that opened yesterday at the Yale School of Architecture Gallery in New Haven.

The show is billed as an examination of emerging trends in museum design as exemplified by six new art sites that “move beyond the traditional ‘white cube’ gallery space, and that juxtapose the experience of culture, art, architecture, and landscape.â€

Organized under the direction of Raymund Ryan, curator of architecture at the Heinz Architectural Center at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, White Cube, Green Maze presents newly commissioned photography by Iwan Baan of the six museum sites, along with architects’ models, plans, and sketches; historical photographs; and maquettes and sketches by key installation artists.

The exhibition runs through May 4, 2013, and is free and open to the public Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Click here for additional information.