Every day digest: Dance will return to Unity Temple, residents sue over the SoHo rezoning, and extra at the moment

Good afternoon and welcome back to even more news as we march right into the top of another week.

Here’s what’s going on today:

Dance performances return to Oak Park’s Unity Temple on February 26

Chicago’s Winifred Haun & Dancers company will return to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, on February 26 as part of the new The Light Returns: Dance & Music at Unity Temple series. On Saturday, February 26, visitors can view two dance performances at the UNESCO World Heritage site, one at 5:30 PM and the other at 8:00 PM. The Light Returns series also includes a walking tour of three spaces within the temple, and the first instance of the Young Dancers Project, which provides dance classes and choreography for dancers between the ages of 10 and 18.

SoHo residents want to overturn the recent rezoning over artists’ residences

The rezoning of New York’s SoHo and NoHo neighborhoods is a done deal, but a group of residents are suing to have it annulled.

Last Thursday, February 10, a group of residents calling themselves the Coalition for Fairness in Soho and Noho sued both the mayor and city itself, alleging that the requirement that units for certified artists must be converted into legal residents would lower property values and encourage developers to simply tear down and replace older buildings. Although the city doesn’t keep track of whether certified artists live in any of the two neighborhoods’ 1,636 qualifying units, it’s estimated that converting them could cost up to $100 a square foot.

As The Real Deal points out, those units, carved out in the 1970s as a way to create affordable housing for artists in the area, now sit in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city—in fact, several millionaires and billionaires now own them.

H/t to The Real Deal

Florida moves to protect construction workers from extreme heat

Heatwaves and higher average temperatures will only increase as climate change worsens, and laborers who work outside will continue to bear the brunt. That’s why in Florida, bipartisan support is building for SB 732, which, if passed, would provide employees with respite from high heat and mandated break times once temperatures rose above 90 degrees. It would also mandate annual training for spotting and preventing heat-related illnesses. OSHA currently lacks federal heat training and relief mandates and typically only intervenes to fine companies after injury or death.

H/t to The Columbian

A $65 million apartment complex burned down in Oklahoma City

The cause of a fire that brought down a 325-unit apartment complex in Oklahoma City on February 8 is still unknown, but investigators are reportedly eyeing the roofing made from flammable thermoplastic polyolefins (TPO) as one of the exacerbating factors. The material is evidently hard to extinguish, and fire suppression systems were only working in the completed first section of the complex. Additionally, most of the 369,000-square-foot development was framed with wood, only adding to the blaze. The $65 million project is being written off as a total loss after the water used to put out the fire structurally compromised the building.

H/t to Engineering News-Record

A sandworm out of Dune slithers onto the Stanford University campus

Stanford University has a new addition to its California campus, a bronze behemoth that could have crawled out of Dune or Alice in Wonderland. Titled Hello, the sculpture by Xu Zhen has landed between the school’s library and law school, greeting passersby with a gaping maw atop a snaking Corinthian column cast in bronze. The architectural snake is part of a new rotating art initiative to revitalize what was formerly thought of as a staid and boring square, and Hello will remain in its current home for two years before being replaced with a new piece.

H/t to Hyperallergic

The World Monuments Fund will help address water scarcity in India

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced a new partnership with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd to help alleviate India’s growing water crisis by preserving the country’s historic water delivery structures. Under the new long-term Historic Water Bodies of India initiative, both groups will work to catalog historic waterways and water delivery systems, identify which are most at risk, and restore those that can deliver fresh water to communities.

“As climate change continues to intensify around the world, impacting our built environment and the people who depend on it, World Monuments Fund India is committed to working with communities to develop solutions to mitigate the negative impacts, securing access to water through conservation and management will contribute significantly,” said Amita Baig, WMF India Executive Director, in a press release. “Our work on the Historic Water Bodies of India is an example of this. We are delighted to partner with Tata Consultancy Services and look forward to developing this important initiative aimed at increasing access to clean water for communities across India.”