New York nixes rent relief, scholarships for aspiring Black architects, and more

Good afternoon and happy Monday. As Thanksgiving and even lower temperatures loom, it’s the perfect time to hunker down and read more about what’s going on in the world of architecture, design, and beyond.

Here’s what you need to know today:

The Architects Foundation and AIA launch ARE scholarships for Black architects-in-training

The Architects Foundation, the philanthropic partner of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), is launching its inaugural LFRT Architect Registration Examination (ARE) scholarships, which will help prospective Black architects get a leg up on paying and studying for the licensing exams. Plenty of ink has already been spilled over the disparities in architecture licensing along gender and race lines. To help close the gap between Black architects-in-training and their white counterparts, the new scholarship will provide $500 in study materials, a complimentary one-year subscription to the AIA’s exam resources tool, ArchiPrep, cover the cost of taking the AREs, one year of dues in either the AIA or National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA), and one year of National Council of Architectural Registration Board (NCARB) fees.

Interested parties have until January 14, 2022, to apply.

New York State shuts the door on emergency rent relief

New York State has run out of emergency rent relief funds and closed its portal for tenants seeking aid. Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Friday that the state had burned through its $2.4 billion in federal relief funding and had requested an additional $1 billion from the federal government. 278,700 households had applied, but only 168,000 were accepted. State officials have come under fire for closing the application portal—even if funds are depleted, new applications could help judge the amount of funding needed in the future.

H/t to The Real Deal

Toshiko Mori will design the first Sean Kelly outpost on the West Coast

Sean Kelly is expanding his New York City gallery presence to the other side of the country with a new location in Los Angeles. The 10,000-square-foot outpost at 1357 N Highland Avenue will be designed by Toshiko Mori, who also designed the Sean Kelly Gallery at 475 10th Avenue in Manhattan, with local firm Hye-Young Chung Architecture. The new gallery will operate semi-independently from its East Coast cousin, and Sean Kelly’s son, Thomas Kelly, will be relocating from NYC to L.A. to head the space.

H/t to Artnet News

An angular live/work tower is approved for L.A.’s Arts District

In other L.A. news, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission unanimously voted to approve an angular live-work tower to replace an aging warehouse in the city’s Arts District. Designed by HansonLA, the eight-story, 195,000-square-foot tower would hold 185 live/work apartments with 21 set aside as affordable, 23,000 square feet of commercial and arts space set aside at ground level. Developer Maxxam Enterprises has also not ruled out the possibility of increasing the commercial square footage to 46,000 and cutting the unit number back to 159.

H/t to Urbanize Los Angeles

A historic underground English grotto will be spared the wrecking ball and restored

The hidden grotto of English poet Alexander Pope in Twickenham, London, is now being restored despite the demolition of the buildings it once linked centuries ago. Built in the mid-18th century by Pope, the tunnel is lined with crystals and shells but is now only accessible through a school building. Due to the failing health of the tunnel, the Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust has begun work on an ambitious $537,000 restoration campaign.

H/t to The Art Newspaper

David Chipperfield’s renovation of the Procuratie Vecchie will open in 2022

The David Chipperfield-led restoration of Venice’s nearly 500-year-old Procuratie Vecchie is on schedule to finish this year, with the building, one of three encircling Saint Mark’s Square, slated to open next spring. The ongoing five-year renovation is largely focused on flood mitigation measures as Venice is hit by ever-worsening storms, as well as the opening of a public exhibition space on the hall’s third floor.

H/t to Designboom