It's a new year, which means we have 366 days of fresh design ahead of us. Don't get us wrong, 2015 was great and all, but 2016 is looking very promising. We rounded up some of the design-world happenings---conferences, museum openings, giant dinosaurs---we're most excited about in the year to come. Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments.
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Museum of National History Gets a Titanosaurus, January__
This January the Museum of Natural History is getting a new pet. The 122-foot-long skeletal cast of a newly discovered species of Titanosaurus will become the newest large-scale exhibition at the museum's Fossil Hall. The dinosaur, which is thought to have lived between 95- and 100-million years ago, dwarfs the famous blue whale (94 feet long) and Tyrannosaurus rex (39 feet long). We can't wait to see it.
Open Score at the New Museum, January 30
Open Score is a joint conference between the New Museum and Rhizome that will focus on the intersection of art and the internet. The inaugural day-long meeting will focus on the hot topics of “surveillance and hypervisibility” and how the internet has enabled mass creativity and new forms of criticism. Expect heady discussions and musings on the future of internet art.
Design Indaba, February 17—19
There are plenty of design festivals throughout the year, but few of them happen in Africa. Design Indaba started in 1995 as a way to champion African design, and over the last 20 years the conference has grown into a global multi-disciplinary event that showcases the work of graphic designers, architects, industrial designers, publishers, fashion designers... you get the picture.
Young Architect Program Announcement, February
Every year, MoMA PS1 chooses a young architect to design the pavilion for its courtyard, which becomes the centerpiece of the museum's summer activities. The playful structures are always on the cutting-edge of the field (last year’s pavilion was a giant water filter; the year before that a tower made of living bricks). It’s a bellwether of sorts---a preview of provocative architectural ideas that are also forward thinking.
Santiago Calatrava’s PATH Station Oculus Opens to the Public, March
After what seems like an eternity, the Spanish architect’s wild train station in downtown Manhattan is almost fully complete. We've been watching as the the spine-like form has taken shape, but there's been little access to the interior. The Port Authority has been opening the station to the public in bits and pieces, but the main event---the oculus---will finally be open this spring.
SF MOMA Reopens, April
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has been operating off-site since its main building closed in 2013 for renovations. Snøhetta designed the new building, which is replacing Mario Botta’s brick-laid facade, to be reflective of the bayside city’s ever-changing weather. It’s set to open in April.
Exhibitionism: The Rolling Stones, April 4—September 5
The Rolling Stones are famous the world over, but the band is just now getting its first international exhibition. The show, which is designed by Pentagram partners Abbott Miller and William Russell, will feature more than 500 Stones artifacts along with audio/visual installations. It's debuting at Saatchi Gallery in London, but will make its way to galleries across the globe.
Seven On Seven Conference, May 14
Every year the New Museum pairs seven artists with seven technologists and asks them to make something new. They then present it at an always-interesting day-long conference about technology and art. Last year’s lineup included artist Ai Weiwei, writer and researcher Jacob Applebaum, Instagram’s co-founder Mike Krieger and stats guru Nate Silver. We’re excited to see who’s participating in 2016.
Braddock Tiles, May
North Braddock, Pennsylvania, might seem like an unlikely candidate for an arts epicenter, but, thanks to attention from a handful of artists, this former industrial town is becoming just that. This spring, Brooklyn artist SWOON is building a micro-factory where she and local residents will be hand-making 20,000 tiles to re-roof the town's dilapidated Lutheran church. Once the church is gutted and renovated, it will become an arts education center and museum for the community.
VIA 57 West, June
Bjarke Ingels's highly anticipated new residential building on New York City's west 57th street is currently under construction, but it’s set to open in June of this year. When it's finished, the soaring tetrahedron will be an unexpected---and welcomed---addition to a skyline full of glassy rectangles.
LinkNYC, ongoing
In 2014, New York City mayor Bill De Blasio announced that over the next 8 years the city would tear out 10,000 payphones across the five boroughs and replace them with with shiny new Links, or USB-enabled kiosks that provide free phone calls to the U.S. and speedy WiFi. The program is already rolling, but it’ll be ramping up in 2016.
__Snøhetta’s Times Square Overhaul, end of 2016
__Snøhetta has spent the past five years revamping New York City's most trafficked tourist haunt. The NYC and Oslo architecture firm has designed new pedestrian plazas complete with granite benches and reduced car traffic. When it's completed at the end of 2016, the project will have achieved a near impossible goal: Making Time Square a pleasant place to hang out.
Apple Moves Into its Spaceship Headquarters, TBD
Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that the company will move into its new spaceship headquarters in 2016. Naturally, we've followed along as the 2,800,000 square-foot Foster + Partners building rises in Cupertino. Once finished, 16,000 Apple employees will call the circular building home, while countless non-employees will look on in envy.
Museum of Image and Sound, TBD
After multiple delays, Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s long-awaited Museum of Image and Sound in Rio de Janeiro is finally opening this year (or so we hear). The glassy, tiered structure is situated along the coast of the bustling Copacabana beach, and is designed to extend the outdoor promenade vertically through the building. Inside will be eight stories of galleries devoted to showcasing audio/visual works.
Eero Saarinen’s TWA Flight Center Hotel, construction ongoing
When Eero Saarinen’s TWA terminal first opened in 1962, the famed architect likely had little clue that it would eventually become a hotel. And yet, here we are more than 50 years later, watching as the neo-futuristic building known for its swooping, curvilinear shapes and concrete is converted into a home away from home for weary travelers. Though it’s only beginning construction in 2016, we can finally say for the first time we’re excited to stay in an airport hotel.
