A Brooklyn skyscraper recasts its historic vault as a dining destination, Route 66’s roadside renaissance has a new leading figure, and the Louvre unveils the team behind its sweeping revamp. All that and more in this week’s Five on Friday.
The Louvre reveals winners of redesign competition
The winning proposal for the Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance competition; rendering courtesy of Vincent Atelier/the French Minister of Culture
Selldorf Architects, STUDIOS Architecture, and BASE Paysagiste have been selected to oversee renovations of the Louvre following an international design competition. Upgrades to the Louvre Colonnade on the Parisian cultural mecca’s eastern façade will “repair and transform the building to preserve its collections while updating it to meet contemporary public expectations, including sustainability requirements,” ArchDaily reports. New entrances, circulation routes, and the redevelopment of surrounding urban areas will enhance the visitor experience, while a new vegetated composition will adorn the esplanade as well. Integrated relaxation areas and a modular temporary exhibition space will also be added. Perhaps most notable of all is the announcement of a new dedicated space for da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” but no word yet on whether or not it will be optimized for selfies. A construction timeline has not yet been announced.
Studio Gang does Shakespeare
Photo by Jason O’Rear
Studio Gang has completed the design of the Samuel H. Scripps Theater Center in New York’s Hudson Valley, with Nelson Byrd Woltz serving as landscape architect. The new timber structure will be home to the Hudson Valley Shakespeare theater troupe in the hamlet of Garrison. Outfitted with rooftop solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, the pavilion is conceived to frame sprawling natural vistas along the 98-acre campus, which restores native grasses and wetlands damaged during the setting’s past life as a golf course, Architect’s Newspaper reports. The 451-seat main theater totals 6,800 square feet, accented by a 10,000-square-foot back-of-house area housing dressing rooms, a green room, wardrobe facilities, offices, and more. Facilities are housed inside small structures clad in yakisugi, a Japanese method of preserving wood through charring.
This Brooklyn tower will become a food hall
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower in Brooklyn, New York; photo courtesy of Tupungato/Adobe Stock
The Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower at One Hanson Place in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, New York is set to become a new food hall in 2027 following a new deal announced by Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) and Miami hospitality brand Casa Tua. An architect has not yet been announced for the project, which will see the addition of a large central bar and lounge along with private dining and special event spaces. Renderings featured on Secret NYC show historic interiors largely intact and endowed with new furniture and greenery. BSE purchased the ground floor, mezzanine, and basement of the address in 2024.
Meet the sculptor of Route 66
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It isn’t until November that Route 66, the iconic U.S. highway that stretches from Chicago to Santa Monica, celebrates its 100th anniversary, but most travelers will likely be celebrating during summer drives. If you find yourself on a commemorative cruise down America’s most famous road in the coming months, pay special attention to the many highway guardians towering over drivers. A medley of large-scale fiberglass figurative sculptures reaching as high as 23 feet tall line Route 66 with colorful midcentury kitsch redolent of the heyday of the Great American Roadtrip. Many small businesses along the highway request sculptures of their own made by Mark Cline, a key author behind the recent highway guardian renaissance. Cline inherited a 14-foot-tall Muffler Man sculpture in the 1990s, and ended up creating a mold of the icon that set a new career in motion. “Big Ron in Springfield, Illinois is the tallest I’ve made. He’s almost 30 feet, with his arms stretched up in the air,” Clines says in a new Dwell profile. “I also did an Uncle Sam character in Uranus, Missouri, who lost his head when a tornado smacked right into him on April Fool’s Day. You couldn’t write it!”
That’s a wrap on ICFF 2026!
HD editor in chief Alissa Ponchione (far right) moderated the “From Office Tower to Urban Living: The Future of City Living” panel in the Bespoke Salon at ICFF 2026; photo by Jenna Bascom Photography
It wouldn’t be NYCxDesign without a trip to the Javits Center for ICFF. This year’s show kicked off on Sunday, May 17th with a slew of engaging discussions and new products to explore. Hospitality Design editor extraordinaire Stephanie Chen was among the jury overseeing the 2026 Editors Awards, honoring standout products across the show floor. Zieta Studio took home Best in Show while Heecham Kim of SCAD was awarded Best of Students.
Meanwhile, the Bespoke Salon, designed by Post Company and presented by HD, served as a nucleus hosting several dynamic panels, including “The Art of Making: Where Material Meets Meaning,” “From Office Tower to Urban Living: The Future of City Living,” and “The Hospitality Effect: The Rise of Multidisciplinary Design.”
A new episode of Designers on Design featuring Becca Roderick of Morris Adjmi Architects and Gensler’s Laurent Lismachio premiered on Monday, May 18th at the Main Stage. In November, the series’ fourth episode will be released at BDNY 2026. (Check out episode two with Paolo Ferrari and Parts & Labor Design’s Danu Kennedy, which was shown at BDNY 2025.) See you November 14-16th for next year’s show!