The back windows of Tourists, a renovated 46-room motor inn that opened in North Adams, Mass., in 2018, overlook 80 acres of woodland in the Berkshires. Now, a footpath runs through these woods, connecting the hotel to two neighboring houses in the city’s historic Blackinton area, a former mill community. Both properties – one sleeps up to 11 people, the other six – were renovated for Tourists Homes, a new offshoot that allows larger groups to book individual homes. “We jokingly call them mullets — business in the front, party in the back — why [we preserved the] 1860s fronts, but we gave the backs all the benefits of modern design,” says Tourists co-founder Ben Svenson. Similar to the company’s original property, both homes incorporate a retro chalet-inspired aesthetic (each has a wood-burning stove) and are furnished with custom pieces from local carpenters (the larger home has a large round Douglas fir table for family- dining room style) and vintage gems curated by interior designer Julie Pearson (the smaller house comes with an original Rhodes Mark 1 piano). The back decks of both homes offer scenic views of Mount Williams and Mount Prospect. All guests have access to the hotel’s pool and community events, including a free concert series with guest musicians playing in exchange for in-room nights. The two tourist houses are available to book now (there is a three-night minimum for the small house, a four-night minimum for the larger), along with a third house, a five-room former B&B, which the Tourist team plans to renovate the winter. From $895 a night, travelswelcome.com.
Wear this
A line of new bags from LeSportsac and Philadelphia-based brand Yowie
Before Shannon Maldonado founded Yowie, her design store and boutique hotel in Philadelphia, she was a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and collected colorful, functional nylon LeSportsac bags, drawn to their “sporty yet elegant quality.” Now Maldonado has collaborated with LeSportsac on a collection of nine new bags. The first three—a large cherry red hobo, an acid yellow crossbody bag, and a spherical black bucket bag—are available today. The bags represent new shapes for the 50-year-old brand, all made with the signature ripstop fabric. A trained clothing designer, Maldonado drew inspiration from other sources that influenced her decades ago—Marc by Marc Jacobs accessories, photos of models from the ’80s and ’90s, and vintage Prada and Miu Miu editorials—for a series that’s simultaneously captivating a sense of nostalgia and an undeniably modern energy. from $95, lesportsac.com.
In November 2020, Francesca Cappelletti began her new role as director of the Galleria Borghese, the Rome museum that houses a collection of Renaissance Berninis and Caravaggios assembled by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, secretary to the Pope, in the early 1600s With the museum closed to the public during the pandemic, Cappelletti had plenty of time to explore the less famous works in the institution’s storage, uncovering pieces such as a 1613 canvas depicting Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, by Lavinia Fontana, the Italian mannerist painter. from Bologna educated by her father, Prospero Fontana. Cappelletti says the discovery inspired her not just to bring painters like Fontana out of storage, but to highlight contemporary women artists within the palazzo’s historic collection and extensive English-style gardens. Last week the museum launched an annual series featuring works by contemporary women masters. “Louise Bourgeois: Unconscious Memories” features 20 pieces by the French-American artist, including her early marble sculptures of carved body parts and “Spider” (1996), one of her monumental bronze works, installed in the Giardino della Meridiana. a part of the museum garden that is rarely open to the public. “Louise Bourgeois: Unconscious Memories” is on view at the Galleria Borghese in Rome until September 15. galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it.
Drink here
A new 200-foot concrete table and tasting room at Oregon’s Antica Terra Winery
Maggie Harrison has been producing fine wine at Antica Terra Winery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley since 2006. But her lodge’s tasting room—housed in an unadorned warehouse—seemed out of place with her sophisticated bottles. That changes this summer as Antica Terra opens two new tasting rooms: Barrel Hall and the seasonal Table in the Trees, an outdoor seating area with a 200-foot-long table. At the entrance to Barrel Hall, a wide corridor ushers visitors into a space illuminated by a cloud-like sphere by Los Angeles light sculptor Bennet Schlesinger. The outdoor table, set in a grove of Oregon white oak, is a ribbon of cast-in-place concrete and hand-built with rocks from the vineyard, with enough room for six seating areas. There guests can arrange a picnic lunch from chef Timothy Wastell (think flax bread, preserved wild mushrooms and chicken liver pate from a nearby farm), accompanied by a flight of six wines. “Between those oaks, the acorns, the wind, our sheep,” says Harrison, “the visitors are part of the elements that shaped these wines.” He plans to have a full outdoor kitchen up and running next year. anticaterra.com.
Covet This
Stone Island and Dior collaborate on a stylish Capsule Collection
Stone Island, the men’s sportswear brand founded by Italian designer Massimo Osti in 1982, has long been associated with exploration and adventure (the compass serves as its logo). Stone Island specializes in technical garments designed to withstand and adapt to the elements, such as thermo-reactive down vests that change color when exposed to heat or nylon jackets that are highly resistant to rain and wind thanks to a layer of stainless steel sealed vacuum steel film. Starting in the mid-80s, the brand was particularly popular in Britain, where it was favored by a young Kim Jones, the English fashion designer and creative director of Dior Men. Now, Stone Island and Dior come together for a capsule collection that combines the Italian label’s textile innovation with Jones’ penchant for elegant silhouettes and unexpected color combinations. The new offerings include shoes (two sneaker styles), bags (including Dior’s iconic saddle bag updated in embossed nylon), and jewelry: A pendant necklace, bracelet, and signet ring feature the Stone Island compass surrounded by four Dior logos. Discerning adventurers and urbanites will be especially excited about the outerwear. A teal silk car coat has a removable waistcoat, as does a salmon-hued blouse cut from wool chenille. Technical cotton jackets with contrasting leather pockets come in black or bright yellow, and a cotton and silk zip-up jacket has the Dior touch of floral embroidery. The Dior and Stone Island capsule collection launches on June 27. price upon request, dior.com.
When Alvar and Aino Aalto completed their practice in Paimio, Finland in 1933, the tuberculosis hospital represented not only a turning point in the young architects’ careers, but also a transformative moment for modernism. Airy, light-filled and colourful, the building was designed, as Alvar put it, ‘to function as a medical instrument’ by providing patients with ample access to the sunlight and fresh air then considered essential for the treatment of tuberculosis. With its generous social spaces and simple rooms designed down to the smallest detail by the husband and wife team, the Paimio Sanatorium, for all its rationality and austerity, was also imbued with the warmth and sensitivity to the setting it would set. the couple’s career. (Alvar continued to build extensively after Aino’s death from breast cancer in 1949.) In May, nearly 90 years after the main building was completed, seven patient rooms opened to overnight guests. Most of the furniture was designed by Aalto, while the linens, such as plaid throws by Finnish textile company Lapuan Kankurit, are from local manufacturers. The simple rooms at Paimio offer guests the opportunity to experience hygiene as it was intended: not as an architectural landmark, but as a gentle, restorative environment. From about $160 a night, paimiosanatorium.com.
From the Instagram of T
