AECOM is moving its global headquarters to Dallas, Facebook gambles on VR meetings, and more
[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article contained the sentence “Artist Pamela Council will soon debut her worst work of public art in Times Square,” but this was an error. The story has been corrected to read “[…] it will debut soon First Artwork in public space. “]
Greetings and welcome back to another Thursday round, in the middle of the slow march towards autumn. While employers were discussing a return to the physical office in September, Facebook revealed a more novel approach this morning. Will it arrive? Only time can tell.
What you need to know today:
Facebook relies on VR office space as the future of work
Iffy returning to the office? Facebook today unveiled an alternative that uses the endless possibilities of virtual reality (VR) to create strange and wild environments for … Horizon Workrooms, its virtual office program. If you own an Oculus Quest 2, you can now buckle up the Workrooms Beta and test the project’s hand and head tracking features (so users can take handwritten notes and view various presentation screens). Although the adoption of VR technology has increased during the pandemic, Facebook’s gambling on the “Metaverse” (a shared virtual reality space coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash) requires everyone in a company to have access to an Oculus Quest 2 worth 299 US dollars to recreate a typical office environment. While this might come with the benefit of creating a sense of shared intimacy among meeting attendees, critics have pointed out that this is just another hoop to jump through, and that VR meetings take away the nuances of the face themselves most basic zoom meetings are missing.
AECOM will move its global headquarters from Los Angeles to Dallas
Global engineering, design and construction company AECOM is moving its global headquarters from LA to Dallas on October 1st. Although the company’s C-suite is moving south to join the already 1,200 employees in Dallas, 2,500 California employees remain where they are. both to attract new talent and to take advantage of the Lone Star State’s lower business tax rate.
H / t to construction dive
Times Square is getting its very first fountain this fall
The artist Pamela Council will soon present her first public work of art in Times Square, a 5 m high public fountain surrounded by a shell of almost 400,000 brightly colored acrylic nails. Sponsored by Times Square Arts, A Fountain for Survivors will reportedly open on October 7th as a multi-sensory experience, acting as an oasis of calm and contemplation at the busiest intersection in town.
H / t to Artnet News
Indoor plastic barriers are unlikely to do anything to stop the spread of COVID. to stop
If you’ve gone out to eat in the past year and a half, there’s a good chance you’ve sat or at least seen tables (or counters) separated by plastic barriers to reduce the spread of airborne droplets that contain coronavirus. But the multi-million dollar question is, do they actually work? Not really, according to researchers polled by the New York Times, who also found that in some cases, these barriers could disrupt airflow through a room and create pockets in which COVID could accumulate. Rather than allowing airborne pathogens to leave a room, the tangle of barriers in a classroom, restaurant, or salon creates eddies that prevent clean air from freshening the room.
H / t to the New York Times
Mecanoo wins the European Architecture Prize
The Dutch office Mecanoo is the winner of the European Prize for Architecture 2021, which has been awarded annually since 2010 by the European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum. In particular, Francine Houben and Dick van Gameren have been selected as the European Prize for Architecture Prize Winners 2021 and the office will be officially honored with a gala dinner and ceremony on September 10th at the Acropolis in Athens.
H / t after Bustler
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