Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron has just completed what is being called the world's largest floating infinity pool.

Located in Lake Como at The Mandarin Oriental, the pool -- which is built out of dark Cardoso stone in order to blend in seamlessly with the lake -- was fabricated off-site in Finland and then assembled in Italy.

In order to reduce the impact of waves, the pool has also been carefully secured to the bottom of the lake.

I tried to find a cool video that I could share here, but nothing came up. So instead, you're going to have to check out the photos that HdM has on their website and that Wallpaper shared over here.

As far as floating infinity pools go, I can confidently say that this is the most beautiful one that I have ever seen.

At the end of 2020, I wrote about a cross-laminated timber apartment building that Joanne and Fred Wilson were building in Brooklyn at 383 Greene Street.

Well, that project is now complete and stabilized, and it turns out that it was the first CLT apartment building ever built in NYC, which is quite an accomplishment.

On her blog, Joanne describes the project as being a "labor of love", and that certainly sounds right. But they are now also onto their next CLT apartment building at 122 Waverly Avenue (called Frame 122).

This would suggest that whatever their development model is, it is working for them. My assumption is that they want to both make our cities more sustainable and own high-quality rental assets for the long-term (possibly forever).

If you'd like to see how 122 Waverly was assembled, here's a short video that Joanne recently posted on her blog:

The Tour Montparnasse in Paris recently turned 50. We spoke about that over here. But having visited the tower last week, including its top observation deck, I can now confidently say that I understand why many/most Parisians dislike it so much.

It is a complex that could be in any city in the world and it is clear that it has been seeing disinvestment for quite some time (presumably due to its upcoming renovation). 

However, a lot of the discussion seems to be focused on how its built form is a towering contrast to the rest of Paris. This is, of course, correct. But the same is true of the Eiffel Tower. One big and important difference is how these two towers meet the ground.

La Tour Eiffel sits in a beautiful landscaped park where people sit and hang out (photo by me):

Whereas the Tour Montparnasse is disconnected from its surrounding context. It feels like that train station on the wrong side of town (photos from Google Streetview):

So it's no wonder that its height gets picked on. What is implicit in this treatment of the ground plane is a belief that this tower is not worthy of celebrating. It does not deserve a beautiful park. And it does not deserve to be a ceremonial view terminus like every other icon in Paris.

Thankfully, the current design for its renovation appears to address this (rendering via Nouvelle AOM):

And this is arguably the most important design move. Ironically, what happens at the ground level could be what makes people finally appreciate what happens up top.