On James Wines

The Built Ecologies video series, which launched late last week, "features prominent architects and thinkers doing innovative work across environmental topics." James Wines — best known as the designer of a series of BEST Stores in the 1970s and 80s — is an obvious choice for videos about environmental topics, particularly since one of the stores literally reintroduced natured behind the store's facade. (That building, it should be noted, is still intact but is now a church.) Wines discusses the Best Stores and other projects produced by his New York studio, SITE, which stands for Sculpture in the Environment.
 

The Museum of Modern Art's Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment was established in 2020 and is directed by Carson Chan. The same week that the new video series went live, MoMA’s Emilio Ambasz Institute hosted its first annual Earth Day keynote address (an online lecture by Nigerian architect Kunlé Adeyemi) and announced goals "for reducing carbon emissions 30% by 2024 and material use and waste 50% by 2025" at MoMA.