INTAKE #48
Soho Farmhouse is coming to Rhinebeck. Dorsey cut 40% of Block after a $68 million party. Netflix walked. Demna's first real Gucci set. Your robot vacuum is mapping your home. The market is rewarding removal.
“Silver shines just as bright”
- Team Canada
The Subtraction Economy
Everything this week is about removal.
I showed up to the Wang Foundation opening at 6:30 on the dot, and for two hours I thought it was a social experiment. A bunch of people wearing all black milling around a landmarked bank in Chinatown, waiting for something that wasn’t coming. Then there was a children’s choir, hauntingly beautiful, and then thousands of paper planes fell from the ceiling.
Something about that sequence stayed with me all week. The restraint before the release. Because everything I kept coming back to this week had the same shape:
Soho House dropping members to remember what it was. Bon Iver curating an archive down to “this is really us at our best.” Netflix walking from a deal because the math stopped working. Dorsey cutting 40% of Block and the stock jumping 24%. Michael Heizer spending fifty years on one piece. In an era where AI can generate a hundred podcast episodes in two weeks, embrace the opposite instinct of knowing what to cut, what to keep, and when to stop adding.
WANG FOUNDATION
Last Thursday, thousands of paper planes fell from the ceiling of a landmarked bank in Chinatown for the opening ceremony of the new Wang Contemporary. I made the mistake of showing up to the opening party at 6:30 on the dot, and for the first two hours I thought it was a social experiment because nothing happened beyond a bunch of people wearing all black milling around a room.
This would have been a very MSCHF thing to do. Then there was a children’s choir, singing hauntingly beautiful renditions of ‘Forever young’ ‘Nevermind’ and K-pop demon hunters as a prelude. Alexander Wang and his mother gave brief remarks, the room sang her happy birthday, and then finally we got the planes.
The inaugural commission by MSCHF, titled 20,000 Variations On A Paper Plane In Flight, ran on the hour for three days following the opening.
The Wangs’ bought the building last summer for $9.5 million in cash, which honestly is an amazing deal for a bank the size of a block in New York City.
As the founders put it, a “home for Asian creativity, one that belongs to the community”
Renowned branding studio Pentagram developed Identity and font systems for the foundation.
Located at 58 Bowery in New York City’s Chinatown.
SOHO FARMHOUSE RHINEBECK
This is one long build. Roughly ten years after initial rumors, Soho Farmhouse New York cleared its final planning hurdle on February 17, when the Town of Rhinebeck signed off on the Grasmere Estate project, clearing the way for building permits and construction.
What Soho house does exceptionally well, is build. Say what you will about overcrowding, membership quality, and service, the group excels at incredible design and construction quality. Oxfordshire Farmhouse is stunning, Babington House redefined what a countryside members’ club could be.
The Rhinebeck project, restoring a 19th-century estate on 250 acres, will certainly be beautiful, with plans to restore and rehabilitate three historic buildings on the property: a manor house, the main barn, and a carriage house.
This project will significantly help with the brand’s redemption arc globally but specifically in New York. Coinciding with a new flatiron property and overhaul of the original meatpacking location.
Soho House doesn’t have a design problem. It has a discipline problem.
The brand ballooned from roughly 156,000 to 260,000 total members between late 2021 and late 2023 in a post-COVID surge that stretched the meaning of "members' club." The fix has been aggressive subtraction: a $2.7 billion privatization that closed in January, a membership freeze in London, New York, and LA, and now quietly trimming membership rolls, dropping hundreds of members at marquee U.S. locations who no longer fit the creative profile. This has precedent. In 2010, Nick Jones culled hundreds of "corporate types" from the Manhattan house, telling the Post he was "trying to get the club back to its creative roots."
The farm gives people a reason to rethink their relationship with the house. So will the Flatiron property, set to become the brand’s largest NYC House when construction begins in 2027, alongside a full bedroom refurbishment and new social wellness space at the original Meatpacking location this year.
Those who bought upstate on rumors, or who were early to Rhinebeck, will welcome the boost in property value and incoming hospitality options. But not everyone is pleased. Rhinebeck is becoming ground zero for a broader Hudson Valley debate about luxury resort development. A $200M Six Senses project on 236 acres in neighboring Clinton and Hyde Park has triggered lawsuits between towns, with 400+ petition signatures opposing.
LOEWE 2026 CRAFT PRIZE FINALISTS
National Gallery Singapore will showcase the works by this years finalists of the Loewe Craft Prize. 30 artisans have been selected for one-off works of modern craft from over 5,000 global submissions with a €50,000 prize on the line.
Loewe also just low key dropped a nicely executed new monogram logo.
Often legacy brands fumble a re-brand, this ones simple, subtle, chic.
BON IVER VOLUMES
Sadly on extended hiatus from live performance or new music, the best we have from Justin Vernon will be in the form of archive curation. Bon Iver digs into the crates, pulling forth some of their more experimental music, covers and what Justin considers some of their more pinnacle performances.
“This is what we became. This is really us at our best. This is it.”
Justin Vernon
Volume 1 - April 3rd
Tracklist:
INTRO – The Forum, Los Angeles, CA. Sep 15 2019
MAN LIKE U – The Forum, Los Angeles, CA. Sep 15 2019
WE (feat. Bizhiki) – Xcel Energy Center, St Paul, MN. Oct 03 2019
JELMORE – Tennis Indoor Senayan, Jakarta, ID. Jan 19 2020
666 – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory, Irving, TX. Apr 03 2022
HEAVENLY FATHER – Mediolanum, Milan, IT. Nov 05 2022
P.D.L.I.F. – Red Hill Auditorium, Perth, AU. Feb 26 2023
HEY, MA – Pitchfork Music Festival, Chicago, IL. July 23 2023
A SATISFIED MIND – State Theatre, Portland, ME. Dec 08 2017
33 “GOD” – WOMADelaide Festival, Adelaide, AU. Mar 10 2023
Sh’DIAH (boardmix) – Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, CA. Oct 06 2019
MICHAEL HEIZER’S NEW SHOW
My favorite structural artist, a figure of the ‘land art movement’ has a new show, Negative Sculpture at Gagosian.
Famous for “City,” which he spent half-century building. Heizer, like Christo, or Terrell, takes on wildly ambitious land art projects massive in scale.
For City, it required buying over 2,000 acres of land in Garden Valley, Nevada which took decades and cost an estimated $40 million. The reclusive artist recently gave a rare interview to T magazine.
What Adidas popped up in the New Mexico desert last year, Heizer coded.
What Kanye was building in Cody, heavily influenced by Heizer. I’d watch bulldozers endlessly building mounds, excavating queries in this similar reconstruction of rubble.
Negative Sculpture
February 10–March 28, 2026
West 21st Street, New York
GORILLAZ ARE BACK
Just dropped The Mountain, the band’s ninth studio album.
A completely hand-drawn film “The Mountain, The Moon Cave and The Sad God” produced by The Line premiered alongside . For decades the world build has been critical to the Gorillaz experience, with animation being a central component.
ADIDAS’S STACKED NEW CAMPAIGN
A week after teasing the spring superstar campaign with a second act from Samuel L Jackson, Adidas just dropped the full cast and its STACKED.
Blackpink’s Jennie, Kendall Jenner, Baby Keem, James Harden, skateboarder Tyshawn Jones, Olivia Dean and Lamine Yamal all star in ‘Hotel Superstar’.
Thibaut Grevet returns to direct, he’s on a generational run now fresh off his @NYCballet exhibition at Lincoln Center.
DEMNA’S FIRST GUCCI SET
Following his opening act last season supplementing a traditional show with a short film, Demna’s first set and true presentation in Milan came out with a strong mix of heritage and brutalist modernity (Wallpaper).
“This first Gucci show introduces a universe of people, archetypes, consumers and dress codes that will shape my design language going forward. It is a foundation that begins my story at Gucci.”
Demna
Inspired from a recent sojourn to the Uffizi galleries in Florence, the birthplace of Gucci, Demna is pulling historical references into an extremely clean, modern, sharp aesthetic.
A spartan, marble-clad room, replica sculptures from the Uffizi, and incredible lighting design in this gray blue to amber tonality, take me to Bladerunner 2025 and dune.
The models embraced a satirical take on spun out 90’s afterparty chic, style sheets titled ‘SUPER SEXY PARTY GIRL’.
Kate Moss’s single solo long walk close out, 30 years after her last Gucci show was badass.
MARC BY SOFIA TRAILER
The Marc by Sofia trailer dropped, this is a fun one personally as a lot of our runway and backstage footage was used in the film. Excited to see the final product.
RELEASE DATE: March 27
DIRECTOR: Sofia Coppola
MY STUDIO PRACTICE
Overture
36x48 | Oil, Gesso & Acrylic on wood.
2026
More of my process and painting practice on my studio site.
BLOCK RIF
Jack Dorsey announced that Block is cutting more than 4,000 employees, roughly 40% of its 10,205-person workforce, in what's being positioned as the first major AI-driven restructuring in corporate America. The stock jumped 24% in after-hours trading. Dorsey accompanied the move with a shareholder letter pegging the cuts squarely to AI transformation:
“We’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble. Our business is strong. Gross profit continues to grow… But something has changed. We’re already seeing that the intelligence tools we’re creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company…
Within the next year, I believe the majority of companies will reach the same conclusion and make similar structural changes. I don’t think we’re early to this realization. I think most companies are late.”
— Jack Dorsey
On X, he distilled it further: “100 people + AI = 1,000 people.”
Some are calling it a canary in the coal mine. Others are calling it AI washing, calling BS, pegging this more to mismanagement.
Five months ago, Block threw a three-day company event in Oakland called “Block by Block,” flying in 8,000 employees with performances from Jay-Z, Anderson .Paak, T-Pain, and Soulja Boy. The cost? According to their earnings report: “General and administrative expenses increased by $68.1 million… primarily driven by an in-person company event held in Q3 2025.” Sixty-eight million dollars on a party, then half the guest list gets cut.
Continue reading: why “AI restructuring” is the most convenient wrapper in corporate America, and what happens when every underperforming CEO sees a 24% stock bounce for cutting half the company. Plus: Netflix pockets a $2.8 billion breakup fee while the Ellison family consolidates CNN, CBS, and HBO under one roof. Why Figma — down 80% from its post-IPO high — might be the most interesting counter-bet in the SaaS wreckage. A vibe-coded podcast hit 1 million downloads with zero journalism experience. The dumb devices movement. Ring’s Super Bowl ad accidentally revealed a nationwide surveillance network. And why data centers should look at Copenhagen before building another concrete box.
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