Travel: Metro September 2006

An insiders guide to the best places to eat, shop, stay and visitfrom Beantown to Buenos Aires.

boston Cantilevered up to the edge of Boston Harbor, the new waterfront Institute of Contemporary Art—designed by white-hot architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro—is poised to become one of the city’s most dynamic, recognizable cultural landmarks. Opening on September 17, the ribbonlike form of the glass, wood and metal building (Boston’s first new art museum in almost a century) will sweep visitors upward through four floors and 17,000 square feet of exhibition space. A 325-seat theater for performing arts faces the water, allowing the harbor to serve as a backdrop for the 51-foot stage. Four inaugural exhibitions have been curated for the 16-foot-high skylighted galleries—an expansive, thrilling environment to equal the cutting-edge art collection, which includes works by Anish Kapoor, Andreas Gursky and Chantal Akerman (100 Northern Ave.; 617/478-3100, icaboston.org).

chicago Interior designer Michele Fitzpatrick founded the Bucktown atelier Verde to showcase her line of stylish upholstery and case goods made out of sustainable, toxin-free materials. Today, the place has become a veritable greener pasture for environmentally conscious home furnishings. Besides her own work, there are like-minded contemporary furniture lines from Chicago’s Celia Greiner and Brooklyn’s Scrap Pile; an ever-changing stash of refurbished midcentury-modern pieces; textile lines usually sold only to the trade; unusual window treatments; hand-knotted wool rugs by Missoni and Ruckstuhl; and work by a select group of local artists (2100 W. Armitage Ave.; 773/486-7750, verdedesignstudio.net).

toledo Opening its doors on August 27, the new Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio is a marvel of complementary forms and materials. The first U.S. commission for architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, the structure—designed using new glass fabrication techniques that allow for nearly every interior and exterior wall to be made of curved glass—houses an international collection of more than 5,000 glassworks. The ethereal, low-slung clear building nestled in the trees comprises 76,000 square feet and integrates gallery space with studios, lecture spaces and two “hot shops” for onsite glassmaking (2445 Monroe St.; 419/255-8000, toledomuseum.org).

san francisco The City by the Bay’s North Beach neighborhood, known for its old-world restaurants, is now a destination for the latest in Italian furnishings: Dzine is a high-style store that owners Cardenio and Eve Petrucci say was inspired by Milan showrooms. Their industrial, 10,000-square-foot space covers all the bases, including furniture from Driade, Moroso and de Padova; bathroom fixtures from Agape; and the latest designs from the likes of Piero Lissoni, Ron Arad and Patricia Urquiola (128 Utah St.; 415/674-9430, dzinestore.com).