Citybuilt.org

02.12.11 Snoop Dogg . . . Valentine's Day . . . Pomona

2011-02-15T18:20:00.000-08:00

What makes an Inland Empire crowd different than an L.A. crowd? The venue-going crowds in L.A. get comped by work or friends in the inustry, they stand around, network and forget to dance. Its more like a backyard family BBQ in the I.E., or a casual High School prom (especially in the ladies room). Its even more down home, when its a hometown boy who's playing to the crowd.
And so the heart-shaped blinking buttons, flat-ironed hair, Raider's jerseys, and penciled on eyebrows were fierce and flamboyant at the Fox theater Valentine's Saturday night. Shawties and Ballers (of the 90s generation) apparently left the kiddies with grandma and bellied up to one another as Grandaddy Dogg whooped up the crowd with hit after ganga-flavored hit - was that a medley I just heard? Hell yeah. Gin and Juice, "Drop It Like It's Hot" and selections from 92's ultimate golden oldie (and Snoop's launching pad) The Chronic got the stoney crowd grinding and bumping with their arms in the air.
Homey Warren G even showed up for a shortened version of "Regulate" - some of the I.E. crowd not quite catching who he was.
Seems everybody's biggest valentine kiss tonight though was for the west coast itself and the hazy glow of early 90's gangsta soul. Shout outs to "West Coast, best coast" rang out through the evening, and a remembrance of Tupac Shakur brought it home.

Thom Andersen's Get Out of the Car - REDCAT Theater

2011-02-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

“Los Angeles Plays Itself” director/writer, CalArts professor, former L.A. cab driver and walking encyclopedia on all things musical and filmic, Thom Andersen presented his latest short film at the REDCAT Theater Tuesday.

As expected, the film shows a side of L.A. that Hollywood’s appropriations of the city do not, with long, thoughtful shots of neighborhoods like El Monte, Lakewood and the western San Fernando Valley. Dilapidated signs, storefronts, skylines and billboards serve as outposts to this soulful, loving mapping project (which Andersen started in the 90s, shooting off and on over ten years and finally finishing in 2009).

But it’s the music that serves as a backdrop to this film about backdrops that really impresses. Richard Berry, Johnny Otis, Leiber and Stoller, Los Tigres del Norte and Frank Zappa are just of few of the you-can’t-even-find-em-anymore gems Andersen’s got in his collection. All of them are synched-up to a few nicely shot, beautifully composed glimpses at the region and its state of existence.

It’s a simple film for Andersen, whose other pieces are arguably more polemic and agenda-driven than this ode to songs and neighborhoods he likes, through his lens. But it sure feels good to just sit back, watch and listen.

02.11.11 Elephant Art Space 1 year on the Eastside Anny

2011-02-15T17:22:00.000-08:00

Congrats to our favorite Glassell Park art space,
Elephant. That diminutive grey stucco box that actually does resemble a dusty pachyderm once was a neighborhood doctor's office. But the six crafty artists who make work here renovated the waiting room area into a pristine, white walled exhibition space. After throwing around the obvious names for the gallery (The Waiting Room, Dr. Gallery) they settled on the reference to the outer shell - a boxy grey building with a drain pipe on the side that resembles a trunk - yeah you can kind of see it.

Shows happen on a bi- or sometimes monthly basis, with a definite slant towards visiting curators who bring group shows to the space. At Elephant's Sunday afternoon receptions you'll whirl through dogs running in and out of the back yard area, where kids are welcome and Tacate in cans avec hot dog is the offering (as opposed to wine in little clear cups). The vibe is exceptionally chilled out and comfortingly professional, and for a space that's already brought artists the likes of Andy Roche and AJ Liberto to town, that's packing a lot of punch in just one little year.

08.18.09 Department of Water and Power Building

2009-08-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

There are many drawbacks to being an L.A. resident (smog, traffic, no good BBQ), but one big score for the pleasures of the city is the ritual of going to pay your electric bill at this site. It's been argued that Frank Gehry was blessed with the best possible site downtown on which to place his Disney Concert Hall, but I disagree. Officially known as the John Ferraro building, A.C. Martin, Jr.'s 1965 landmark hovers at the edge corner of Bunker Hill and serenely floats over its landscape (thanks to the reflecting pool ground plane that covers the parking garage below). The place feels right in the nexus of the city and quietly distanced from the hustle and bustle at the same time. Its quiet, somber institutional feel, its tall lobby - with the famously uniform floors that are even better at night - takes you back to a time where institutions were entities of progress and respectful largesse, made material by buildings like these designed with a deep sense of civic pride.

08.16.09 Hidden Neighborhoods: What’s Up In Monrovia?

2009-08-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

Continuing our series of neighborhoods we like, Citybuilt.org would like to introduce you to Monrovia. Two cities East of Pasadena - off the 210 Freeway - sits the quiet, hilly expanse of Monrovia. We were out there for a little get together and cased the joint one recent Saturday night. Thirsty for beer, and looking for a place to get it, we stumbled upon this strangely enormous sports bar, with the architecturally geometric theme of TRIANGLES throughout its three floors of building mass. What a space! And they had the only Air Hockey table East of Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood (that I know of). Cheers, Monrovia. Here’s to your gargantuan, Postmodern sports bars with piles of Nachos the size of Texas. We’ll try to come back real soon.

08.02.09 L.A. County Sanitation District's Wastewater Plant and the Puente Hills Landfill

2009-08-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

Citybuilt.org got a behind the scenes look at the LA County Sanitation District’s wastewater treatment facility on the grounds of the San Jose Creek, just off the 605 freeway this past Saturday – it was enough to make any lover of infrastructure and monster machines wilt a little in the knees. But that’s not all . . we also toured the Puente Hills landfill (across the highway from the treatment plant) – formerly the San Gabriel Valley dump – and saw the work they are doing with their highly successful PERG (Puente Hills Energy Recovery from Gas) program, in which methane produced by the seepage of buried trash is pumped into an adjacent power plant. The methane-fueled plant can produce enough energy to power 70,000 neighboring households – it’s a beacon of green infrastructure indeed, and its right in our backyard. It was a fascinating day out at the sewer plant and the dump – if you’re into that kind of thing. And we know you are.

06.25.09 Heath Tile Factory

2009-06-29T20:42:00.001-07:00

Ah Sausalito - the sea air, the redwood trees, the tippy top of the Golden Gate bridge over the next hill and the earthy rich hues of Heath tile. Anyone who's ever poured over the uniquely glazed, one-in-a-million colors of the Heath tile catalogue really needs to hightail it to the bay area factory and store to see where everything happens.

Edith Heath's (1911-2005) life was dedicated to the craft of ceramics and the skill of the artisan glaze - many of her pieces live in the permanent collections of museums such as the MOMA in New York City. In 1948, following her one-woman show at San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor, her pieces were picked up for sale at Gump’s of San Francisco and she opened the shop in Sausalito, which remains a model for local manufacturing and time-tested quality. And be sure to check out the overstock room where you can pick up a box of misfit tiles for $25 a pop.

400 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA 94965

06.21.09 Looking for Work @ Fifth Floor Gallery

2009-06-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

Fans of sassy and innovative design work should check out Chinatown's Fifth Floor Gallery this month for Looking for Work, a show that features a group of L.A. designers who traffic in smart modern home furnishings and furniture.

Stand outs include Aimee Less' flat fold loft chair which cradles and supports the sitter via a balance of tensioned flexibility. Manufactured, shipped, and sold flat, Less uses architectural and fashion industry know how to sculpt the form (it pops into shape when it is laced up by the end user). Less' chairs are available in a variety of to-die-for fabrics and color combinations.

Architect Earl Parson creates his chairs and functional objects from cast off steel beams, powder-coated with super-bright primary colors that give the heavy industrial heft of the materials a light and huggable finish.

Fifth Floor, Chung King Road/Chinatown. Show ends July 18.

06.12.09 Citybuilt.org @ L.A. Forum's Pecha Kucha night

2009-06-29T19:56:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the third installment of L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design's Pecha Kucha "Femme Fatales" night, where 20 talented ladies from L.A.'s design community presented their wide-ranging scope of work via 20 slides. Citybuilt.org's Wendy Gilmartin took the stage to present the online urban database you all know and love. Thanks again to L.A. Forum, and specifically Siobhan Burke, for organizing the event.

Click here to see more images of the presenters and here to see the lineup. Look out for more enlightening and fun LAForum events in the future.

05.30.09 Public Works Cozies launch

2009-05-31T15:14:00.000-07:00

Citybuilt.org has dropped our first set of Public Works Cozies on the city of L.A. Keep your eyes peeled for more drops around town, for more information on the project click here and contact info@citybuilt.org for more information on how to participate in your neighborhood.

05.20.09 Citybuilt.org project space

2009-05-31T15:05:00.000-07:00

Citybuilt.org has acquired a physical address! Please stay tuned for public projects, announcements and events we'll be planning when we finally move in and the place stops smelling like old tires (that is, if, the place stops smelling like old tires . . . )

You can find us at 3420 Verdugo Road in Glassell Park, just down the street from the Glassell Park public pool and recreation center and Councilman Eric Garcetti's field office. Cheers!

04.20.09 What’s up with the flower-covered oil well in Beverly Hills?

2009-05-11T20:29:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that L.A. sits atop a vast reserve of petroleum (hence the Tar pits, the methane vents, the rigs along Sepulveda in Baldwin Hills, etc.), but have you ever wondered what’s up with the oh-so-pretty pastel colored, derrick-shaped tower on the Beverly Hills/Century City border?

Well, it is in fact a functioning oil tower and it sits on the property of Beverly Hills High. It is owned and operated by Venoco Inc., located in Carpinteria, and according to a company spokesman, the oil wells were already in place when the school opened in 1928. The well, as it turns out, had to accommodate the school, despite rumors that the school was the one to install the well. It still pumps out 400 to 500 barrels each day, and the school gets leasing royalties from Venoco, which go directly into a general fund. (A little more than 85 percent of Beverly Hills High teachers' salaries come out of this fund.)

In 2000, the graphic skin on the tower (painted by over 3000 children from local area hospitals) was unveiled as the “Tower of Hope.” One of the four seasons was represented on each side on the tower. There was a ceremony with American flags and balloons.

But not all is swell with the well: In 2003, Erin Brockovich (not Julia Roberts) filed a lawsuit against the local school district on behalf of several former students, who said prolonged exposure to drilling on the site of their high school raised their cancer rate. Soon after, the school newspaper took to calling the well the “Tower of Hope You Don’t Get Cancer.”

Call me cynical, but wouldn’t one find it to be a distasteful proposition to ask children with cancer and other disabilities to dress up a toxic oil well on the site of a public school? Or wouldn't it at least be seen as a transparent and therefore unwise marketing ploy on the part of the oil companies?

Just the opposite, say a select few environmental lawyers. The ploy was pure genius, because who on earth would tear down the happy, flowery, painters’ work of some 100 recently deceased child artists? Nobody.

And so the tower stands intact today, pumping away and offering passers by a few memorial plaques and an in-depth list of donors. The plaques also offer a website to visitors, Project9865.org, which leads to a totally unrelated, (and un-updated) Japanese blog. Perhaps the Tower of Hope will always be a mystery. . .

04.15.09 Annenberg Space for Photography

2009-05-11T19:32:00.001-07:00

The newly-opened Annenberg Space for Photography (located just outside the CAA Death Star in the center of the Century City security vortex) might be a great place to visit on your lunch break if you need a walk and work at offices next door, but aside from the fact that the new center for photography is a bastion of culture in the otherwise corporate office park of Century City, the place really lacks in terms of presentation, content and innovative means of expressing photography at this juncture in time (i.e. as the medium itself transforms from analog to digital representation, and hence from a specialist's field to the realm of the amateur).

The inaugural show (up until May 28) features eight “internationally renowned” photographers and artists, whose works “capture the complexity and vitality of the City of Los Angeles.” Without a doubt.

Some of the L.A. Times’ image archives are here, photo journalism by Times photographers Carolyn Cole and Helen Garber, Julius Shulman’s iconic architectural photography (yes, the one with the girl in the white dress inside Pierre Koenig’s glass cantilevered house is here), Cathy Opie’s home-is-where-the-heart-is family shots, and Greg Gorman’s icons of fame and fortune are all here as well. The breadth of artists to serve the “complexity and vitality of the city” seems correct, and yet something also seems very wrong.

It’s always a shame when the audience becomes passive in the viewing of art, and the new Annenberg Center does that in spades. Images are set to “Morning Becomes Eclectic”-style soft dance soundtracks, and many of the exhibits consist of wall-sized video projections of various images that blurrily segue into one another. This presentation takes a central participatory function away from the viewer, and changes their role from assessor, critic or empathetic observer into the role of casual consumer. We cannot look at the photograph for as long as we might like, and therefore, we miss its nuances, its ugly side, its beautiful side, it lightness or its weight. We also cannot revisit the image later in our visit here either because it’s been lost in the shuffle. And the soundtrack – that’s just plain annoying. We realize this is an attempt to represent (re-present) the work in a digital world, but it comes of half-cooked, clumsy and feeling like a trade-show exhibit.

Other gripes include:

Placement of Shulman’s photos are positively un-viewable (at lunchtime anyways) because of an outside glare bouncing off the pavement.

The L.A. Times’ archives are played out slide show style on plasma screens, accompanied by a VH1-esque, “hits of the 60s and 70s” playlist. Again, what’s with the friggin’ soundtrack? I don’t need to hear The Zombie’s “Time of the Season” to know the 1960s are being referenced.

And there’s a kitchen, “because all great conversations happen in the kitchen” (whugh?)

04.06.09 Marjetica Potrč, Teddy Cruz, Krzysztof Wodiczko @ USC’s Roski School of Public Art

2009-04-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

USC’s artists talk “Architecture, Design, Art: Strategies For Survival,” as part of their Visions and Voices series, collected a stellar trifecta of activist/designers in last night’s line-up.

Whereas Cruz and Potrč are architects producing designs that work in the realms of housing, infrastructure and crisis planning (posing as “translators” for under-represented communities, as Cruz likes to say), Wodiczko deals in story telling – to assuage disassociation and trauma inflicted by culture, war or immigration – via video and machine-like prosthetics.

Their gathering together here seemed eerily timely: Three designers who craft adaptive architecture that communities can appropriate into their shantytowns and barrios, talking about lack of housing, lack of resources and more bold moves that need to be taken on multiple fronts. But all were surprisingly upbeat. Marjetica Potrč argued that right now was a time to work tirelessly, while the big money players are floating in uncertainty, it is a time when communities have an opportunity to step in and negotiate their own spaces, connections and solutions. Then she added, “After Neo-liberalism, it is culture that will be asserted again.”

04.03.09 New Infrastructure Solutions in L.A. @ MAK Center at the Schindler House

2009-04-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

Eric Moss thinks L.A. holds on too tightly to the concept of democracy, and he also thinks that L.A. needs a Robert Moses. I suspect he thinks he should be the one to fill those contested shoes. He made his proposal (along with many others) Thursday night at an event celebrating the winning entries for the recent “Innovative Transit Solutions for Los Angeles” competition, and to discuss the proposals’ finer points, along with the process by which the winning entries were chosen.

The panel consisting of Moss, KCRW’s Frances Anderton, Santa Monica City Planner Francie Stefan, Countywide Planning’s Diego Cardoso, Art Center’s Stewart Reed, and transportation planner Roland Genick, proved that designers, planners, urbanists and engineers sure love to ponder big “I” infrastructure, but really still don’t know how to talk about it, or how to frame it within their own professional terms. It seems L.A.’s red cars just keep coming up. And the River.

But an ongoing discussion like this does seem to be getting us somewhere. After about an hour of Red Car-regurgitation stories and talk of high-speed trains, Genick came up with the most illuminating (and simple) statement of the evening. “There should be an organizing structure of how you want the city to operate. Its not simply shuffling people more efficiently.” And going further, possibly even taking a shot at Related Co’s new Civic Park project in downtown L.A., which has promised to connect disparate demographics in the city, he said, “You won’t be able to take a picture of it. Making our own Millennium Park isn’t going to fix anything.”

And it’s the truth. Moss can’t solve it himself, and neither can the planners. It will take many more discussions like these, and many more competitions like the “Innovative Transit Solutions” to frame the problem and solution. It will take time, and it won’t happen over night (as we’ve been told so often recently). But with organized, driven groups like the one gathered at the MAK center this cold, foggy evening, we’re on the road toward something.

04.03.09 Jessica D’Elena @ SCI-Arc

2009-04-06T15:09:00.001-07:00

SCI-Arc faculty and part-time graphic designer for Morphosis Architects, Jessica D’Elena showed primarily her own student work for her lunchtime talk at the downtown campus Friday.

Before launching into her Cal Arts thesis, however, she provided her own pedagogical view – rather broadly – that students should attempt to do two things while learning: They should fail early and often, and they should mine themselves and their lives for inspiration.

It was easy to see that the search for identity was key to D’Elena’s own methodological procedure, and she really honed in on the spectacle of television and popular culture through the course of her life, how she (and the majority of us) grew up basting in it, and the consequences of "being born on TV" (D'Elena, in fact, really was born on TV - her birth was filmed for a documentary on natural childbirth).

But why Architecture? Jessica D’Elena is primarily interested in media representations and even more than that those representations’ impact on image and space. She argued that graphic design is currently not only a communication tool, but also a tool with which to combine the psychological, cultural, and technological. With the help of these tools, one can begin to facilitate new relationships between body/space/technology plus much more.

03.23.09 Enjoy Banking

2009-03-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

This just in: More public art fun in NYC from Enjoy Banking, whose mega-sized decals epitomize the term “sign of the times” uh, literally. Find all their sites and additional photos here and they'll have more soon here.

03.22.09 You can Blame Robert Moses (again)

2009-03-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Hey disgruntled 90-year-old Brooklyn Dodgers fan, stop blaming L.A. and the O’Malleys for stealing your team and take your gripin’ to Robert Moses. Of course, you’ll have to get in line. Arch enemy of Jane Jacobs, affordable housing, liveable cities, blue collar workers and public transit, Robert Moses was the biggest political road block to a new stadium in Brooklyn at the time, and he provided the bullying impetus to move the team out of the city, as news of his involvement in the contentious Dodgers move to Los Angeles continues to come to light.

(Although yours truly thinks its high time the diehards bury the hatchet: Brooklyn’s boys in Blue mutated into “Los Dodgers” a long, long, LONG time ago and they’ll remain that way in baseball’s lexicon.)

Long time Dodger’s owner Peter O’Malley (from 1970-1998), along with "Forever Blue" author Michael D'Antonio, recently attended a bereavement-themed Dodgers symposium at the Brooklyn historical society that brought to light and highlighted the involvement New York’s most infamous urban development czar in the eventual transplant of the team to the West coast and the destruction of Ebbets field.

Walter O’Malley (father of Peter) wanted to redevelop to the derelict Fort Greene public market area for a new Brooklyn Dodgers’ stadium, but Moses wouldn’t have it. He was subsequently pushed to find other cities for the team, fatefully landing in L.A. Today the Atlantic yards site, at the border of Fort Greene and Prospect Heights – to be designed by Frank Gehry, er, or maybe not – hasn’t progressed any faster than O’Malley’s domed stadium. Presently, at the site where O’Malley would have built, little work has been done, private land remains to be acquired, and developers are scrambling to keep their heads above water.

03.15.09 The American Land Museum (Woodbury University)

2009-03-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

Second-year Sophomores at Woodbury University’s School of Architecture presented their final designs for the new “American Land Museum” this week. The intention of the Land Museum as building project (infused with shades of landscape urbanism) gave students a formal freedom that drove some really impressive modes of making, representation and processes. In addition, the interpretive learning facility and museum was hypothetically sited on a very loaded site downtown – rich with environmental possibilities, but also problematic as students found themselves dealing with criss-crossing freeway onramps, historical buildings at Olvera street, Union Station, little space for parking and a fair amount of topography. Needless to say, the assignment contained some very complex programmatic and urban conditions.

The program for the new museum included a sky space, a green room, cityscape lookout, city map room and information & security kiosks. Students had previously researched Martha Schwartz’s Jacob Javits Plaza, the Cheong Gye Cheon River in Seoul, and the garden city of Esfahan in Iran for preliminary case studies and precedents.

Below are a few glimpses into the review and highlighted projects. Good work guys!

03.14.09 Buildings We Love . . . the Masonic Hall at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

2009-03-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery (Hollywood Forever) was established in 1899 by one Mr. Isaac Van Nuys, a farmer and businessman who bought one hundred acres between Santa Monica Boulevard and Melrose Avenue to the chagrin of community residents who were apparently very unhappy at the prospect of graves in their backyard. (Residents, however, grew to appreciate the grounds eventually with a sort of macabre pride in having famous “neighbors” such as Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks).

In 1931, the Southland Masonic Lodge moved into one of a group of Renaissance Revival buildings that stand at the cemetery gates on the Santa Monica side. (Not to be confused with the other stocky, stoic, Spanish-infused Renaissance Revival tower nearby, which houses the Eliza Otis chimes. Yes, that Otis.) These days, the Masonic Hall is mostly used for theater productions, small events and music shows – and possibly the occasional, secret underground grand knights of templar ceremonies involving sacrifices and large hats (but that’s just speculation).

Beyond the old Hollywood ghostliness of the place – the hulking stone walls, the meticulous mosaic tilework and the beautiful darkwood detailing inside – we especially adore the featured Mies Barcelona chairs in the sitting lounge off the main hall, the three-dimensional, rainbow pentagram pendant light in the main hall (scale slightly off), and the spooky, empty-of-all-human-life cemetery photographs hanging – off kilter – on the stairwell walls. Definitely visit the place if you get a chance.

And thanks for the extra photos Robyn.

03.09.09 Beehives

2009-03-12T15:46:00.001-07:00

With only a concise description offered on a flickr.com member page (see below), the artist who goes by the name "bumblebee" has been out at night leaving drippy, yellow paint smashed "beehives" in a number of abandoned phone booths around town. We think its a great idea and a timely commentary on our changing communications infrastructure and its consequences on the broader ecology of the city. Nice work.

"Telephone companies have been abandoning their public telephone booths by taking out the phones and leaving the structures beehind. (Probably due to the rise in cell phone users.) I want to reuse these structures as a way of communication with the public once more by replacing that empty space with paper-mache beehives. To me, this symbolizes the irony beehind the question, 'where have so many of the bees gone' and the theory that cell phone signals have been misguiding their normal patterns of migration"

03.03.09 Susanne Zottl's (E)motions of Concrete @ SCI-Arc

2009-03-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Vienna-based architect (and SCI-Arc grad) Susanne Zottl’s installation “A Styrofoam Lover with (E)motions of Concrete” germinated out of the question: Can issues of program and use be resolved via an efficient, formal structure (for example, the wall)? It’s not a new question, in fact, its one of the oldest in Architecture. But Zottl tackles her proposition with a fresh and unpretentious vigor and Zottl takes the piece one step further too, interrogating the issue of energy efficiency. It’s a good time to consider the “green” consequences of the problematic program-meets-form concern.

Styrofoam Lover’s tectonics and materiality are based on an idea of elasticity that is rarely afforded in energy efficient renovations of existing buildings. So it’s a pragmatic proposition too. The load-bearing walls derive their shape from membrane-lined casting moulds (also on display, thankfully). The casting medium combines a boring old concrete pour with millions and millions of little styrofoam balls (boring too in their life as banal packing), but together the concrete and foam achieve a simple yet innovative peanut butter-in-my-chocolate moment. The walls are now both load-bearing and thermally insulated.

But back to the issue of program. These concrete/styrofoam walls are populated with punctures and undulating projections into the gallery space. One can imagine that these manipulations in the form might accommodate a seat, a shelf, a closet or threshold. But that’s about all the piece really offers on the issue of program, coming up short on the promise of a transformative program-to-formal resolution. On the other hand, SCI-Arc students helped with the design, fabrication of casting materials and installation, and that reminds us that SCI-Arc – despite the tangled cyborg buildings represented in Maya-generated 3D renderings that cover the walls there – is still the best place for students to get their hands dirty in real material and construction experimentation.

Exhibit ends March 8

02.23.09 Enric Ruiz-Geli at UCLA

2009-03-03T23:18:00.000-08:00

Enric Ruiz-Geli (head principle of Cloud 9 in Barcelona) unraveled his treasure trove of engaging, well-rounded and playfully investigative architectural creations Monday at UCLA, promoting many a post-reception attendee to ask (again): What the hell is keeping architecture like this from happening in the U.S.? In Spain it seems one could build anything the imagination allowed, a sweating expo center (with real salt water), a flickering building that moves like a whale, or a crashing wave suspended in air.

Ruiz-Geli’s presentation was a decidedly different in tone and reaction from a majority of recent architecture school lectures around town: with commonly young practitioners, contemporarily and timely in their concern for complex spatial geometries but thin on argument, stance and ideas. Fortunately, this was not the case with Ruiz-Geli, who managed to keep the restless Monday night crowd engrossed through three crashes of his laptop and sound problems. To boot, he managed to get former dean Sylvia Lavin down on her elbows in front of the crowd – to demonstrate a movement-translation software that was embedded in a cushion-like mat, of course.

Projects covered in the lecture (and the same projects that are on hand at the accompanying exhibit next door to Perloff hall in the UCLA Architecture building) included the “Villa Nurbs” house – situated in a Disney-fied, gated community in Spain that runs equal with our own O.C. – with its concrete cloud formation foundation and cladding in black ceramic thermal fins, the pool resides upstairs under bubble-eye skylights. Ruiz also highlighted his theatrical Edificio de Oficinas Media in Barcelona, an office that’s as structurally simple as it is brawny and wraps itself in a motion sensing, moveable skin.

Exhibit runs until April 24

02.19.09 Atelier Bow Bow @ REDCAT

2009-02-27T18:48:00.000-08:00

Atelier Bow Wow’s fun-scale installation at the REDCAT theater and exhibition space downtown is not just a play on the Case Study houses of the 40s and 50s in L.A., but also a subtle and refreshingly casual take on L.A.’s heaviest Modern hitters: Neutra, Eames and Koenig.

There's a half sphere for lounging, a playpen for community barbecue-ing, and a dangerous looking hammock machine all presented as “houses” – and all constructed from big, off-colored heaps of scrap wood. These “houses” take their cues not from the historically boxy, white, and strictly modern Architectural past of Neutra and Ellwood, but instead these pieces revel in the unresolved, schizophrenic other: the sunburned, lazy outdoor living of Schindler and Eames. Atelier Bow Wow is riffing on the laid back vibe that the Taschen books ignore, and they’re cheering on the raggedy beach comber chic that has come to define the casual, nature-centric, Sunset living of post-Case Study L.A.

Show ends March 29.

02.17.09 Edgar Arceneaux and the Watts House Project @ Farmlab

2009-02-27T18:10:00.000-08:00

After a free, vegan lunch buffet – and a lot of chatting and networking – a gregarious mix of L.A. activists, amateur farmers, designers, artists and neighborhood friends settled in to listen to tales unfold regarding Edgar Arceneaux’s continual re-development-as-art-project in the Watt’s towers neighborhood area.

Arceneaux’s been working on the Watt’s House Project ever since Houston’s own Rick Lowe (Arceneaux’s mentor) was asked to come to L.A. to start a similar project to his super successful Project Row Houses in Houston’s Third Ward neighborhood. Arceneaux worked with Lowe to begin the Watt’s House Project – a community-building project that emerged when neighborhood groups, artists and activists crossed wires to create new forms of civic networks, political forces, and aesthetics. But when Lowe was called back to Houston for duties related to Project Row Houses, Arceneaux naturally stepped in to accept the passing of the torch.

WHP plans to secure a foreclosed property on 107th street to ground its physical presence in the region, serving as a community hub and base of operations for the future of the organization (including a community center, exhibit area and artist-in-residency space). But in the meantime Arceneaux and WHP are renovating and improving the façade of the entire 107th street residential block facing the Watts Towers. This current revitalization work gives the WHP project staff a reputation for helpful community service in the area while at the same time, secures meaningful neighborhood connections with residents.

Arceneaux continually reminded the audience at Farmlab that this was meant to be a participatory session and that suggestions, tips, volunteer input were all up for discussion – Arceneaux reiterated that the project team (himself included) still has much to learn from others in the neighborhood and related groups.

So what began as a conventional slide show-lecture became a who’s-who of South L.A. activism and a networking session for anyone concerned with the region around Watts. From representatives of LAWorks, to gang violence activists and political consultants; folks spoke up to offer criticisms, neighborhood information, city plans for the area, and, of course, anecdotes about the towers and the site. Arceneaux’s mission is not a simple one, and he’ll need loads of help to get there – but he got a little closer today with an enthusiastic outpouring of resources and support.

02.11.09 Does Los Angeles Need a Downtown?

2009-02-12T18:45:00.000-08:00

Ed Soja has a theatricality about him when he speaks that could make virtually anyone with a pulse get interested in urban redevelopment. So, for urbanism geeks, hearing Professor Soja talk about L.A. – and downtown in particular – is a true treat. He likened L.A.’s present situation (in terms of demographics, immigrant poor, economic consequences and manufacturing possibilities) as equal to Manchester, UK in 1850. Almost with glee, he added, “Engels isn’t dead after all” (Hey, he’s a critical theory guy writing a book on the recent resurgence of the labor movement in L.A – he’s got a reason to be excited about Marxism again.)

He wasn’t the only giddy one. The positivity and anticipation were buzzing at the REDCAT, despite the gloomy-doomy economic prospects and downer comments that opened up the panel discussion. The panel was rounded out by the California Redevelopment Agency’s CEO and all-around practitioner of spatial, environmental and legal affairs, Cecilia Estolano, and Manual Castells, USC professor of Technology, Society and Regional Affairs and author of La Question Urbaine and The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture among many other titles. The panel was moderated by Steven Levine of CalArts.

So it was a good mix. Estolano threw out the question of the evening and made her own: What Kind of Downtown Does L.A. Want? She proceeded to propose a downtown that could build on its already well-established manufacturing core and expand it further to bring “clean technology” engineering, research and design firms, light industrial companies, bio-medical research companies, and more manufacturing downtown (and along the banks on the L.A. River) from downtown, through the old Goodyear complex in South L.A., to the port (again, already established for future development to build upon).

Estolano’s was a re-occurring theme: Soja and Castells spoke to labor and workforce and manufacturing as the forefront of development downtown as well. It’s the first time I can remember an urban design forum or panel unanimously suggesting neither a mall (L.A. LIVE and Nokia), nor a park or shopping district (Grand Avenue and the Civic Park by Related Group), nor a transportation project (Light rail to the Westside) could remedy our civic woes. Imagine that: instead of giving people jobs at a Pinkberry outside the Staples center, providing them a career at a manufacturing plant, where they can transform themselves into a member of the middle class.

It’s been a tragic fall for real estate in L.A. and it’ll continue to hurt everyone for a long while. But it slowly dawned on everyone in CalArt’s theater Wednesday night – now that civic leaders have finally been forced to let go their death grip on the concept that loft living will save downtown (and, on a broader level, the city in general), the crash of 2008 could make room for a new concept – the city as a backdrop for a hard-working population. As Soja explained, the question in the past hasn’t really been “How can we make downtown better?” It’s been more like “How can we get white, upper class Westsiders to live in a high-rise tower in downtown L.A. and make believe they’re living in New York.” That’s all behind us now with 2008. Bring on the next industrial revolution.

02.07.09 Favorite New Neighborhood

2009-02-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

It’s Rose Avenue in Venice, where we’ve been hanging at the newly deck-ed out (literally) Venice Beach wines (a store, tasting bar and place for small eats), where they have toasted sandwiches made from brie and grapes, not to mention (as one might suspect) fabulous wine assortments, and ale, and beer. Just a hop down the street is C.A.V.E. gallery, open just seven months now. We were there for the opening of the Yum Yum show on Feb. 6th. It’s a warm storefront space, with this month’s exhibit featuring illustrations, wall sculptures, and bite-sized paintings. For the opening there was also live painting on the patio and a DJ.

The renaissance of Rose is not without its red flags though: We’re going to have to do some investigating into the new development happening on the South side of the street at the 500 block (directly across from Venice Beach wines). Will those "NEW CONDOS" be as close to the street and set-back-less as it looks in the rendering? Will the lot just lie empty for a year in the current economic climate – leaving our favorite new Avenue with a gaping hole in its smile? Check back and we’ll update the sitch.

02.02.09 CB08

2009-02-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

From the land of “the Real Housewives,” Disneyland and endless toll roads comes another very capable show by the Orange County Museum of Art, whose exhibition chops just keep growing in stature. Curated by Lauri Firstenberg – director of the nonprofit space LAXART in Culver City – the 2008 California Biennial includes 54 artists and group entities with a collectively heightened political and social tilt, featuring Amanda Ross-Ho’s excavated painting studio walls, transplanted into the gallery here; Patrick "Pato" Hebert's lawn signs with self-help-book-inspired messages; Kara Tanaka's mechanical ode to Marilyn Monroe’s flying skirt; Jedediah Caesar's crap-filled pick-up truck and free, hefty, bound editions of the Journal of Aesthetics and Protest’s sixth book installment (to name a very, very few).

If you can’t get down to the Fashion island complex (yes, the OCMOA complex in located in the shopping mall’s Vertigo-inducing, epic curving boulevards), one can catch off-site exhibits all over the Southland including: LAXART; Five Thirty Three Gallery; the Japanese American National Museum; MacArthur Park & NOKIA LA LIVE; The Standard Hotel in West Hollywood; the UAG/ROOM Gallery at the University of California, Irvine; Estación Tijuana in, er, Tijuana; Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara at the University Art Museum, University of California Santa Barbara; the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco; Walter and McBean Galleries also in San Francisco at the Art Institute; the High Desert Test Sites, in Joshua Tree with works by Joel Kyack, Hannah Greely, Ry Rocklin, Patrick Jackson, Alice Konitz, Jack Pierson, Yoshua Okon, Amy and Wendy Yao's Art Swap Meet, Jonathan Hernandez, Thom Merrick; and The Wonder Valley Institute for Contemporary Art with Julia Scher, Ann Magnuson, Marnie Weber and the Spirit Girls. Up until March 15th.

01.24.09 Good News and Bad News

2009-01-28T22:11:00.001-08:00

The good news is that plans are moving forward for the little riverbank-park-that-could: district 4’s North Atwater Creek Park expansion. The proposed plan – including landscaping, biking and hiking trails, picnic areas, scenic spots and signage along the river – was presented to the community by city officials this week thanks to much hard work and coordination by the folks at the Griffith Park Draft Master Plan Working Group, who recognized that by combining North Atwater Park, the North Atwater Stream Restoration site and a portion of an L.A. city service yard, money could be saved by bypassing an expensive acquisition of new parkland.

It’s good news because it takes one more big step in the direction towards connecting the surrounding community with the restored creek, the greater L.A. River greenway and longer bike trails along the river. Additionally, the location is near a neighborhood of working families, is close to bus lines, and will be in walking distance from the Chevy Chase Recreation Center.

But despite the good work and crafty compiling of lands by community activists, the Bad news is this: state funding for the park ultimately comes from Sacramento, which means that there is no funding at all for this “shovel ready” parkland link. Everyone’s keeping their chin up on this one: for example, this note from the district 4 website, “Design plans are moving forward in the hope that the project will be ready for construction when funds become available.”

01.22.09 Everyday Urbanism at LACE/LAForum

2009-01-28T16:46:00.000-08:00

Everyday Urbanism remains a confounding experiment that revels in the present, messy state of things, but its updated version brings with it a more deliberate set of follow up questions after the last decade. Its authors too have had to make their ways in the compromises of the public sector (John Chase in Urban Planning at the City of West Hollywood), the hustle of the private sector (John Kaliski with his Urban Studio practice in L.A.), and the minefield of academia (Margaret Crawford at Harvard’s School of Design) since the turn of the millennium.

Thursday night’s ten-year birthday party, at LACE/LAForum in Hollywood, meant to salute all three authors (all were present) and their achievements concerning the subject matter. Fortunately, the event instead generated a re-hashing of the controversies the book originally launched, and possibly added a new epilogue for the book in everyone’s mind: Does Everyday Urbanism’s stance against conventional urban design mean anything anymore? And is the idea of the user-as-designer still relevant?

As an alternative to New Urbanism, Everyday Urbanism argued that by moving through one’s own city and through the experience of Mom and Pop stores, ad-hocism, nomadism, and D.I.Y. construction and graphics in one’s environment, designers could begin to understand the value of these urban elements in terms of orientation in the city, community identification, new economic potentials, or new forms of public space. Architects, urban designers and developers could take note of these everyday elements, interpret them, and then use them as tools with which to build.

Remember 1999? We didn’t know if the world might come crashing down on us in Y2K, we were finally making it out of the last recession, we braved the earthquakes and firestorms of the mid-90s, and there was a big surplus in the Federal budget – waiting for a rainy day as Al Gore used to say. And we hadn’t yet been attacked by terrorists in New York, ushering in a new interest in defensible architecture.

Flash forward to Everyday Urbanism now. We have the Grove and Americana. We have Dubai and Mumbai and the Bibao effect. We’ve had house-flipping, and soap operas about real estate on HGTV, and now a deflating bubble, sucking a lot of people out of the business. There’s a screaming need and challenge for new infrastructure and a re-engineering of our modes of energy production and consumption. Folks attending Thursday night’s event wanted to know if random sprawling strip malls and the cartoon paintings of fruit and veggies on the stucco wall of an Eastside mercado were still enough to re-invigorate our hobbling profession. The panelists said yes: The thinking behind Everyday Urbanism has become a built-in reflex in how we work and observe the city; it’s opened new opportunities for group design, community participation in design, and a reconsideration of authorship in a field that should be tacking its course away from Starchitecture and towards a new potential for the author-less-ness of things as they are for real people – away from corporate populism. Still sounds a little 90’s to me, but we could all use a happy flashback and an image of a painted stucco wall with Monica Lewinsky and Jesus to lighten the moment.