Archinect - Features

A voting guide for Los Angeles architects on the anti-growth Measure S

2017-03-06T12:24:00-05:00

Opposed by a majority of architects, yet backed by a handful of prominent Angelenos including AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, Measure S is on the March 7th ballot. Is it a sneaky ratification of NIMBY, or a sensible call for considered growth?

Michael Maltzan Envisions the Future of LA's Infrastructure

2016-10-18T12:18:00-04:00

Los Angeles is defined by its freeways: everyone from Joan Didion to Ice Cube to "Saturday Night Live" has conceptualized the city through them. So why is such an integral part of the city’s urban fabric left largely to stagnate in the collective architectural imagination?

How 4 US cities are applying architectural solutions to homelessness

2016-05-23T18:29:00-04:00

Housing First, a federal policy for ending chronic homelessness that grew out of initiatives in Los Angeles and New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s, provides what appears to be the most effective solution to homelessness in the United States: actually housing people. Since implementing Housing First programs in Utah in 2005, Salt Lake City reported up to a 91% reduction in their rate of the chronically homeless.

Upstarts: Design, Bitches

2015-07-22T13:34:00-04:00

As the name suggests, Design, Bitches is a synergy of creativity and earthiness. Combining a refined sense of order with playful humor, the Los Angeles-based firm founded by Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph distills the splendor of urban chaos in their graphic branding, art projects, and commercial and residential interiors.

Review: Central Park at Playa Vista by Michael Maltzan Architects

2011-04-27T14:27:00-04:00

Placed near the east end of continuously expanding Playa Vista, a mixed use development with the marketing strategies and lifestyles of loosely called New Urbanist or thereabouts genre, the newly opened “Central Park“ could be described with the words of my film maker friend as a “designer park,” meant semi ironically and with an admiration for its talented layout and realization.