Archinect - News

Radio personality, Frances Anderton, joins Archinect Sessions for year-end episode

2020-12-24T13:56:00-05:00

On our year-end show Donna, Ken and I are joined by Frances Anderton. For our Los Angeles listeners, Frances's voice is probably very familiar to you. Frances is the host of DnA, the radio show the focuses on architecture and design on KCRW, the local favorite station among architects in the Southern California region.

A few weeks ago Frances broke the news that she would be leaving the beloved radio show at the end of the year, after an 18-year run. Today she joins us to tell us about work with DnA, the backstory behind her transition from architecture student to journalist to radio personality, and gives us a hint at what she'll be doing next.

Later in the episode, the four of us discuss some of the bigger news stories that helped define what 2020 meant for architects. We also share what we're each looking forward to as we enter into a new year.

Listen to episode 160 of Archinect Sessions, “Goat Wisdom with Frances Anderton”.

iTunes: Click here to listen, and click the "Subscrib...

DnA: Design and Architecture, KCRW radio show hosted by Frances Anderton, to go off the air

2020-09-18T12:11:00-04:00

Amid a dramatic staff downsizing at leading Southern California public radio station KCRW, it was reported that the popular show and podcast DnA: Design and Architecture hosted by Frances Anderton will be discontinued from mid-December after being on the air for 18 years.

The Los Angeles Times writes that the cuts "represent a loss of 18% of the NPR affiliate’s staff, reducing it to 127 full- and part-time employees. It comes less than two years after the station began moving into its $38-million media center on the campus of Santa Monica Community College."

In a Sep-15 tweet, Anderton stated: "It's official: 24 of us are taking buyouts from @KCRW, mine effective mid-Dec. Working there w/ huge talents has been the gift of a lifetime. So has the chance to spread the word about LA design + arch. I'll keep on doing so (unless I go start my fantasy goat farm). Stay tuned!"

It's official: 24 of us are taking buyouts from @KCRW, mine effective mid-Dec. Working there w/ huge talents has b...

Archinect, A+D Museum, and KCRW's DnA present: SHORTLISTED! symposium highlighting the current state of architectural commissions in Los Angeles.

2019-11-11T15:45:00-05:00

The Architecture and Design Museum (A+D), Archinect, and KCRW's DnA: Design and Architecture are coming together for SHORTLISTED!, a day-long symposium focused on highlighting the current state of earning, awarding, and judging architectural commissions in Los Angeles.

The event, drafted in conjunction with The Los Angeles Schools exhibition at A+D, will include headline talks by Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, head of the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County, and Christopher Hawthorne, LA’s Chief Design Officer and former architecture critic for The Los Angeles Times.

Crafted amid a period of upheaval surrounding Los Angeles's premier cultural institutions—including the demolition and reconstruction of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) complex, proposals to expand the La Brea Tar Pits, and plans for a new wing of the Natural History Museum, among several high-profile expansions and reorientations taking shape—the event will bring together architects, cultural leaders...

Session 14: His bjark is BIGger than his bjite – A chat with Bjarke Ingels at the opening of BIG's "Hot to Cold" exhibition

2015-01-29T15:25:00-05:00

This episode is a doozy. Paul and Amelia left the temperate sunshine of Los Angeles for Washington, DC's frigid monumentality, to interview Bjarke Ingels on the eve of his "Hot to Cold" exhibition at the National Building Museum. The 40-year old architect shared some quick-won wisdom about scaling a business, the Danish condition, and the indispensability of humor and play in architecture.

Donna and Ken joined Paul and Amelia to speak with Lian Chang about her recently published visualizations of the Archinect Salary Poll for the ACSA, in charming emoji-based data sets. The Sessions co-hosts also discuss Aaron Betsky's new appointment as the head of the deeply troubled Taliesin West, and what Thom Mayne's demolition of Ray Bradbury's house means for architecture preservation and sentimentality.

And for another climatological analogy, Paul and Brian Newman, Archinect Sessions's legal correspondent, poke at the tip of the iceberg concerning issues of copyright in architecture.

A remind...

KCRW radio station breaks ground on new Media Center in Santa Monica

2014-06-12T17:33:00-04:00

KCRW, the NPR-affiliated public radio darling of Southern California, broke ground yesterday on its new 35,000 square-foot Media Center, located on Santa Monica College's Academy of Entertainment & Technology campus. For the past thirty years, KCRW was run out of a basement underneath the campus, while producing top-notch music and journalism programming that balances local flavor with international news. Now they'll have much more room to breathe, with spaces devoted to community socializing and performance alongside expanded operations.

Home to such popular podcasts as "DnA: Design and Architecture" and news digest "To the Point", KCRW also produces content outside of the studio, by hosting events around Los Angeles. With the Media Center, the station will have a homespace for its own events, to concretize its role in the local culture.

Designed by Clive Wilkinson Architects, the Media Center also meets LEED Silver Certification standards, and is slated to open by early 2016.

Neil Denari is the latest Guest DJ on KCRW

2013-06-20T13:45:00-04:00

This was the first time where a musician, Eno -- who said I'm not a musician, by the way, I really construct ideas in a studio -- I felt connected to the idea of music, let's say, as sort of an intellectual project but at the same time it was still music that you wanted to dance to. So this is the architectural song and Eno as a kind of designer. Totally opened my eyes to new things.

Track List:

Theme From Shaft – Isaac Hayes
Kurt’s Rejoinder – Brian Eno
2nd Movement, Symphony No. 5 – Glenn Branca
The Bridge – Lee Ranaldo
Keep Your Dreams – Suicide (from the First Album)

Michael Maltzan Guest DJ's on Santa Monica's KCRW

2013-04-10T18:29:00-04:00

Architect Michael Maltzan has designed prestigious museums, luxurious private residences and social housing in Downtown LA. Music has been a factor in his life since he first started to discover architecture and he ruminates on the connection between the two art forms while sharing songs from Big Star, Talking Heads and more.

Track list:

The Bad Plus - Long Distance Runaround
Talking Heads - The Big Country
Big Star - The Ballad Of El Goodo
PJ Harvey - We Float
Glen Campbell - There's No Me Without You

KCRW's DNA interviews Moby on LA architecture

2012-03-23T18:44:00-04:00

Chances are, you know Moby best for his electronic dance music. But it turns out the eclectic-minded musician has another life, as an architecture buff who recently moved to LA and now writes a blog about buildings here he loves. The blog is called, simply, Moby Los Angeles Architecture Blog, and features his photos of local architecture. Frances Anderton talks to Moby about his love of architecture.

And, on that note, I promise this will be the last we refer to Moby's over-hyped move into the world of architecture blogging.

Craig Hodgetts at KCRW Guest DJ Project

2012-03-07T18:54:00-05:00

Craig Hodgetts credits the “unencumbered and exceedingly emotional” style of Miles Davis for shaping the direction of his architectural work. He also names the sounds of Vangelis and Terry Riley as inspirations in a guest DJ set that is a tribute to all kinds of creative work.

Architect Craig Hodgetts, of LA design firm Hodgetts + Fung, is being featured today at KCRW's Guest DJ Project.

Is Steve Jobs the Model for a Revived Economy?

2011-08-30T18:22:19-04:00

Steve Jobs has the right name for what's missing in America's economy. Does he also represent the way back to prosperity? We look at his record at Apple and its influence in the US and around the world.

KCRW's "To the Point" addresses Steve Jobs' attention to innovation and integration of design into Apple's business model, and how that can improve the state of today's horrible job market.