It all leads one to ponder the what-if Los Angeles, to imagine the city that would exist today if the best proposals for remedying its ailments had been realized. Los Angeles would now include a ring of thousands of acres of urban and regional parks, a bold, space-age airport, a winged nature center for Griffith Park and hillside housing developments sculpted to the contours of the landscape rather than sitting on graded and terraced scars. We would be living in a very different city. — latimes.com
Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell talk about their co-curated show, Never Built: Los Angeles, which is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter.
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I look forward to seeing this exhibition and the book for a trove of gorgeous images and ideas.
Its editorial tone is off a bit, however. While it's completely true that a slew of architectural and planning projects have been proposed for greater LA but never implemented, it's equally true that many, many others have.
Some may not care for the various eventual outcomes, but the notion that nobody paid attention or built projects by notable architects and planners in Los Angeles is incorrect. The Olmsteds, the Greenes, the Eamses, Irving Gill, Edward Bennett, RM Schindler, Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, Clarence Stein, John Lautner, Kevin Lynch, Arata Isozaki, Cesar Pelli, IM Pei, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, and many others have worked on buildings, urban design, and planning projects that did come to fruition, and do shape the landscape.
Is it a shame that some really interesting designs were never built? Sure. But to ask "Why is Los Angeles a hotbed of great architects, yet so lacking in urban innovation?" overlooks a century of other innovations that did come about.
The most radical proposal to change, well, replace Los Angeles, with a green Biomorphic Biosphere, was by SCI-Arc co-founder Glen Small. The Genesis of the project can be seen right now on Small's Blog.
http://www.smallatlarge.com/
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