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Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2016Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming... View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Winter/Spring 2016Archinect's Get Lectured is back in session. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any upcoming... View full entry
An elevated park filling a retired stretch of freeway may sound reminiscent of the High Line, the hugely popular park built along an abandoned elevated train line in Manhattan.
In symbolic and practical terms, the potential of a remade 2 spur is greater than even that project. It would take a working stretch of freeway in Los Angeles, a city still synonymous with car culture, and reinvent it as a vibrant, diverse urban landscape.
— LA Times
Critics rarely take advantage of their position to propose urban initiatives of their own, but when they do, it usually merits some serious consideration.Christopher Hawthorne has issued an inventive, but well-reasoned, proposal to remake the awkward terminus of the 2 Freeway, where it "bends... View full entry
Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) has announced that Frank Lloyd Wright’s George Sturges House will be among 75 lots from the estate of the actor and playwright Jack Larson to be auctioned on February 21. [...]
When a house like this became available in 1967, Larson and Bridges were looking for something that exemplified their interests in all things artistic, it was very exciting for them to acquire. It was a trophy. It will be a trophy, probably, for the next owner.
— blouinartinfo.com
The 1,200 square foot home, located in Brentwood Heights in Brentwood, Los Angeles, was designed and built in 1939, with a budget of $9,000 (adjusted for inflation, that would be roughly $153,671 today). It was the first Usonian house to be built. The bidding is estimated to begin at $2.5 to... View full entry
The freeway system, which Southern Californians once saw as a ticket to freedom, an emblem of L.A.'s love of individuality and movement, increasingly serves as a landscape of hard luck and a desperate sort of community — a place to hunker down. [...]
As the homeless population grows in a city whose public realm is the haggard product of several decades of neglect, the freeway has taken on a crucial, if often dispiriting, neighborhood role despite itself.
— latimes.com
"The ranks of the chronically homeless in Los Angeles County have grown by more than 50% in the last two years, to more than 12,000 people, according to one study. If you count all the people who are homeless at least part of the time, the figure rises to an estimated 44,000."Related news on... View full entry
Back in October, the Pershing Square Renew non-profit group revealed 10 big-name semifinalist teams in a competition to redesign Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles. City Councilmember Jose Huizar formed the Pershing Square Task Force in the summer of 2013 with the goal 'to re-envision Pershing Square' into a new town square with better public access, fresh landscaping and the like, to what they believe would further spruce up the evolving city. — Bustler
According to PSR, the park has been constantly overlooked for redevelopment. Inevitably, not everyone agrees the historic park should be revamped. Nearly two months later, the competition is now down to the final four proposals: Agence TER with SALT Landscape Architects SWA with Morphosis James... View full entry
No two people, let alone architects, perceive even the most frequented cities in the same way. How do designers experience their cities as locals?Head westbound on the traffic-laden streets of Los Angeles and chances are that you'll find yourself in the aptly named Westside. This loosely... View full entry
But if L.A. is going to remain a creative capital, its civic and cultural leaders are going to need to do more than offer really great talk about how great we are...This can start with the Otis Report on the Creative Economy...If this report is to be more than just a feel-good data dump, it could use some solid recommendations on how L.A. compares to other cities culturally and how we might improve the situation for artists and cultural organizations, both small and large. — Los Angeles Times
More about arts districts on Archinect:Venice Beach's ongoing grapple with the tech titan invasionDowntown LA's vision of an architecture and design super clusterHow one urban planner is helping revamp a Miami suburb "without gentrification"With a little compromise, illegal urban squats like... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). If you know architecture, or think you know architecture, you know SCI-Arc. You know SCI-Arc is a place for leaders – the leaders of change, the leaders of a new vision, the leaders of new technologies, the... View full entry
But overall the Broad is a disappointment, and the ways in which it fails are more than a little concerning. Its incoherence, its poor urbanism and its unoriginality suggest that the transition from critics to makers may have DS + R stumped...The Broad’s failures of urban design are its biggest and most disappointing surprise. — Art in America
Sarah Williams Goldhagen pens a critique of Diller Scofidio + Renfro's The Broad. View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2015Archinect's Get Lectured is ready for another school year. Get Lectured is an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back frequently to keep track of any... View full entry
From a concrete ditch, the river is now, very, very, very slowly becoming that green, recreational space many supporters have imagined. But, the question is, what's taking so long?
As anyone who's ever set out to build in Los Angeles knows, things aren't always as simple as they seem. A vision becomes reality at a glacial pace, which can be a good or bad thing.
— kcet.org
In other LA River-related news on Archinect:Does Frank Gehry – or his firm – have what it takes to save the LA River?Will Los Angeles be seeing more housing development along its LA River?Feds Okay $1-Billion Los Angeles River Project View full entry
Many urban planners think abundant parking goes hand in hand with LA's perpetual traffic woes, pollution, and lack of density. The perception that there will always be available parking leads drivers to neglect public transportation options, contributing to traffic, as well as to the increase in pollution caused by circling the block in search of a spot. Additionally, zoning codes obligate real estate developers to build a certain number of spaces with every project — la.curbed.com
More on the problematics of plentiful parking:California to decrease parking requirements for affordable housingUCLA professor and "parking guru" Donald Shoup to retireFlexible Parking Structures as Civic CatalystsTrading Parking Lots for Affordable Housing"Graphing Parking" charts out of whack... View full entry
Waze sometimes sends drivers through little-used side streets such as Cody Road [in Sherman Oaks, Calif]...Some people try to beat Waze at its own game by sending misinformation about traffic jams and accidents so it will steer commuters elsewhere. Others log in and leave their devices in their cars, hoping Waze will interpret that as a traffic standstill and suggest alternate routes. — The Wall Street Journal
More about Waze on Archinect:Throwback Throughway: when GPS fails, these gorgeous "mental maps" help you navigateWaze takes on the ride-sharing market with new carpooling appArnold Schwarzenegger voices Waze appWaze and its new uneasy bedfellows View full entry
This week's One-to-One guest is Jenna Didier, founder of the Materials & Applications research and exhibition space in Los Angeles. Didier started the driveway-sized venue in the front yard of her Silver Lake home in the early 2000s, looking for a space to establish community and exchange for... View full entry
