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The hotter temperatures will be sticking around the L.A. region for awhile, but don't forget to take some time to enjoy these longer days of summer. Curious where to find interesting architecture-related happenings in Los Angeles? Archinect and Bustler compiled a snappy list of... View full entry
On a newly-launched website, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has released renderings of the proposed Peter Zumthor-designed building, which would replace four existing buildings designed by William Pereira. In total, the new building, prosaically named the Building for the Permanent... View full entry
While zoning is a perfectly fine strategy to map new suburban cul-de-sac subdivisions and to stop growth, it backfires when we try to use it to guide the future of an evolving, dynamic city like Los Angeles. Zoning is a 20th century relic designed to “protect” existing residents from the encroachment of people and buildings they see as “undesirable.” [...]
we should be following Chicago’s approach by focusing on public spaces, infrastructure and other common assets.
— latimes.com
Related on Archinect:Frank Gehry's Sunset Strip mixed-user approved by LA City Planning Commission, with 15% affordable unitsCalifornia lawmakers turn to "granny flats" to help ease housing shortageMichael Maltzan proposes greening L.A.'s 134 freewayIs Los Angeles becoming a "real" city?LAPD... View full entry
Missing L.A.’s iconic, historic 6th Street Bridge? Never fear – soon you may be able to keep a piece of it for yourself.
At “Rock Day L.A.,” an Aug. 13 event [...], officials will be handing out around 1,000 pieces of the demolished bridge for anyone to take home [...]
Demolition crews have been steadily dismantling the bridge since February, after an alkali silica reaction in the concrete, known as “concrete cancer,” forced the city to move forward with a plan to replace it.
— scpr.org
Previously in the Archinect news: LA mayor Eric Garcetti slow-jams 101 freeway closure announcementTake a look at "6," an experimental documentary that memorializes the recently-demolished Sixth Street Viaduct in LAA final hurrah for L.A.'s Sixth Street ViaductHNTB, Maltzan, AC Martin win 6th... View full entry
Will you look at that, it's already August! The hotter temperatures will be sticking around the L.A. region for awhile, but don't forget to take some time to enjoy these longer days of summer. Curious where to find interesting architecture-related happenings in Los Angeles? Archinect and... View full entry
[John Irwin, one of the project's developers, noted:] "This is the right direction for development in L.A., embracing both the benefits of good planning—as well as a commitment to providing affordable housing at varying income levels, which we have agreed to increase” [...]
Ryu’s Chief of Staff Sarah Dusseault argued before the commissioners that setting such a low bar for affordable housing would set a bad precedent as the city is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis.
— losfelizledger.com
More Frank on Archinect: Frank Gehry's renderings for L.A.'s Sunset Strip revealedWhat's happening with Frank Gehry's masterplan for the LA River?Artist Daniel Buren spruces up Gehry's Fondation Louis Vuitton with colorful interventionLos Angeles River revitalization: prosperity for all or just a... View full entry
To help ease California’s housing crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are turning to people’s backyards.
Multiple bills with the endorsement of Brown are moving through the Legislature to make it easier for homeowners to build small units on their properties, whether in their garages, as additions to existing homes or as new, freestanding structures.
[Mayor] Eric Garcetti and other supporters hope the relaxed rules will spur backyard home building to combat a housing shortage..
— Los Angeles Times
For more on Los Angeles' major housing crisis, check out these links:Los Angeles sues property owner who allegedly evicted tenants for Airbnb flipLA has a housing crisis – but the problem isn't those fancy new towersMeditating on the "Past Future Housing" of Los Angeles with Morgan Fisher and... View full entry
Now through August 25, take an immersive, tongue-in-cheeky video tour through Los Angeles at WUHO Gallery, with David Hartwell and Bill Ferehawk's "MEDIAN".Enter the narrow, deep gallery space and be at the center of MEDIAN–an "experimental moving image installation" projected onto the length... View full entry
The longer days of summer are here in sunny SoCal. Curious where to find interesting architecture-related happenings in Los Angeles, or where other design-inclined folks are gathering in the Greater LA region? Archinect and Bustler compiled a snappy list of noteworthy events around town that... View full entry
Bunker Hill, an area of roughly five square blocks in downtown Los Angeles, holds a place in city lore similar to that of the water wars or the construction of Dodger Stadium: beginning in 1959, it was the subject of a massive urban-renewal project, in which “improvement” was generally defined by the people who stood to profit from it [...] subject of this short film by Keven McAlester, which compares what the same streets in downtown Los Angeles looked like in the nineteen-forties and today. — newyorker.com
Stills via YouTube.Related stories in the Archinect news:DTLA's Music Center Plaza will get a $30M remodel, its first since 1964Historic LA Times Building to be redevelopedLA's Donut Time, the LGBTQ landmark in “Tangerine”, is now permanently closed View full entry
Artwashing. What a great new political watchword. As in, watch out that your neighbourhood doesn’t get “artwashed” too. Just look how Tate Modern has wrecked London and how the Guggenheim trashed Bilbao. Get away, ye galleries! Let’s keep urban wastelands as bleak as they already are!
It’s a neat reversal of the thinking that has seen cities all over the world embrace art galleries, museums and biennials in pursuit of regeneration.
— the Guardian
The editorial hones in on struggles by residents of the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights to push back against a rapid influx of galleries, which they view as the avant-garde of gentrification.For more on the community's efforts to resist becoming the next Silverlake/Echo Park/Culver... View full entry
Mayor Eric Garcetti's office released a statement yesterday announcing that Gruen Associates, Mia Lehrer + Associates, Oyler Wu Collaborative, and civil and structural engineering firm Psomas will design the final 12 miles of the San Fernando Valley portion of the Los Angeles River Greenway. The... View full entry
Grand Avenue’s Music Center Plaza is about to get a major renovation for the first time since it opened to the public in 1964.
Often overshadowed (literally) by the prominent Downtown venues that stand above it, the plaza is a gathering place and event space in its own right. Thus, a major part of the plan would increase event capacity from 1,500 to 2,500.
[LA County] has already given $2 million to plan the project, with $25 million of funding expected down the road.
— la.curbed.com
More recent L.A. news on Archinect:Michael Maltzan proposes greening L.A.'s 134 freewayDowntown LA has a new museum on the horizonHistoric LA Times Building to be redeveloped"Bouncy-house urbanism is on the rise." – Christopher Hawthorne rides the U.S. Bank Tower's 'SkySlide'Agence Ter and Team... View full entry
The longer days of summer are here in sunny SoCal. Curious where to find interesting architecture-related happenings in Los Angeles, or where other design-inclined folks are gathering in the Greater LA region? Archinect and Bustler compiled a snappy list of engaging lectures, discussions... View full entry
"We’re not against art or culture," [says Boyle Heights activist Maga Miranda.] "...But the art galleries are part of a broader effort by planners and politicians and developers who want to artwash gentrification."
"We’re saying that they need to make a bigger effort to amplify the voices of the people that are gonna be most affected by this, and that doesn’t happen to be artists in this situation. It happens to be people who can’t afford to live here anymore."
— LA Weekly
Amid widespread gentrification in LA, activists in Boyle Heights have been scrutinizing the art galleries that set up shop there in recent years — including significant spaces like Self Help Graphics, which helped put the Eastside neighborhood on the cultural map. While activists want to... View full entry
