Inside The Mind Of Moss
At SCI-Arc last Wednesday Eric Owen Moss, introduced by good friend Thom Mayne (who broke Moss’s brain down into its essential parts, as seen above), lectured on his firm’s most recent projects; an impressive combination of new technology, structural research, and wild rule-bending that has unfortunately produced precious few actual buildings, but many competition near-misses around the world. The good news is that this trend is turning around, Read More
A New Infrastructure: Jury Convenes/Winners Saturday
It finally happened! The jury for the AN/ SCI-Arc design competition A New Infrastructure: Innovative Transit Solutions For Los Angeles met at SCI-Arc on Monday to pick the winners. They selected from 75 professional and student proposals from the U.S., U.K., Estonia, Italy, and France. The winners will be announced this Saturday at 2pm at SCI-Arc (960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles), followed by a panel with the jurors and an exhibition of the top proposals. The event is open to the public.
Jury members included Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, and Neil Denari, along with Aspet Davidian, the Read More
Design for the Younger Set
A page from Where Things Are From Near To Far
Perhaps one explanation for why there’s so much mediocre architecture and planning in this country is that we were never taught anything about it as youngsters. In fact most kids don’t even have access to an art history class until they reach college; and don’t even try asking them who their favorite architect is. But a few new kids architecture books could help change that, or at least inspire younger people to start appreciating the built world around them.
Where Things Are From Near To Far (Planetizen Press), by Tim Halbur and Chris Steins (with illustrations by David Ryan) introduces very young kids to basic concepts of urban planning, giving them an appreciation for the changing, dynamic urban environment. The colorful book follows the path of a young boy, Hugo, as he Read More
LA Park Re-Revamped
Curbed LA reports that designs for the 12-acre, Rios Clementi Hale-designed downtown Civic Park, connecting City Hall with the LA Music Center, have been updated (drawing above). The new designs, they find, will overhaul and lengthen the park’s fountain, remove a series of trellises, enlarge the park’s community terrace, and remove the “viewing bridge” at the foot of City Hall. Read More
Lessons From The Past
We just came across a story (above) by David Dunlap in the New York Times whose headline reads: Recession Is Ravaging Architectural Firms. In it architects bemoan the state of the industry and make claims like “it will never be the same again,” and “I’ve had the chance to see a lot of ups and downs. This one, to me, is without a doubt the worst.” Dunlap suggests that ‘Now, having shrunk, firms may decide to stay smaller.’ And one architect thinks this is the next Great Depression: “We don’t see a way out, a real turning point, until the end of the decade. If you’re talking about no significant work until the latter half of the decade, you’re talking about a situation that is somewhat similar to the 1930′s.”
Old School
Last night we had the pleasure of attending Delab’s (Design East of La Brea) monthly gathering of creative types, this time at Cole’s, a legendary restaurant and bar in the Pacific Electric Building in Downtown LA. Open since 1908, Coles is known for its French Dip sandwiches (it claims to have invented the delicacy), clever–and strong–mixed drinks and “atomic” pickles. Read More
AN Celebrity Party #1
Since we’re in LA, it was only a matter of time until The Architect’s Newspaper got to visit a celebrity party. This Saturday we were invited to the launch of author Jerry Stahl’s new thriller Pain Killers, thrown by none other than Ben Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor. How did we get in? Thanks to voiceover artist-cum-architect-extraordinaire Janna Levenstein, who designed the 5,000 square foot Hollywood Hills pad (pictured above) that housed the festivities: 1615 Rising Glen. Read More
AIA SF Awards; aka Back When Architects Made Things
Aidlin Darling's 355 11th Street won both Architecture and Sustainability Awards
Remember when architects actually built things? Oh yeah, that was last year. And to commemorate that fact in Northern California, the AIA San Francisco chapter just announced the winners of its 2009 Design Awards. Read More
Architecture Gets Its Close Up
A home-made dwelling in Portland's Dignity Village, featured in the film "Adapt"
What is SMIBE? Is it a brand of paint? Or maybe a government agency? No, it’s something much more interesting: the Society for Moving Images about the Built Environment. The Los Angeles-based, volunteer-run organization just announced the winners of its inaugural “Story About a Place” competition, which looked for short films (less than 6 minutes long) that “reveal new sides or issues about a place told by memorable characters.” The competition, which launched last fall, received over 90 entries from 13 countries. Read More
Will the Recovery Be Webcast?
If you take a look at the White House’s recovery.gov web site, dedicated to dispersing information about stimulus efforts across the country, you’ll notice a page dedicated to individual states’ stimulus spending sites. The page offers links to recovery sites from states like Ohio, Illinois, and, ahem, New York. But California is a big blank. Read More
LA Solar Measure Trailing
Solar panels atop LA's Staples Center
It’s still too early to call, but right now Los Angeles charter amendment B, a.k.a. Measure B, which would authorize the creation of a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) program to require the production of at least 400 megawatts of solar energy in the city by 2014, is trailing in the results from yesterday’s city election. Read More
Industrial Chic
Partygoers enjoy XRT's new home
Last Saturday LA’s new X Repertory Theater Company (XRT) celebrated the opening of its mammoth headquarters—which they call Location X— on 1581 Industrial Street in the city’s Arts/Warehouse District. Members of the company spent weeks prior to the party sandblasting (yes, they did it themselves, respirators and all..) the 10,000 square foot former warehouse’s plaster walls to reveal gorgeous brick; Read More
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