Relocation Time on the West Coast
Rendering of Barton Myers’ DPAC Orlando Performing Arts Center. (Courtesy Barton Myers)
Everybody seems to be opening up new offices these days. One of our favorite firms, Barton Myers Associates, is moving from Westwood all the way to Santa Barbara, which doesn’t sound promising. Cunningham Group has opened new digs in Culver City’s Hayden Tract, the collection of arts offices made famous by the wild constructs of Eric Owen Moss. And UCLA Architecture will remain in Westwood. But it’s ready to open a new robotics lab inside the old Playa Vista research facilities of Howard Hughes.
Buckyball Lights Up Again in Madison Square Park
BUCKYBALL illuminated in blue (Photo Credit: James Ewing)
New York-based artist Leo Villareal is creatively illuminating the constructed form. In Madison Square Park, Villareal’s LED light-up geodesic dome, Buckyball, stands tall, undamaged but unlit after Hurricane Sandy. The Madison Square Park Conservancy told AN that the lights are expected to be back on tonight. And soon, Villareal also plans to light-up a far larger construction on the West coast: the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
On View> Greta Magnusson Grossman: A Car and Some Shorts
Rare three panel folding screen in walnut and metal, 1952. (Courtesy PMCA)
Greta Magnusson Grossman: A Car and Some Shorts
Pasadena Museum of California Art
490 East Union St., Pasadena, Calif.
October 28–February 24
Before Ikea introduced cheaply made Swedish-designed furnishings to dorm rooms across the globe, there was Swedish architect and designer Greta Magnusson Grossman, an often overlooked founding figure of Swedish modernism. For the first retrospective of her work, the Pasadena Museum of California Art presents Greta Magnusson Grossman: A Car and Some Shorts, which showcases designs that chronicle Grossman’s remarkable career. Her work fuses Scandinavian minimalism with California modernism, as illustrated by her well-known and widely replicated Grasshopper and Cobra lamp designs.
Another Hollywood Landmark In Trouble?
The recently-renovated Hollywood Palladium. (Coe Architecture)
Last week AN learned that Hollywood’s Capitol Records building may be in for a dwarfing by two new adjacent towers. Now we learn from our friends at Curbed that the historic Hollywood Palladium, renovated in 2008 by Coe Architects, might also be in trouble. Miami developer Crescent Heights is about pay $55 million for the Palladium site, and it’s rumored that they want to build luxury apartments or condos there. The 72-year-old theater apparently has no historic protections, so this could get ugly. Stay tuned.
This Weekend> Tech Refresher With AIACC
Exhibit A: This is a CNC Router. (AXYZ International)
Feel like technology has left you behind? Check out the AIACC Now Next Future Conference this weekend. Not only does it feature a technology boot came, with hands-on technology training, but it features technology leaders like Kevin Daly from Daly Genik, Dennis Shelden, from Gehry Technologies, and Alisdair McGregor from Arup. Meanwhile topics will include BIM, new manufacturing technologies, Eco districts, and cloud technologies. Yes, you’ll be much cooler after this is over.
Our Man At The AIA/LA Awards
Caffe Bene, Yazdani Studio, one of the Next LA Award winners.
[Editor's note: Our fearless correspondent Guy Horton shares his thoughts—Gonzo Style—on the AIA/LA Awards Ceremony that took place on the Broad Stage in the Santa Monica Performing Arts Center. And he was surprisingly assured by it all. Read ahead, if you dare. And enjoy the slideshow of the Design Award winners at the end.]
To those who missed it,
Man you should have been there. It was crazy. Honestly, the most insane Awards I’ve been to in years. Moby was there. You know he’s been doing this LA architecture blog. He called LA urbanism a “shit show.” Can you believe that? Brilliant. That got repeated a lot and I imagine it will become the buzz-word for the 2012 Awards: The Shit Show. In a good way, of course. He looked a little nervous. Saw him before he went on stage to introduce things. Told me the whole architecture economic situation really sucks. I know, I told him. But that’s OK. We get by.
Garten’s Rippling New Bridge In Los Angeles
(Berg & Associates)
As we’ve noted before, sculptor Cliff Garten is one of the lucky artists who gets to remake the urban landscape. His latest work is the Baldwin Hills Gateway, a 150-foot-long bridge that marks the entry into the Baldwin Hills Parklands, part of the sprawling Kenneth Han State Recreation Area. The eight-foot-high rail, made of water jet cut and rolled anodized aluminum, is perforated by a rippling pattern inspired by the artist’s survey of the entire park, creating interesting patterns of light and shadow on the bridge’s surface. The project, funded by a grant from the Baldwin Hills Conservancy to the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative, just opened last week.
Vegas Neon Museum Opens Dramatic New Home
The Neon Museum’s new Visitor’s Center, inside the lobby of Paul Williams’ La Concha Hotel.
Las Vegas’ most interesting cultural attraction is not on The Strip. It’s the Neon Museum, which finally opened its new visitors center last weekend inside the lobby of the former La Concha Motel, a Googie masterpiece designed by Paul Williams. The Downtown Vegas museum, which opened in 1996, includes a boneyard containing over 150 neon signs from hotels, motels, roadside attractions, and businesses, dating back to the 1930s. Some of our favorites include the Atomic Age Stardust Hotel sign and a freestanding sign of a man known as the “Mullet Man.” The museum has also installed some of its signs along Las Vegas Boulevard and on Fremont Street. More pix from the boneyard below. Read More
Friday> MAK’s Light My Way Auction Offers Well-Designed Lamps from Top-Name Architects
Sponge Lamp, by B+U. (MAK Center)
In honor of the Day of the Dead (and to raise some money), LA’s MAK Center is hosting an auction of some amazing lamps this Friday from 7 to 10pm at its Fitzpatrick-Leland House. Those designing pieces for Light My Way, Stranger include Ball-Nogues, Hitoshi Abe, Coop Himmel(l)au, P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, Hodgetts + Fung, Ehrlich Architects, B+U and many more. We can’t do these objects justice with words, so check out the slideshow. Enjoy!
The Best Architecture In LA Isn’t A Building, It’s the Space Shuttle.
The shuttle in its new home. (Sam Lubell)
Yesterday, AN got a first hand look at the Space Shuttle Endeavor resting inside its new home, the 18,000 square foot Samuel Oschin Pavilion at LA’s California Science Center. The verdict: go see it. No piece of architecture in recent memory has been as breathtaking as the shuttle.
CCA Launches Three New Masters Programs for 2013
Buildings on CCA’s San Francisco Campus. (Californiaposted.com)
Thinking about getting a masters degree but haven’t found the right field? California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco just made it easier, announcing three new graduate programs beginning in 2013, bringing the total number of post-professional offerings to eleven. The trio of curricula includes: a Master of Architecture in Urban Design and Landscape (MAUDL), a MFA in Comics, and a MFA in Film.
The two-year MAUDL focuses on the future of urbanism and teaches a range of urban design strategies and data-visualization techniques. The three-year MFA in Comics is headed by Eisner-nominated graphic novelist Matt Silady. And CCA’s MFA in Film specializes in multidisciplinary approaches. Classes begin Fall 2013. Applications for all three programs are being accepted now through January 5, 2013 at www.cca.edu.
Architects & Engineers in LA Reimagine Billboards as Gardens
Now this looks like a good idea: a group of architects and engineers called Urban Air are trying to turn a billboard next to LA’s 10 Freeway into a suspended bamboo garden. The technique: they remove the signage, install planters and then the bamboo, and then install water misters and sensors to make sure it’s properly irrigated. Voila! If it’s successful with the first sign the group wants to create similar gardens across the country. The ambitious plan is being crowd-funded through Kickstarter and with 46 days left has raised nearly $6,000 of its $100,000 goal as of this publishing. You can check out their Kickstarter campaign and contribute here.
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