On View> Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974
(Patricia Johanson)
Ends of the Earth: Land Art to 1974
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA
Through September 3
The Land Art movement emerged in the 1960s as a mode of expression that used the earth as a medium and removed art from traditional context of galleries and museums. Focusing on the early years of experimentation to the mid-1970s when Land Art became an institutional category, Ends of the Earth will provide historical context to the movement. The exhibition reveals the movement’s social and political engagement, understanding Land Art as a media as well as sculptural practice shaped by language, photography, film, and television. Works by more than 80 international artists and projects will be on display, including Michael Heizer’s renowned work Double Negative (1969–70) from MOCA’s permanent collection. An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, featuring reflections from curators, critics, and dealers who contributed to Land Art and its development in the 1960s and ’70s as well as contemporary scholars who position Land Art in the critical discourse of today.
Could the Grand Avenue project be coming back to life?
An early rendering of The Grand (Related Companies)
Frank Gehry and Related Companies’ left-for-dead Grand Avenue project in Downtown LA (now known as “The Grand”) may be getting a new lease on life, reports the LA Times. The $3 billion, mixed-use development, which includes condos, hotels, shops and a 12-acre park (Grand Park, which is opening this summer), was supposed to begin construction in 2007, yet no shovel has touched earth, at least not for a building. But now Related is reportedly rethinking the project’s “luxury aspirations,” toning down some of the most expensive elements and lowering rates on condos to get things moving. ”We still believe we can create some of the highest values downtown….But do I think we have to be a little bit less ambitious? Yes, I would agree with that,” Related president Bill Witte told the Times. He would not comment on whether Gehry’s wavy towers would remain, but Witte did say that the project’s “dimensions, scope and scale” could be adjusted. Meanwhile Grand Park’s web site doesn’t provide a definitive completion date, so stay tuned for more on its opening.
On View> Ball-Nogues Studio: Yevrus 1, Negative Impression
(Courtesy SCI-Arc Gallery)
Ball-Nogues Studio: Yevrus 1, Negative Impression
SCI-Arc Gallery
960 East 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA
June 1–July 8
On display at the SCI-Arc Gallery is Los Angeles–based architecture practice Ball-Nogues Studio’s Yevrus 1, Negative Impression, which attempts to call into question the current fashionability of abstracted and digital forms. Through an assemblage of non-architectural objects represented very literally, the project represents a new type of site survey. The objects selected to be part of the structure were picked from the Los Angeles suburban landscape (a pool, above) and become the elements of an installation. The architects used digital scanning technology to make biodegradable paper-pulp castings of 1973 Volkswagen Beetles and speedboats for a lookout tower in the gallery. Yevrus (“survey” spelled backwards) is a new technique pioneered by the firm that rethinks the site survey by utilizing it not as a tool for construction and engineering, but as a methodology of deriving form, creating structures, and realizing meaning.
Seattle’s New Ferris Wheel Ready at Pier 57
The Seattle Ferris wheel at Pier 57 (Ingrid Taylar via Flickr).
“I see nothing in space as promising as the view from a Ferris wheel,” E.B. White once remarked. After the dismantling of the Seattle Center Fun Forest and Ferris wheel—closed in January 2011 to make way for the Chihuly Garden and Glass museum—Seattle will finally get its Ferris wheel back. The nearly-completed privately-funded wheel at Pier 57, with 8 supportive legs and 21 spokes, will weigh 280,330 pounds. Built by Chance Morgan Rides Manufacturing Inc. and funded by developer Hal Griffith, the 42 six-person gondolas will bring riders 175 feet into the air, with views of the Olympic Mountains to the west, Mount Rainier to the south, and the Cascade Mountains and the city to the east. Open year-round, the cars will be enclosed, heated, and air-conditioned, so no need to worry about the Seattle drizzle.
LA radio station KCRW is challenging designers to put together a portable sound booth to collect stories for its program Sonic Trace, which explores questions about community and immigration. Producers will be toting the booth all over LA’s diverse communities (ideally on the roof of their VW Wagoneer), from Koreatown to South Central, so it’s got to be lightweight and hearty. Hurry because submissions are due on June 8!
San Carlos Library, The Best Place to See a Solar Eclipse
(Courtesy Swatt Miers)
With its perforated dome, the twelve-year-old San Carlos (CA) Library, designed by Swatt Miers Architects, turned out to be one of the best places to view the solar eclipse a few weeks ago. The design—which projected thousands of little crescent moons over the main lobby entrance—was inspired by architect George Miers’ wife. “We wanted to bring in light, but a traditional skylight over that type of space would overpower it. Luckily, my wife had this old colander. I built the model with the colander in it,” said Miers. The architect developed a random pattern for the ceiling and fabricated it with Los Angeles-based Ceilings Plus.
Strange Sentence for Phonehenge Creator
(Flickr user RuggyBearLA)
For those of you that don’t know “Phonehenge,” it was one of California’s classic DIY creations (right up there with the Watts Towers and Salvation Mountain), created by former phone company repairman Kim Fahey out of old telephone poles in the Mojave Desert. Unfortunately the structure, in Acton, CA, was demolished last year because of code violations, and according to the Washington Post a judge recently sentenced Fahey to pay the $83,488 it cost to demolish it.
In an even stranger demand, the court sentenced Fahey to 63 days of community service, five of them in the county morgue. “The judge thought it was an extreme fire danger and I guess she just wanted him to see dead people,” defense attorney Jerry Lennon told the Post. But there’s a silver lining. A group called Save Phonehenge West is raising donations both to pay for Fahey’s legal bills and to rebuild Phonehenge in Kern County, to the north.
San Francisco To Help Citizens Create “Better Streets”
The City of San Francisco recently launched sfbetterstreets.org to encourage public participation in city planning.
One of Jane Jacobs’ most valuable contributions to the understanding of cities was her faith in the wisdom of the urban dweller. She argued that the physical city—and any approach to city planning—could not be separated from the wisdom of each individual inhabitant, “People who know well such animated city streets will know how it is. I am afraid people who do not will always have it a little wrong in their heads, like the old prints of rhinoceroses made from travelers’ descriptions of rhinoceroses.” The complication arising from Jacobs’ argument is simple though difficult to solve; how can we plan a city when planning is one part abstraction and abstraction removes us from Jacobs’ precious “real life” mentality?
A step towards solving this contradiction is sfbetterstreets.org, a website launched last week by the City of San Francisco. Developed by the San Francisco Planning Department in conjunction with other city agencies, the website is part of the city’s larger, “Better Streets” initiative. The legislative concept, described in San Francisco’s Better Streets Plan, is to create streets “designed and built to strike a balance between all users regardless of physical abilities or mode of travel… maximizing features for the comfort, usability, and aesthetics of people walking.”
Moss out in WeHo? Or maybe not?
Rendering of Moss' Sunset Strip Hotel (courtesy Eric Owen Moss Architects)
While it was approved by the city of West Hollywood back in 2009 (and again in 2010), it looks like Eric Owen Moss’ large hotel on the Sunset Strip might be in trouble. Curbed LA reports that the property containing the 11-story project, which was also to include condos and retail, has been bought by Marriott hotels’ “Edition” brand of luxury hotels, which WeHo Patch has said ”doesn’t seem inclined to use the Moss designs.” Our calls to Marriott were not returned.
The Moss scheme was originally proposed by developer Richard Weintraub (with no hotel operator), and Marriott’s involvement became clear when the West Hollywood planning department approved the company’s modifications (slightly increasing size, adding a nightclub) to the project last Thursday. But wait. According to West Hollywood Planning Manager John Keho, Marriott has not yet told the city who the architect of their proposal will be, nor have they given a timeline for when they might submit architectural plans. According to Moss principal Eric McNevin, ”Nothing has been confirmed yet. It’s not known yet. What was reported was speculation.” Stay tuned.
Join Us For A Teaching Moment Next Tuesday
This editor’s recent piece on the divide between architectural education and architectural practice has spurred a lot of discussion, prompting both high praise for addressing a worsening problem and charges of, ahem, “neoconservatism.” If it’s a debate that interests you, please join us next Tuesday, May 29 at Gensler’s new headquarters for the panel discussion, “A Teaching Moment.” Panelists include UCLA’s Neil Denari, Michael Maltzan, USC’s Alice Kimm, Woodbury’s Barbara Bestor, SCI-Arc’s John Enright, and Gensler’s Li Wen. At the panel we will discuss not only the schism between practice and education, but also new approaches toward technology, urbanism, and more. See you there!
Architecture is on Display at the Venice Art Walk
Exterior of Google's new HQ in Venice. (IK's World Trip/Flickr)
Trust us, you don’t want to miss this weekend’s Venice Art Walk & Auctions (May 19-20), which in addition to showing off the area’s wealth of art studios and galleries, will introduce you to some of its finest new architecture. That’s impressive because everybody knows that Venice has more architects per square foot than pretty much anywhere else.
Still Time For A Zen Experience In Downtown LA
The zen garden hosts the Mare Nubium dance performance. (Hirokazu Kosaka)
The Japanese American Cultural & Community Center’s first annual spring festival, LA Bloom wrapped up on May 5, but late visitors to the Little Tokyo site in Downtown LA can still enjoy a piece of the festivities. LA Bloom’s centerpiece ecoartspace installation will remain up for a few extra weeks. Using over five million pebbles, JACCC Artistic Director Hirokazu Kosaka and landscape architect Calvin Abe of AHBE created a large zen garden that, during the festival (along with thousands of feet of colorful thread) created a serene background for Kosaka’s evocative Mare Nubium performances.
“It isn’t something that can be experienced through description. It would be like explaining what it’s like to be present watching the original moon landing,” said Abe, for whom the space created a “profound existential experience.”
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