5 Design Things To Do This Week

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Your week in design events from DnA.

1. Reinventing the Wheel–DnA Event at Helms Bakery District 

Sick of being stuck in traffic? Nostalgic for when it was fun to move around LA? Hear about how to make it fun again, this Sunday at Helms Bakery District, when we consider the future of mobility in Los Angeles, from e-biking and automated cars to the super cool. . . Metro. Join DnA’s Frances Anderton and speakers including Michael Lejeune, Harald Belker, Craig Hodgetts, Geoff Wardle as well as the designers from Linus Bikes, PedegoI-Zip, Juicer, Art Center College’s transportation design department, as well as cars in the vanguard of alternative energy from Toyota, Ford and the Petersen Automotive Museum.

Did we mention there’ll be free beer?

When: Sunday May 18, 2014 12:00-3:00 PM

Where: Helms Bakery

Tickets: $15; includes complimentary beer. Click here for tickets.

metrobikeweek

2. Metro Bike Week + L.A. Views: Traffic Jam + Blessing of the Bikes

There’s nothing that unites Angelenos quite like the experience of suffering through paralyzed traffic. And this week (aside from DnA’s event on the Future of Mobility in L.A.), there are three events that help us cope with the realities of getting around Los Angeles, one practical, one literary and one spiritual.

Metro’s Bike Week consists of a week of events geared toward encouraging more cycling in L.A. Simply pledge to run your errands or commute by bike, or join other cyclists for a series of events, including a bike night at Union Station.

L.A. Views: Traffic Jam turns gridlock into art and metaphor, in a play going on now at the Los Angeles Theatre Center with the description, “Toll roads, buses, human cargo, and road closures of the mind, …the vastness of Los Angeles beckons, but so many things get in way.”

And God said, let there be. . . bikes. Come have your bicycle blessed — and checked for free — at Annual Blessing of the Bicycles at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.

Metro Bike Week

When: May 12-18

Where: Everywhere in Los Angeles.

Tickets: N/A

Click here for more information.

L.A. Views: Traffic Jam

When: May 1st-May 25

Where: Los Angeles Theatre Center; 514 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles

Tickets:  Click here for tickets.

Click here for more information.

Blessing of the Bikes

When: Tuesday, May 13; 8:00 – 9:30 AM

Where: Good Samaritan Hospital, 1225 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90017

Tickets: N/A

Click here for more information.

venice art walk

3. Venice Art Walk and MAK Architecture Tour Weekend

Two tours, one a walking tour of Venice and its many artists studios, along with an art auction at Google’s Venice offices, to fundraise for the Venice Family Clinic; the other a self-driven tour of six houses and multi-family buildings by Rudolph M. Schindler designed between 1925 and 1940 in Silver Lake, to help support the MAK Center at the Schindler House. A kickoff reception and talk with Schindler scholar Judith Sheine will be held at the How House on Saturday, May 17.

Venice Art Walk

When: Sunday May 18

Where: 340 Main Street, Venice

Tickets: Free and open to the public.

Click here for more information.

MAK Architecture Tour Weekend

When: May 17+18

Where: Various sites

Tickets: $50 on Saturday; $75 on Sunday; Click here for tickets.

Click here for more information.

billyhaines auction

4. William “Billy” Haines Auction

“You can’t tell me it’s too expensive, you can only tell me that you can’t afford it,” says Los Angeles interior designer and gallerist, Patrick Dragonette of Dragonette of the inimitable midcentury “Hollywood Regency” designer William “Billy” Haines. On May 18, Los Angeles Modern Auctions will offer over 30 of his custom designs commissioned in 1960 by Rita Roedling, daughter of Mervyn & Kitty LeRoy, for her 1015 North Beverly Drive house in Beverly Hills.

When: May 18 12:00 PM

Where: 16145 Hart Street, Van Nuys

Tickets: N/A

Click here for more information.

paola

5. Lecture: Paola Antonelli–The New Frontiers of Design

Paola Antonelli, MOMA’s highly-regarded senior curator and director of Research and Development in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, will give a talk about the future of design, hosted by LACMA’s Decorative Arts and Design Council.

When: Sunday May 18, 2014 12:00 PM

Where: LACMA, Bing Theater; 5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles

Tickets: Free and open to the public.

Click here for more information.

And don’t forget to listen to our most recent DnA, “Putting the ‘Cool’ Back in L.A. Mobility.”

If you would like an event to be considered for DnA’s weekly 5 Design Things post, please email all information about your event and jpegs to caroline.chamberlain@kcrw.org by the Wednesday prior to the week of your event.