Scene Around Town, by Bennett Stein (aka The Good4NothingConnoisseur):
I recently accompanied DnA on an outing to Hollywoodland and the epicenter of production companies and sound stages, to what I was promised would be a holiday party. There we found ourselves at the HQ of JustOneEye.com, the online boutique for the self-described “world’s finest in design, fashion, and art” at a top-secret launch party for Pasadena’s finest, most illustrious fashion duo, Rodarte, and their new book of the same name. Realized in collaboration with art photographers Catherine Opie and Alec Soth, Rodarte offers up a visual meditation …

This is my third reminder about Little Tokyo Design Week, but I cannot emphasize enough how interesting this event promises to be, with a galaxy of interesting design-architecture people, steel container pods filled with exhibits (one of them, Ultra Expo, shown right, curated by Sylvia Lavin), a co-mingling of Japanese and local talent and, on Saturday night, a fast-paced Pecha Kucha in which 48 designers and commentators will offer up two-minute presentations of six slides each on the topic of the Future City (I’ll be one of the presentors), not to …

Doc has told me not to type (due to sprained wrist) which only serves to remind me how much of our time we spend tapping away in this age of digital communication (will our fingers evolve in tandem with the technology?). So this will be a short note to say:
1) How exciting that Kate and William’s Socal trip involves a visit Sunday to Inner City Arts, a model of social good meshed with great design, by LA Architect Michael Maltzan (graphics by Michael Hodgson and landscaping by Nancy Goslee …

It may not be easy being green, but it sure is cool-looking. A new exhibit at the Architecture + Design museum in mid-Wilshire explores just how innovative environmentally-integrated architecture can be with its “SouperGreen” exhibit, which opened last week and is on view through April 14th. The exhibit, a collaboration between five different architecture firms, focuses not only on environmentally-friendly “solutions” to man-made problems, it promotes using technology to live in symbiosis with the environment:
“Souper Green features five architectural propositions that explore the way that technology…can promote and enhance …

Charles and Ray Eames, Robin and Lucienne Day, Massimo and Lella Vignelli: all couples who made a big mark on post-war Modern design. LA has also been home to another designing couple, Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman, two Detroit artists who opened a studio in West LA in the early 1950s, and forged a path in artful craft, applying Jerry’s entrepreneurial savvy and Evelyn’s fine artistry to ceramics, weaving, mosaics, wood-carving, metalwork and more. Now you can see some of the highlights of their partnership at the Craft and Folk Art Museum (CAFAM) …

Call me a snob, but I like my leaders to be worldly. I like to know that they are interested in culture and the arts, beyond the narrow confines of policy-making. So when Michelle Obama dons an Alexander McQueen dress for last night’s State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao, to me that choice is more substantial than just style. It sends a message of sophistication, of interest in current trends and global culture. It suggests an attitude that might translate into policy. A First Lady who takes a risk on an …

DnA is not a “journal of record;” regrettably, the show cannot cover every notable design event, new building or book or exhibit. Nor even can the DnA blog, but whenever possible we will draw attention to a must-see or do design happening. One of these is Part II – Whispers and Echoes, the second of a two-part show of work by Coy Howard, the irascible architect-designer-maker-craftsman who has long taught at SCI-Arc and was part of the experimental group of architects, including Thom Mayne and Eric Owen Moss, when …