When Alissa Walker isn’t doing thoughtful interviews (like this one with Brendan Ravenhill on this week’s DnA) or putting the world to rights (through causes like advocating for the rights of pedestrians), she is writing witty take-downs, like this skewering of the oft and tired skewering of LA by envious New Yorkers (and nothing stokes a skewering of a sunny, creative place than being harried …

If you want to know what’s going on in interior design and decorating, ask Mallery Roberts Morgan. Here she gives her recommendations for La Cienega Design Quarter’s Legends, starting tonight.
Legends is a three-day event with a jam-packed schedule of panel discussions, book-signings, showroom events, exhibitions, cocktails and lots of parties. Most of the event schedule is open only to design industry professionals – either by invitation …

Dan Protess and Geoffrey Baer offer a provocative list of 10 Buildings That Changed America. LA designer Brendan Ravenhill talks to Alissa Walker about trying to keep production local as his designs go global. Lynell George narrates another Iconic Wilshire Boulevard story – in which glittering storefronts deliver less than they promise.
 
10 BUILDINGS THAT CHANGED AMERICA
Why did Southdale shopping center and the relatively obscure Vanna …

We’d love to hear about how you feel about LA’s upward climb. Please fill out our survey via Which Way, LA?
During the many hours we spend inching through LA’s highways, the character and landscape of Los Angeles is undergoing a transformation with many large building projects, on hold during the 08 recession, are now moving ahead. Several developments are very tall, for example the Millenium Towers in …

As many designers get ready to head to ICFF at the vast Javits Convention Center next week, others are getting their design fix with friends in the patios of showrooms in the La Cienega Design Quarter (the design district on and around La Cienega, between Beverly and Santa Monica Boulevard), which will play host to LEGENDS, a two-event blast of store displays and discussions starting this Wednesday, May 8. This …

Using locally-sourced and recycled materials, Jae Won Cho creates structures by pushing the potential of a single form (most often, the triangle) and applying a system throughout to create beautifully complex compositions. From sculptural pieces to useful objects like tables, chairs, stools, and shelves, Jae Won works outside of the categories of traditional furniture making and instead is interested in the natural formations that …

The bumper crop of architecture exhibits on show on this summer are looking at “Modern” LA buildings. But one of LA’s most important architects had his roots in the Beaux Arts, did not come from Vienna (like RM Schindler and Richard Neutra) nor dabble in progressive politics or an experimental lifestyle. He is John Parkinson and this weekend he’s getting his due, as part of Britweek, …

If you want to experience architecture at its most sublime you might choose to visit the Vals spa in Switzerland (left courtesy of Arch Daily), a stark gray box made of layers of quartz quarried from its mountain site that gives way to a calming interior in which warm thermal pools lap against stone walls that glitter in the dancing rays of sunlight reflecting off the water.
This …

TODAY’S SHOW: “All You Need is Zip Ties”
Jae Won Cho moved around so much he created modular furniture that could be remade anywhere in the world — that sells zip ties. Meanwhile, Dieter Rams’ products remain universal. Today’s DnA features conversations talk with these two product designers. Plus, Dave Bullock and Edward Lifson take a look at a Modernist “icon” on Wilshire Boulevard, that has become a tech …

Stefan Bishop abandoned a career in real estate development in the midst of a personal and financial crisis to reignite his passion for art and design. His studio is based in Glassell Park near Mount Washington and there salvaged wood from fallen trees and waterlogged sunken ships serves as the material for the sculptural and functional art pieces he crafts by hand. Mallery Roberts Morgan of the Hollywood …