“She’s talented, she’s very intelligent and she’s real Chicago, which means it’s about structure and construction. It’s not about just the arbitrariness of design.” That was Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman, quoted in this profile of Jeanne Gang, the Macarthur-prize winning architect alumnus of OMA, the office of Rem Koolhaas, who broke a record — tallest tower designed by a female architect — when her firm, Studio Gang, designed Aqua Tower (with Loewenberg Architects) in the Lakeshore East area of Chicago. Jeanne Gang, whose work process is explored in her book, Reveal, will be in LA Tuesday, May 8, giving a talk at LACMA as part of the Distinguished Architects Lecture Series organized by Francesca Garcia-Marquez. Find out more here.
Last week we aired special programming on Which Way, LA? about the the causes and the aftermath of the Rodney King Riots that devastated Los Angeles twenty years ago. The shows also marked the anniversary of Which Way, LA? itself, begun shortly after the uprising as a temporary program driven by a sense of urgency. But Warren’s dialogue with and about Los Angeles, became must-listen radio and a permanent fixture on our air.
The riots were a force of destruction that birthed, to some extent, a sense of renewal and possibility for Los Angeles, expressed in the months and years of Which Way, LA? shows. . . and explored in last week’s broadcast about the rebuilding in Los Angeles over the last 20 years. One of the guests on that show, Michael Maltzan, architect of Inner City Arts, talked about how his career and attitude to LA were utterly transformed by that moment in late April, 1992.
And he was not alone. Many were deeply affected – from those devastated by the destruction to those who were galvanized into changing their lives. Carolyn Hull, for example, a guest on the rebuilding show, talked, off-air, of how the experience inspired her to change direction and become an urban planner; Jackie Dupont-Walker, a South LA community developer and member of Rebuild LA, spoke of learning lifelong business lessons from Rebuild LA Czar Peter Ueberroth.
Another guest, Kai Ma, a teenager in LA in 1992 with extended family in Koreatown, was politicized by her community’s devastation, into becoming a writer and, more recently, a filmmaker. You can see a short movie that she wrote and starred in here (click on Love Lost on the 405). This film, about LA and traffic congestion as a metaphor for failed love, is not about the riots but about a feature of LA life that can cause tremendous stress: driving on the 405 (see Ma in a still from movie, right). Coincidentally, it was featured in Rethink LA, an optimistic exhibit about ideas for a future Los Angeles, that was discussed last year on this DnA.
I too was changed by that uprising, transformed from a newbie in LA, editing a small architecture publication and possessing a limited understanding of what made LA tick, to someone who determined to better understand and engage with my chosen home. And how did I plan to do that: through becoming involved with a show that I found a total inspiration at the time: Which Way, LA?
On All Things Considered, we’ll air an interview Wednesday by KCRW’s Avishay Artsy with Warren Olney (seen top left, with Reverend Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray), together with Ruth Seymour, KCRW’s then general manager, and Sarah Spitz, former communications director for the station and one of WWLA’s first producers.
We hope you enjoy this moment of reflection for the station and for Los Angeles.
Ask any Brit in LA what they miss most about the UK and there’s a strong likelihood that high on their list will be: a proper cup of tea. This means boiling water poured onto tea leaves in a pre-warmed teapot, served with a jug of milk and a side of hot water for extra cups — nothing at all like the sad teabag floating around in lukewarm water that passes for a cuppa here.
Well, KCRW’s own onetime producer Gemma Dempsey (The Treatment; Morning Becomes Eclectic), who now divides her time between London and LA working on all sorts of creative projects, is filling that void for a week, with a pop-up tea shop, called A Spot of Tea. She promises that not only will you find a good pot of tea, but also programmed entertainment and “British gifts, crafts, teas and yummy treats,” like “soap made with Lapsang Souchong and Licorice Tea” and ceramics by British violinist Maya Magub. A Spot of Tea will be at Spice Station in Silver Lake, through May 6.
A Spot of Tea is just one of the many offerings at this year’s Britweek – a now annual showcase of British commerce and talent. Originally lasting just a few days and featuring a few panels, the event has expanded; between now and its closing on May 7, you can take in parties and panels that range from a discussion with “digital innovators” to a charitable gala dinner Friday, to be headlined by British exports Piers Morgan and Jackie Collins. The gala will be attended by such luminaries as Philip Treacy, hatmaker to royalty and anyone else with a zest for extreme style. Click here for tickets and information about all events.
If ever there was a weekend to remind oneself, yet again, of the originality and inventiveness of Los Angeles architecture, then, now and tomorrow, this is it. Today thesis students at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) present their final projects, to the scrutiny of a battalion of invited critics including Neil Denari, Winka Dubbledam, Thom Mayne and Jeff Kipnis. Their work, which is guaranteed to be both fanciful and interesting, will be on show through May 6, with a public reception tonight (Saturday, April 21) at 5pm. Get all the details, here.
“Bridges have a way of capturing the spirit and exciting people even more than buildings do.” That’s according to Alex Ward, architect, Chairman of Friends of LA River (FOLAR), and guest on this week’s DnA. That might be how first-time users feel as they set car or foot on this newly opened Aizhai bridge in southern China’s Hunan Province, the highest and longest valley suspension bridge in the world (shown in this photo in The Independent newspaper).
It may not span 1,176 meters at 335m above the ground like this one, but the City of LA has its own plans for a bridge that could excite the imagination.
The 6th Street Viaduct, connecting Boyle Heights and downtown LA (shown, left), is crumbling and needs to be replaced, and the City’s Bureau of Engineering has thrown open the selection process and invited architects and engineers worldwide to compete for the design commission. Find out more about it on DnA, and on Curbed LA.
But the bridge was not the only topic on this DnA, as a very opinionated Good4Nothing Connoisseur explains right here:
“Tax day’s 2012′s edition of DnA bristled with moral imperatives, in my humble opinion. Did anyone else happen to notice? First, the topic of LA receiving A NEW BRIDGE in this Boehner/Cantor/McConnell/
Second, to then hear James Rojas and Jay Griffith make a very calm and heartfelt plea, like prophets at a picnic, and I paraphrase: Parents do not overprogram your children by buying them toys that are predesigned to perfection, thus leaving nothing to the imagination. Parents, don’t buy your kids so many hypertechnologically advanced and pre-assembled toys thus destroying any last vestige of curiosity and wonder in our youth. Give them rougher raw material-like gifts, like a lump of clay or cardboard box, that incites the youngins to want to make things… again. And maybe one day ours, once again, will be a nation that makes things.
Third, Michael Boyd helped me to stop panicking about the super slicko world of fake and endlessly procreating infotainment storms moving so fast across our phones and laptops, constantly blowing us back, making us feel like we’re not on the edge of hipster fabio coolville. The problem with all the dot commies and trash content purveyors on cable and internet channels, in my humble opinion, is 1, it is causing the ability for sustained concentration to be all but vanished and banished–hold on, I’m just checking a text that came in–oh it’s my pal Mike telling me he just grabbed a double mocha xtra shot with steamed soy and saw a blond hotty in pink hot pants on Nike blades. Now what was I saying? The other cool, important, sanity restoring item Boyd shared was that because our culture is getting so slick and fast, and shallow and small minded, all the while guilt tripping you to neurotic death for daring to turn your nose up at even one instant of its shallowness is that he EDITS furniture. Takes the elements and forms from classic high points in chair design and reshuffles them. So he is, like Dr. Dre or Tupac, taking his favorite tunes and sampling to make original and new compostions. I think I want to grab me one of them hip hoppity styled desk chairs and sit back and breathe deeply in.”
See Michael Boyd’s PLANE series at Edward Cella Art + Architecture, opening April 28.
Frances Anderton, along with hosting DnA, is a producer for Warren Olney's Which Way, L.A.? and To the Point on KCRW. In addition, Anderton is the L.A. Editor for Dwell magazine.
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