Design and Architecture

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Let’s play ball! There’s a $100 million renovation coming to Chavez Ravine. Janet Marie Smith of the Dodgers gives us the rundown, and architecture critic Paul Goldberger discusses the evolution of the American ballpark. Plus, the city hopes Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs, can be an answer to the housing shortage. And they’ve built one to prove it. We’ll hear about lessons learned from a little house in a backyard in Highland Park.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The designer of “The Blue Whale” has died. The Argentinian-born architect Cesar Pelli of the Petronas Towers and other landmarks passed July 19 at age 92. We’ll hear about his mark on LA, where he created glass-skinned buildings inspired by local artists, including the colorful, if controversial, Pacific Design Center. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And a classic LA house with a dark past has become a party house with a purpose. We’ll meet the new owners (and their seven Persian cats) of the Lloyd Wright-designed Sowden House.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House has become Southern California's first UNESCO World Heritage site. Why did it earn this distinction, and how will it cope with a flood of new visitors? Starburst signs and Satellite shopping centers... Apollo 11 launched 50 years ago on Tuesday, marking a high point in the space age. We'll look at how space exploration shaped LA's landscape. And we’ll go see the fabulous outfits by Guo Pei, a Chinese designer who was born in a time that rejected fashion, on show in Orange County.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When Philip Johnson built the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove for televangelist Robert Schuller in 1980 it was called "the largest glass building in the world." Now it’s the new home for Orange County's Catholics, renamed Christ Cathedral, and architects Johnson Fain have dialed down the sunlight with a bold screen of “quatrefoils.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, the City of West Hollywood is in the midst of creating digital billboards that are visually appealing without offending residents. We'll hear about how they plan to achieve that, and we'll go back to the late 1960s, when rock ‘n’ roll billboards ruled the Sunset Strip, and hear about a billboard-related mystery that went unsolved for decades.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When longtime Apple chief designer Jony Ive announced he was jumping ship, markets shook. How much is good design worth? We talk about what’s next for Apple, Ive and the branding of consumer technology. Plus, will we have dogs in 60 years? A time capsule at Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial captures the values and anxieties of Angelenos today.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Spanish architecture firm Selgascano is taking over LA with brightly colored plastic and lots of plants. DnA visits their Second Home Hollywood, Serpentine Pavilion at the La Brea Tar Pits; and Sam First, a jazz club at LAX. And, forecasts are more accurate than ever. Andrew Blum says props should go to the creators of the weather prediction “machine” and explains how this global science project is now under threat just as storms are growing in size.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Uber wants to add app-based flying taxis to LA's airwaves. Uber Air is set to launch in 2023, and the company has enlisted eight firms to create (pro bono) concept designs for what they call “skyports.” Can drone taxis remedy LA traffic jams, or just add to transit inequity? And, the city has a housing crunch, but are lots of apartments sitting empty? Some city officials want to impose a vacancy tax on landlords and property owners who keep homes vacant.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Santa Monica Airport is expected to close by 2028 and be replaced by a park, and this weekend the city will begin digging up both ends of the runway. But the transition is worrying folks who see a clean, green, quieter future for aviation; and people who believe the Westside needs housing more than it needs another park. Plus, a new film about the life and times of Halston combines high style with corporate drama. We hear about an American fashion designer’s fabulous rise and meteoric fall.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">LA Pride takes place this weekend and among those celebrating will be the new residents of the LA LGBT Center. The center was founded 50 years ago and a major upgrade was designed to bring LGBT youth and seniors together in a very modern family. And, have you ever wondered how an artwork winds up in LACMA’s collection? Think of it like a dating show that matches wealthy donors with curators and the objects they desire.</span></p>

<p>Los Angeles is considering revising its regulations around billboards to allow more digital signs all around Los Angeles. But activists say the proposed rules would allow for Las Vegas-style digital billboards far and wide. For this episode of DnA on ATC, KCRW’s Frances Anderton talks with Larry Perel about the signs of what’s to come.</p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Aquarium of the Pacific's new $53 million wing "Pacific Visions" aims to alert visitors to climate change, and what to do about it, through high-tech entertainment. How are visitors reacting? And neighbors in West LA are fighting over a proposal to turn a grassy field into a multi-use, synthetic grass sports field. The project is meant to serve as a memorial for a 12-year-old boy who died last year. But it's erupted into a turf war that involves class, access to public space, and a fight over materials, as in, natural versus nylon.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In sunkissed Los Angeles shade is a luxury. Reporter Sam Bloch explains why, and what needs to change for Mayor Eric Garcetti to plant 90,000 trees. The exhibition “Contact High” goes back to the early years of hip hop. Graffiti and graphic artist Cey Adams talks about a career shaped by that era. Jason Wu made a splash in fashion very young. Now he passes on lessons learned to students at Otis College of Art and Design, through a love for 1950s-era uniforms. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Los Angeles-Long Beach has once again been cited the nation’s capital for dirty air, just as LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has made cleaning the air a central plank of his green new deal. We'll look at why the Southland’s air is dirty despite cleaner cars, and why automating the ports may not be the solution. And a classic modernist house is in distress and may be looking for a buyer. We tour the Lovell Health House with the owners and preservationists eager to restore it.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A bill in Sacramento called SB50 would override local zoning rules to legalize small and mid-size apartment buildings around public transit and job centers. How will the bill affect LA's historic residential neighborhoods? And fashion designer Rudi Gernreich used clothing as a medium for his progressive views on sex and gender. A new show at the Skirball Cultural Center tells his story, and shows the outlandish outfits he created.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Wing is a new “women-centric” private club and co-working space in West Hollywood that signals femininity and feminism through design. Is the result a little bit too perfect? And what would you put inside a time capsule that would reflect Los Angeles today? The Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial near downtown LA is getting a renovation, along with a new 2019 time capsule that will include submissions from the public.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Just two days after the shocking fire at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, the French government announced an international competition to redesign the spire. But how and what exactly will they rebuild? During the week of Passover, we’ll hear about the exodus of Bauhaus-inspired architects and their impact on the Holy Land. And the best view of a stage is typically front of house. Not for photographer Klaus Frahm, who captures what theater stages look like behind the decorations.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">DnA slaps on the sunscreen and heads to Coachella to meet the artists, designers and architects who have brought the polo fields to life with colorful large-scale art installations that pop on Instagram while creating a sense of place. Architect Francis Kéré talks about a life journey that’s taken him from a tiny village in Burkina Faso, Africa, to center stage at Coachella. Young local artist Sofia Enríquez shares her joy at designing her first installation there.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">LACMA's proposed museum extension made a big leap forward this week, amidst heated arguments for and against the project.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> LA County Supervisors voted Tuesday to release $117.5 million towards the $650 million cost of Peter Zumthor's replacement building. LACMA director Michael Govan makes the case for an adventurous design for a creative city. And music lovers heading to Coachella will see one of the desert’s brighter blooms en route: Sterling Ruby’s vivid orange Specter. Ruby tells DnA why orange figures in so much of his art.</span></p>

<p>Fans of the rapper Nipsey Hussle are remembering his music as well as his contributions to South LA, where he was raised.</p> <p>The 33-year-old was shot and killed Sunday outside The Marathon store he owned.</p> <p>While many rappers leave their neighborhoods when they find success, Hussle was an entrepreneur and an activist who stuck around and invested in his community, even having a hand in creating the logo for Destination Crenshaw.</p> <p>On this episode of DnA on ATC, Frances Anderton tells Eric Roy about Hussle’s commitment to the art and economy of South LA.</p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Over 100 years ago “nature boys” and TB sufferers came to Southern California seeking its healthful sun. We hear how the region’s curative powers birthed experimental architecture and a massive “wellness” industry. And 25 years after Kurt Cobain’s death, we explore his unlikely impact on fashion.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are big changes coming to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">LACMA took a step closer this past week to getting rid of four old buildings and constructing a brand-new building by a renowned Swiss architect.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On this episode of DnA on ATC, Frances Anderton tells Steve Chiotakis what the project’s reduced footprint means for LACMA’s so-called “expansion.”</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A candidate's political logo may not get your vote, but it's meant to get your attention. We take a deep dive into the design of campaign logos and look at how the many Democratic candidates are trying to distinguish themselves through color, font and letter size. And, the Bauhaus turns 100. How did a maverick German art school change the world?</span></p>

<p>If you have driven by the intersection of Sunset and Western over the last few years you may have noticed a yellow-wrapped, half-finished big box. It’s been dormant for so long the yellow has faded to almost white. This is the Target store that was under construction and then had to stop - because the company didn’t get the right permits for the site. On this episode of DnA on ATC, Frances Anderton tells Larry Perel that it looks like the abandoned Target may finally be completed. But what happens to “Target Husk,” the online persona who has channeled the feelings and opinions of the incomplete big box store for the last four years?</p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Almost every residential development in downtown aims to attract pet owners, and doggie businesses outnumber those aimed at children. We’ll hear how dogs helped bring DTLA to life and are now impacting the design of buildings. Art from the black power era comes to the Broad, bringing Kool Aid-colored paintings, assemblage, Byzantine-styled portraiture, raised fists, and a room devoted to Betye Saar. The curators tell DnA their powerful exhibition is aimed at filling the “lacunae” in people’s understanding of the visual arts in the era of civil rights and soul. </span></p>

<p>If you’ve ever had to search for a place to rent, you know the phrase: “no pets allowed.” This can be a dealbreaker, especially if you’re homeless and would rather stay on the street than give up your beloved companion.</p> <p>This week LA County supervisors took steps to help. But isn’t a ban on pets hard on all renters?</p> <p>On this episode of DnA on ATC, Frances Anderton talks with Steve Chiotakis about how pets create a sense of home.</p>

<p>MOCA’s new director Klaus Biesenbach plans to restore “luminosity” -- and, maybe, water -- to the Grand Avenue building, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Arata Isozaki. Also, if you own an abandoned building or a vacant lot in Los Angeles, the city wants to talk to you about putting supportive housing there. And, an abandoned big box store in the heart of Hollywood has developed sentience. It posts to Facebook, and tweets. We’ll talk to "Target Husk."</p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Pritzker Prize for 2019 has been awarded to Arata Isozaki, the 87-year-old Japanese architect with a career ranging from brutalist libraries to an inflatable purple concert hall. His most famous building is LA’s MOCA, or Museum of Contemporary Art, on Grand Avenue. However, the 1986 structure atop Bunker Hill, a collage of geometric forms buried mostly underground, has never been a huge hit with the public. But MOCA’s new director Klaus Biesenbach sees poetry in the design -- likening the complex to a “sunken pool” -- and promises to restore its “luminosity” and bring greenery to its arid plaza. He even hopes to incorporate a reflective water feature into the basement entry area, thereby making his sunken pool metaphor real.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Frances Anderton talks to KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis about it, on DnA on ATC.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Your smartphone is addictive. Do you need to “Marie Kondo” your apps, put down the phone altogether, or use it as a “drug” dispensary? DnA takes a tour of hidden LA bars that ban phones, talks with a computer scientist who recommends “digital minimalism,” and meets an app entrepreneur who wants to relieve anxiety with “digital drugs.” </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In a bid to raise funds for mass transit improvement, LA’s Metro board will vote tomorrow to study a range of strategies that include congestion pricing and taxing ride-hailing services. But what Metro really needs to do, many Angelenos say, is make the mass transit experience better through added security, more reliable service and urban vitality around the stations. Frances Anderton talks to KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis about Metro’s plans, on DnA on ATC.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Angelenos hate traffic but aren't flocking to mass transit. Will congestion pricing and fees on ride-hailing services change their minds? Metro’s board is about to vote on a package of revenue-raising, congestion-reducing measures, and listeners tell DnA what would entice them onto buses and trains. Frank Gehry turns 90 on Thursday. But that’s no reason to stop working. We look back, and forward, at his career, in a conversation peppered with anecdotes and zingers.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">High-speed rail is going off the tracks. Now state Republicans are floating the idea of an autobahn through the Central Valley. A lawmaker is proposing new lanes through the Central Valley without speed limits, arguing that it would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Frances Anderton talks to KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis about the prospects for German-style high speed driving, on DnA on ATC.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Would Christian Bale be nominated for his portrayal of Dick Cheney without help from prosthetics? Will 3D printed crowns beat out bejeweled crowns? DnA is focusing on two crafts: hair and make-up and costume -- following a drama over the proposed, then reversed, plan to edit four of the crafts categories at Sunday's Oscar telecast. Also, a look at why the red carpet spotlight this year should fall on the men.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gov. Gavin Newsom is pumping the brakes on California’s high speed rail project. Or is he? His comments in his first State of the State address have supporters and opponents of the bullet train questioning the project’s future.v</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Coachella Valley comes into bloom with Desert X and Modernism Week. But some of the Desert X artworks raise questions about development in Palm Springs. And the art fair Frieze LA opens with a nod to its Hollywood clientele on the backlot at Paramount. What will ticket holders see in the “New York streets”? How about LA’s “Homegrown Art Fair” Art Los Angeles Contemporary and other art fairs competing for eyeballs?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">As Hollywood awards season revs up, the LA art scene is also in full throttle. On </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">DnA on ATC</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, Frances Anderton talks to </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">All Things Considered</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> host Steve Chiotakis about the launch of Desert X, a site-specific art biennial in the Coachella Valley, the debut of Frieze LA, the Southland’s first outing for the prestigious global art fair, and why art fairs and awards events coincide. </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Velvet Buzzsaw” is a new thriller that takes on the contemporary art world with blood, gore and parody. DnA talks to writer/director Dan Gilroy as well as the real-life LA artist who made the paintings that kill. And in 2012 some furnishings designed by architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler disappeared from a warehouse at USC. Now the theft has come to light. What happened?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The LA Rams are going all the way this Sunday, taking on the New England Patriots for Super Bowl 53. Fans held a send-off rally this past weekend at the construction site for the new Rams and Chargers stadium in Inglewood. So how’s that massive building project coming along?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In South LA’s Crenshaw District, a 1.3 mile public art project promises to honor a neighborhood’s history -- and stand against the threat of gentrification, as the train rolls in. As LA’s awards season gets underway so does its art season. The LA Times’ Deborah Vankin explains a packed calendar of art fairs and how they mesh with Tinseltown, as well as a changing and expanding museum scene.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">California’s new governor Gavin Newsom wants to build a lot more housing in the state: as many as half a million new houses a year. But who’s going to build all that housing? A new report from a labor think tank says the state is short about 200,000 new construction workers to meet those goals.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The solution to Los Angeles traffic may be an unpopular one: charging people for using the roads in core districts at peak times. If Metro approves congestion pricing, it’d make Los Angeles the first city in the US to put a price tag on road use. Plus, Monocle is closing its New York bureau and opening one at Culver City’s hip shopping center Platform. Monocle founder Tyler Brûlé explains why LA matters and why brick-and-mortar retail is not dead (and neither is print).</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On January 17, 1994, Angelenos were awoken at around 4:30 am by the earth shaking beneath us. The Northridge earthquake and its aftershocks killed 57 people, injured thousands, and toppled and damaged tens of thousands of buildings. Tomorrow marks 25 years since that major quake.What steps have we taken to secure our buildings for when the Big One does hit?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Planners are calling Minneapolis the most radical city in America, after a vote to allow duplexes and triplexes to be built on lots previously zoned for only single-family homes. What are the chances something like this could happen in LA? And a talk with Dezeen founder Marcus Fairs turns to the Brexit saga and how it’s affecting -- and implicating -- the “97% of creatives” opposed to a split with the EU.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The state’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, called for a “California for all” in his inauguration speech this week. He also called for a “Marshall Plan” for affordable housing and said that “we have a homeless epidemic that should keep each and every one of us up at night.” So what will Gov. Newsom do to address housing and homelessness?</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Consumer Electronics Show opens Tuesday in Las Vegas and there is buzz about 5G. But do we have the juice to power the increased speed and connectivity it will bring? DnA talks to net zero buildings engineer David Stillman. And hip hop has produced music, art, fashion and dance. Is it shaping architecture? Curator Sekou Cooke discusses the impact of hip hop culture on buildings.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Governor Jerry Brown has championed California’s high-speed rail project. But as he passes the baton to Gavin Newsom, its future is in question. Newsom has openly considered scaling back high speed rail. Republicans want the project cancelled completely. And voters are lukewarm. A recent PPIC poll found a majority of Californians don’t see it as a priority. So what does that mean for construction so far? Because, yes, a lot has been built and it’s already changing the Central Valley.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>On Christmas Day, many people will be at home with loved ones. But what kind of home exactly? A “gigamansion” in the hills where you’ll have a jellyfish room but you might not bump into your guests? Or a tent on Venice Beach, with a great location but no creature comforts or stability? In 2018, more than 50,000 people were living on the streets of Los Angeles, while others were building homes of 50,000 square feet or more. DnA looks at these two extremes in “This is Home in LA: From the Tent to the Gigamansion.”</span></span></p>

<p><span>In a city that has gone mad for tunneling, Elon Musk has managed to keep the spotlight on his Boring Company with a drip-drip of titillating news about his underground drilling project in Hawthorne. Months of wondering if this was all more talk than do were answered Tuesday when press and selected guests were invited for a big reveal. Frances Anderton shares the experience with Steve Chiotakis on DnA on ATC, and asks if Musk’s genius for geewhiz technology blinds him to other ways of thinning traffic.</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” is set in a recreation of 1970s Mexico City. The production designer Eugenio Caballero explains how they created the look for a “modern black and white” film. And if you're still looking for holiday gifts for the movie or design buffs in your life, listen up for suggestions from the creator of “Film and Furniture.” </span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Transportation officials in LA County have laid out 28 projects they want to complete before the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. To pay for it, LA Metro CEO Phil Washington last week floated a controversial approach: charging tolls on freeways during times of highest use, or what’s known as “congestion pricing.”</span></p>

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“The Cher Show” is a celebration of the rocky but triumphant life of Cher -- and 600 of her spectacular outfits created by the legendary designer Bob Mackie. Also, a production designer shares the decorating tastes of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And a mid-century concert hall gets restored, and with it a design mystery is solved.</span></p>