After all the news about production running away from Los Angeles, it's been great to hear about a movie that was not only made in LA, but is actually a valentine TO LA, to its historic downtown architecture and, believe it or not, to architects! Oh, and it's also an unrequited love story, starring Zooey Deschanel playing an elusive girl named Summer, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a lovelorn greetings card writer who would rather be an architect. My friend Frank Gruber, author of Urban Worrier: Making Politics Personal, alerted me to it, because of the architecture connection and the name connection (my daughter is called Summer) and today Chris Hawthorne writes about it in the LA Times: Here's what Frank Gruber had to say: ""500 Days of Summer" was clearly written by people who either studied architecture or hang around with a lot of (L.A.) architects. It's not only that the main character is depressed former architecture student who is now writing blurbs for greeting cards (he explains that he'd rather be writing words for permanent things like greeting cards rather than designing impermanent things like buildings -- possibly a comment on current debates in architecture circles), but the picture seems all shot in downtown L.A., and in the beginning Zooey Deschanel's character says she's so happy to be living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The two leads find the most romantic place in L.A. are the benches at Angelus Plaza overlooking the bottom of Bunker Hill, from which perch the former architecture student can point out all the old buildings he loves. An enjoyable romantic comedy to boot, sure to please all the double architect couples I know." I read an article with the movie's writers who say the movie was originally intended to be set in San Francisco. I hope their passion for LA is real! FEATHERED EDGE Summer in LA may not last 500 Days but there are around 60 pleasantly long days to fill. On previous DnA broadcasts, we've talked about the fabulous new public parks and about great spaces for hearing free concerts. There's also much going on indoors, with one of the must-sees being Feathered Edge, an installation by Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues at MOCA at the Pacific Design Center. Commissioned by former architecture and design curator, Brooke Hodge, it's an evanescent hanging structure made of thousands of suspended colored strings that is only imaginable, and realizable, in our age of digital design. This talented duo are at last getting some permanent public designs up in LA, with a public art piece about to be unveiled at the Department of Public Works Safety Permit Office, and a desk of undulating cardboard they've created at Ed Cella's newly opened LA space. JULIETTE JACQMIN AND HANDMADE NATION If you are interested in the ongoing revival of handmade design, especially if you are tempted to take up the arts and crafts yourself, check out the high quality vases and kitchenware by Juliette Jacqmin, a former Getty conservator, currently on show at The Clayhouse; that's a communal ceramics studio in Santa Monica, open to anyone who wants to try throwing a pot. For more on the global handmade phenom, listen back to last December's DnA, or take in the screening this month of Faythe Levine's movie, three years in the making, Handmade Nation. It's hosted by the Silverlake crafts emporium Reform School and Home Ec, and screens August 15 and 16 at The Cinefamily.
A few days ago we blogged here about the revival of interest in building homes more affordably using architects' patternbooks and houseplans. Well, one of the companies mentioned, Houseplans.com, has just acquired the rights to sell four plans conceived by the much-admired developer Joseph Eichler, who built liveable, affordable modern houses in California in the 1960s. Houseplans is run by a man who understands accessible modernity, Dan Gregory, editor-in-chief of Sunset magazine and author of Cliff May and The Modern Ranch House.
Julius Shulman was such an enduring and energetic presence one assumed he'd be around for ever. So even though he'd reached 98, it comes as a shock that he has finally passed. Shulman, who died last week, was a giant in Los Angeles culture; photographer of architecture whose seductive photos of California Midcentury architcture sold a lifestyle around the world. He was also a vivid personality: sharp, funny, full of life, and a man who did not suffer fools gladly. Even up until a few months ago Julius was attending events (many celebrating him and his enduring work), a little shaky on a walking stick, but wasting no opportunity to sound off on something that got his dander up. Today's DnA is a radio documentary about his life and legacy, featuring commentary from Shulman himself (from a conversation I had with him in 2002, broadcast for the first time today) about stumbling onto a career in photography, about that famous Case Study House #22 photograph, about the failure of architects to appreciate a comfortable sofa, and much, much more. We also hear from his photography partner in later years, Juergen Nogai, about what it was like to work with Julius; from his photography dealer Craig Krull about reinventing Shulman as a fine art photographer, as well as from "Visual Acoustics director Eric Bricker, Ann Viderikson, Elizabeth Armstrong and Frank Gehry, who was helped by Shulman in his early career. In case you want more on Julius, you can go see his photographs, taken together with Juergen Nogai, on show through August at Craig Krull gallery. And you can hear more from Julius, on DnA two years back, telling us about his favorite building in Los Angeles (hint: it isn't Modern).
WHAT ARE THE BEST SPACES FOR FREE SUMMER CONCERTS?
To air this show, however, we had to postpone or drop segments that had been scheduled, and a couple were time-sensitive, so we are airing them exclusively on the web. One is a conversation with KCRW's own music librarian and Sunday night DJ, Eric J. Lawrence, about open-air concert venues in LA. We had to include it now because by the time the next show airs, summer will be creeping to its end. I was inspired to do this segment after hearing Joan Baez at the Santa Monica Pier, where I and 1000s of others on the sand had a great time except we could barely hear a note, and then I happened by chance upon the Levitt Pavilion in Memorial Park in Pasadena, which is truly an undersung treat. A golden bowl, a grassy slope to picnic on, easy access, and a mixed crowd. It shares some of the delights of the Hollywood Bowl and none of the hassle. So I wondered, which are the best spaces and places, acoustically, environmentally, to enjoy these concerts that make being in LA in summer such a pleasure? Eric J. Lawrence has the answers.
And here are some of the venues he talks about:
http://www.santamonicapier.org/twilight.html
http://whiteskymedia.com/clientprojects/pershingsquare/
http://hammer.ucla.edu/programs/detail/program_id/240
http://www.grandperformances.org/
http://www.levittpavilionpasadena.org/
http://www.balboapark.org/calendar/detail.php?EventID=2362
Honorable mentions we didn’t get to:
http://skirball.org/index.php?option=com_ccevents&scope=sers&task=summary&oid=23&ccmenu=d2hhdcdzig9u
http://www.getty.edu/visit/events/saturdays_405.html
http://www.valleycultural.org/concerts_park.php
COULD LA HAVE ITS OWN HIGH LINE?
Also, there's so much talk about infrastructure at present, but I run into many designers, planners, engineers and more who feel a sense of powerlessness at the process by which projects are chosen for funding. Are they the best for the community, for the environment? Will they make as much of a mark on our cities and landscape as did the fruits of the FDR administration WPA (Works Progress Administration, later known as Work Projects Administration)? Dana Cuff, professor of architecture and urban planning at UCLA, is also a director of a think tank there known as Citylab, and she and the Citylab team have created a competition, called WPA 2.0, to get people involved in thinking about solutions. The competition is open to the public and they have a great jury that includes Cecil Balmond, one the most creative engineers in the world, and Elizabeth Diller, New York based architect and co-designer of the High Line, New York's fantastic new park on a disused railway that in Cuff's view examplifies the future of infrastructure design in post-industrial US. Registration for the competition closes July 24, so do listen to what Dana has to say about it.
Charles and Ray Eames were not the only designing couple who made their mark on California midcentury Modern design. So too did Jerry and Evelyn Ackerman, partners in decorative art and design for 50 years, and now, belatedly, getting their own retrospective. MASTERS OF MID-CENTURY CALIFORNIA MODERNISM at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego was curated by Jo Lauria and Dale Carolyn Gluckman, who explain, "these Los Angeles-based artists, now in their eighties, shared their interest in, and devotion to, the principles of modern design — as defined by the Bauhaus philosophy of integrating fine art and craftsmanship with industrial practices to produce quality products. Using their deep knowledge of art history, traditional craft and folk art, the Ackermans have created a body of work remarkable for its diversity of styles, techniques and materials." The exhibit runs through January 10, 2010. Pictures by Steve Oliver.
It’s one skill to design; it’s another to sell ones design skills. So Michael Webb, LA-based writer and sometime guest on DnA is offering architects some help this summer, with ARCHITECTS REACHING OUT, two seminars he's teaching at UCLA on Saturday August 8 and 15, from 9.30am-1pm. I'll be dropping by to offer some tidbits from the media front; visiting speakers also include photographer Benny Chan (who told us about his large-scale photos on last month's DnA), architect Lorcan O'Herlihy, Sam Lubell, California Editor of Architects Newspaper (a guest on DnA in March); Christine Anderson, principal of Christine Anderson & Associates Public Relations and Shannon Vincent-Brown, web-page designer.
It used to be commonplace for builders in the 18th and 19th century to construct houses according to books of plans and details called "pattern-books.” Much of my own childhood hometown, the classical city of Bath, England, was built this way. Now, Habitat for Humanity is getting help from pattern-books, courtesy of the Southern California Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America (ICA&CA-SCC). ICA has launched a competition in which 25 firms submit designs for houses in the Southern California “vernacular” tradition, with winning designs to eventually be published in a pattern design guidebook that will, says Chapter Coordinator Diana Sipos, “help inform HFH when they draw up plans for new homes.” In Socal of course, vernacular can mean many styles, including, says Sipos, Spanish Colonial Revival, California Craftsman, English Colonial Revival, Modern and Contemporary. Winning designs will be announced Thursday at a special reception, benefiting Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles at the new Waterworks, West Hollywood, on July 16, 2009 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Designing according to a pattern-book is cheaper than hiring an architect to build a custom-designed house, and with demand growing for affordable Modern design, houseplans designed by contemporary architects (for which they receive a royalty, rather than the usual percentage of a custom-designed house) are enjoying a new vogue – you can find examples at houseplans.com, run by former Sunset magazine editor Dan Gregory, and Hometta, a young company recently encountered at Dwell on Design in Los Angeles.
BMW is at work on the production of a 100% electric, zero electric MINI, and they are calling on 500 people in the LA and New York areas to field test the cars. The company says it wants to find out how well the "limited range of such a vehicle" fits with busy daily lives, whether the lithium-ion batteries hold up? Can they be smaller, charge quicker, go farther?
One of the lucky 500 who has been selected to help answer these questions is Sandra Kulli, principal of Kulli Marketing and member of KCRW Foundation Board. She describes the experience here:
July 2009
Mini E..a tale of Sparky and me: PURE EE
About 8 months ago, I entered a contest to win the honor of field test- driving an all-electric Mini Cooper. With only 500 cars for the whole US, I figured my chances were slim. About two months ago, Mini called to say I’d been selected! Not sure, but mentioning being a KCRW listener in my application probably helped me win this honor.
Before we could get the car, we had to get wired.
It took a few weeks to get the electric service hooked up in our house. We now have a separate TUM (time of use meter) that measures how much power the Mini E uses, separate and apart from the rest of our home. We are super green (clothes line instead of dryer) so we really didn’t want to send our electric rates up with this new addition. SCE was very enthusiastic about all-electric cars and were eager to put in the TUM.
It’s been just two weeks since I picked up Sparky and drove her home. She zoomed over Malibu Canyon, regenerating power whenever I took my foot off the gas pedal. She can go up to 120 mph, but the fastest I’ve gone is 71! That’s her name - Sparky. And her soon-to-be license plate will be PURE EE.
That’s right. She’s all electric. Which means I’m not contributing to my carbon footprint while driving the cutest car on earth. Which means I don’t go to the gas station anymore. Which means I qualify for stickers for the carpool lane. But then, with a 100-mile max range, I won’t be using that carpool lane to drive to San Diego any day soon.
If you are out and about, you might see one of these MINI Es: gray with yellow stripes on the roof plus a few strategically placed yellow electric plugs: the fuel tank, front and rear bumpers, and the roof!
I’ll check back in and let you know how it’s going. So far, Sparky's a joy and I’ve become an environmental hero to my 9-year-old granddaughter.
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