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?

Sandra Kulli, Sparky and an approving granddaughter

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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Join us at Dwell on Design!

We've just received word that we can take five friends with us to this weekend's Dwell on Design, which we went into plenty of detail about in yesterday's post.

Be our guest for three days of panels, speakers and demonstrations, including access to the exhibition, all sponsored by Dwell, starting Friday June 26, through Sunday, June 28.

Interested? Drop us an email at dna AT kcrw.org and we'll get you ticketed. If you're already planning on attending, we'll see you there!

~Alissa Walker

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Dwell on Design is this weekend!

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The children's adventure area in Vista Hermosa Park

Politics, money, ecology. . . and design -- those are just some of the complex considerations in a public park project that, says LA Times critic and DnA guest Christopher Hawthorne, make landscape design one of the most compelling design disciplines right now, and public parks among some of the most interesting new spaces the Southland. On this month's show we visit destinations that serve a specific community while also being new regional destinations worth a visit by any out-of-towner or Angeleno on a summer staycation.

The soccer field at Vista Hermosa Park

1) Vista Hermosa, shown left, is a gorgeous park on restored hillside West of downtown in the Westlake neighborhood. It was created by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the LAUSD (adjacent to the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, formerly known as the beleaguered Belmont Learning Center) with landscape design by Mia Lehrer and Associates. The park offers something for everybody: walks through fragrant planted areas; a children's play area with giant sculpted tortoise and snake in place of the usual jungle jim; a soccer field; and restful terraces to simply enjoy its fantastic view of downtown.

Aromatic plants line a snaking pathway through Vista Hermosa

2) Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, created by the Baldwin Hills Conservancy and State Parks on restored hillside once drilled for oil; it's dramatic and wild and has got to be one of the rare locations in LA where you can get an astonishing, near 360 degree view, enhanced by a graceful visitors center and terrace by Safdie Rabines Architects.

Visitors Center by Safdie Rabines at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

3) Orange County Great Park: with designer Ken Smith at the helm and a team that includes Vista Hermosa's Mia Lehrer and Associates, this is a hugely ambitious public project, transforming the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a 1300 square feet park complete with a newly created 2.5 mile canyon and lake. The park is in process, for now you can enjoy the Great Park balloon rides, dance performances and other programmed activities in the 27 acre "preview" park.

4) Annenberg Beach House -- a destination that inspires pride in our oft-criticized public realm. The product of a private-public partnership between the Annenberg Foundation, the City of Santa Monica and State Parks, this beach club aimed at the general public offers R+R at a very affordable ticket price, in a great architectural package that mixes modern and historic. It consists of a restored guesthouse and sumptuous tiled swimming pool remaining from the neoclassical estate designed for actress Marion Davies and her lover, William Randolph Hearst by Julia Morgan, coupled with a modern clubhouse by architect Frederick Fisher, landscaping by Mia Lehrer and Associates and public art by Roy McMakin. Not to mention it's right beside the very popular Back on the Beach cafe, about to reopen back on the beach! 

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Part and parcel of the privilege of hosting a show on KCRW is now maintaining a blog relating to it. If you happen to read the DnA blog you may have noticed it refreshes itself rather sporadically and that is because I confess I belong to the camp that is still not fully at ease with blogging or tweeting or whatever other haiku-like forms of expression we are supposed to engage in these days to keep ourselves visible. Unlike my inimitable associate producer, Alissa Walker, for whom all things web-related come as naturally as breathing, I struggle with the instant posting of thoughts and reports, preferring to rewrite and correct things umpteen times, or post opinions only when I feel really, really strongly about something, both of which require the opposite skills from blogging.

Having got that off my chest, I am now going to refresh this blog with some recent items that matter:

Bernard Zimmerman

1):    the news that Bernard Zimmerman has passed away, at age 79. Every community has its characters and in the LA architecture world Bernard Zimmerman was one of them. Contemporary of Frank Gehry, longtime teacher at Cal Poly Pomona, Zimmerman was an ardent advocate of LA architecture, creator over the years of many exhibits of emerging LA architects, often with numbers in the titles (New Blood: 101, being one of the more recent). Mainly though, Zimmerman was the community’s conscience. He was utterly convinced of the rightness of a stringent brand of Modernism – its social as well as its formal principles – and didn’t hold back from chastising any designer he felt had fallen short of its ideals. At times he could go over the top in excoriating someone for the sin of applying too much decoration or working for a client he deemed less than ideologically pure, but he was a true believer, a dedicated teacher and unusually selfless in promoting other designers, often more than himself. He will be missed. A memorial will be held Monday. 

Sam Maloof (Image from UCR Art History Association)

2): the news that Sam Maloof has passed away. This revered designer and woodworker died peacefully at age 93 after a long career fashioning fine and distinctive custom furniture. Read the Times obituary here. His legacy is not only his own work, and the memory of a lovable, immensely energetic and passionate craftsman, but a current rebirth of interest in the art of craft. A memorial will be held Tuesday, at Tuesday  June 9, 2009  at 3pm, at: Kresge Chapel, School of Theology, 1325 No. College Ave, Claremont, Ca  91711

Skin and Bones

3): the news that Architecture and Design curator Brooke Hodge had been dislodged from her perch at MOCA, where she has for the last eight years mounted many shows, among the most notable her "Skin and Bones" show, which explored the mutual influences in fashion and architecture. Not only is it regrettable to see Brooke have to depart (reportedly budget problems meant some curators had to be cut and those who had focused on a specialty – architecture, photography -- were chosen over the museum’s generalists) but this decision also raises the larger question of who or what institution here will henceforth champion architecture and design, particularly LA architecture and design, one of the region’s signature artistic contributions to contemporary culture. Dating back to the directorship of Richard Koshalek, MOCA has maintained a strong architecture and design department. Who will step into the breech? Read more on this in the Architect’s Newspaper. Incidentally, not only was Brooke let go but her upcoming show was also abruptly cancelled – devoted to LA architect, Thom Mayne. For his latest contribution to the art of architecture, see Nicolai Ourrousoff on Thom's new building for Cooper Union in New York. 

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Art and Design Walk

It's an art and design weekend coming up with artwalks tomorrow in both Culver City and West Hollywood (see poster, left). Check out what's au courant, and support local designers, artists and retailers. Also, in the evening a show opens at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) that offers a very intriguing eye on Los Angeles: "Benny Chan: Traffic" is a display of very large prints of helicopter-eye images of LA traffic by architectural photographer Benny Chan, who finds the beauty in freeways and  traffic snarls, from a distance. The show opens along with an exhibit of Edith Heath ceramics and two painting shows (Annie Lapin and Five UC Davis faculty of the mid-1960s, including Wayne Thiebaud).

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Billboard "blight" at Highland and Franklin (photo by Dennis Hathaway)

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Picture 7

Probably LA's biggest contribution to architectural history is its residential design (think Irving Gill, Rudolf Schindler, Greene and Greene, Frank Lloyd Wright, Wallace Neff, Gerard Colcord, John Lautner, Cliff May, Frank Gehry, the list goes on and on. . .), and a new generation of architects is continuing to test ideas here. On Sunday, you can get to peek inside some of the recent creations on the Westside, on the AIA self-guided tour,  The Herron Residence by Michael Lee Architects (Michael Lee, AIA), King Residence by John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (John Friedman, FAIA; Alice Kimm, AIA), Painted Light Studio by by Jennfier Wen Architecture (Jennifer Wen, AIA), and Venice Prefab by Jennifer Siegal of OMD are the four homes that will be showcased on the May 3rd AIA/LA Spring Tour. Tickets are NO LONGER available via web, so there is no relevant address. Tickets are available only by physically going to WILL CALL between 11:00AM and 1:00PM.

Read the Press Release

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Photo by Barry Robinson; Illustrator: John Hersey

If there were two words we'd pick to describe Kit Hinrichs, one would definitely be artist—the talented graphic designer has over 40 years of acclaimed work under his belt—and the other would certainly be storyteller—his melodic inflection and hearty laugh transform even the simplest tale into one worth telling. The aptly-titled show "A Storyteller's Art," closing Sunday, May 3 at Art Center's Williamson Gallery, attempts to encapsulate the career of the artful storyteller and Art Center alumnus (he graduated with an advertising degree in 1956).

Over 200 pieces are featured in the exhibition, including the editorial design of the design and business magazine @issue (which sadly just switched from a print publication to all-online). His clients run the cultural and corporate gamut: Design Within Reach, Restoration Hardware, USC, Musak, The California Academy of Sciences, Napa Style, the Experience Music Project and even the Boudin Sourdough Bakery Museum (we didn't even know there was such a magical place!).

Photo by Terry Heffernan

Since 1986, Hinrichs has been a San Francisco partner of the legendary firm Pentagram, where he's designed the firm's annual typography calendar as well as the recent book The Pentagram Papers, a massive compilation of the Pentagram Papers, 36 tiny, somewhat "secret" publications sent to a select group of the firm's contacts since 1975.

One of those Pentagram Papers was designed by Hinrichs and features an iconic object that's near and dear to his heart:  the American flag. His starred-and-striped memorabilia collection is beyond amazing—even his house is draped in them—and he's written and designed an entire book on the topic, as well, Long May She Wave, which is also featured in the show.

We hear Hinrichs will even be in attendance this weekend for the closing events, so be sure to look out for him. He looks just like this:

Kit Hinrichs

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