Design and Architecture

Geoffrey von Oeyen completed a dream house for his brother, only to see it destroyed by the Woolsey Fire two years ago. As he nears completion on the rebuild, he reflects on living in the wildland-urban interface. Also, Janna Ireland is on a mission to tell stories about Black people and their creativity. She talks about her new photo book of buildings by the architect Paul Revere Williams. 

Ventilation has become a life or death issue as as experts find that COVID-19 infections increase in poorly ventilated interiors. DnA looks into the extreme measures being taken to improve air conditioning and asks whether outside air is cheaper and healthier. D.J. Waldie has a writerly gift for divining the “sacred ordinariness” in the fabric of Los Angeles. In his new book “Becoming Los Angeles: Myth, Memory, and a Sense of Place,” Waldie reckons with himself and the region in a post-George Floyd world, while illuminating details of LA life, from telecopters to the tiles at Union Station.

The restaurants on Santa Monica’s Main Street took a huge hit from the COVID-19 shutdown. So the city government, restaurant owners and nearby residents hatched a plan: get rid of parking and give over the space to diners. In doing so, they created European-style al fresco dining, and took on the primacy of the automobile in Los Angeles. They also presented restaurants with a design challenge: how do you make a patch of asphalt with heavy concrete barriers into an attractive destination?

XPRIZE is offering $1 million to designers of a protective face mask that people will actually want to wear. Also, many buildings and neighborhoods are designed in a way that help cause chronic health conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Dr. Richard Jackson, pediatrician and city design consultant, talks about why well-lit staircases, green roofs, bike lanes, and pleasant sidewalks matter, especially in the time of coronavirus.

Statues of slave traders and Confederate leaders are being toppled or defaced during protests following the killing of George Floyd. How does that feel to a conservator who has worked on some of them? Andrew Baxter installs and restores sculptures and monuments, including the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. He talks about his craft, the criticism he has received, and his growing “awakening” about whether symbols of racism should go.

Redlining, restrictive covenants, urban renewal, and building freeways through  communities of color are all ways Los Angeles was shaped by structural racism. Now gentrification is a challenge. Real estate development consultant Judith Taylor explains how race has shaped place, and the work she is doing to bring equity and local investment into new development in South LA.

Big tech companies have remade the workplace in recent years with creative offices designed to stimulate disruption. Now Google and Twitter are telling employees they can keep on working at home — indefinitely. What does that mean for the workplace as a hub of ideas and socializing?

LA City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell talks about his plan to incentivize telecommuting after stay-at-home orders are lifted and other ideas for a greener, cleaner LA. Also, futurist Liam Young says there’s a path toward a slower pace and deeper humanity. 

The pandemic has brought many people pain and anxiety. To Wouter Vanstiphout, a professor of “design as politics,” it has also brought clarity about the weaknesses in the “shiny global city” and its culture, economy and values. Vanstiphout asks if cities based on tourism, fossil fuels and hypercompetitiveness can survive the coronavirus.

Pandemics can bring about innovation, especially in design and architecture. Sam Lubell talks to DnA about changes that may come to buildings and urban design in response to COVID-19.

You are working at home. But is your home working for you? Kelly Wearstler has some tips to improve your interior, at whatever scale.

Kelly Wearstler has held reign in interior design since arriving in Los Angeles in the 1990s. She’s now teaching an online MasterClass. Her tips for improving one's space might be timely for people sheltering in place.

LA’s construction sites are still a hotbed of activity, deemed an essential service. Could they become hotbeds for COVID-19 too?

The CDC is recommending that all Americans should wear cloth masks or other face coverings if they go out in public — amid new concerns that infected people with no symptoms can still spread COVID-19.

LA was once a destination for people who wanted to get away from crowded East Coast cities. The ideal was a single home with a yard and a car in the driveway. 

But over the last few decades, planners, designers and activists like Aaron Paley (co-founder of cicLAvia) have worked tirelessly to transform the Southland into a more social place, where people use mass transit and gather in streets and parks.  

As hospitals, clinics and other community organizations face a shortage of masks during the COVID-19 outbreak, homebound sewers have stepped up to help, from DIY crafters to fashion companies. Are homemade masks helpful to medical staff?

In a normal year, many Angeleno designers and showroom owners would be packing their bags soon to head to Milan for Salone del Mobile, the massive furniture fair. But now Italy is on lockdown, and the fair has been postponed, along with High Point Market in North Carolina and numerous other expos, fairs and festivals. 

Salone and High Point, originally scheduled in April, have moved to June, assuming quarantines have lifted. 

How are Los Angeles designers and showroom owners responding? 

Would you choose to rent or own a condo in a multifamily building, or own a single family home?

If you are an Angeleno with the means, it is likely that you would choose the latter. After all, a house is a means to personal freedom, outdoor space, control over design choices, and accumulating wealth.

That deep desire for a house and yard -- and the protection of that type of home -- has been promoted since the founding of Los Angeles. But now it may be getting in the way of upzoning the region.

Can we make multifamily dwellings the new California dream?

Frances Anderton talks to Christopher Hawthorne, LA’s Chief Design Officer, about reaching the “missing middle” with innovative ideas about the design and financing of homes.

Paula Benson says she is “a nightmare to watch a film with.” That’s because she’s always pausing the screen to check the decor, ponder who designed the furnishings and where to get them. 

Why does an architect have to be like a “camel in the desert?” Daniel Libeskind explains why in a conversation about his new book “Edge of Order.” He also shares thoughts about maintaining hope following trauma, not working for dictators, and why everyone should tap into their inner architect. 

Modernism Week in Palm Springs continues through Sunday with tours, talks, and a trip down memory lane to the heyday of Sunset magazine. Victoria Bernal recalls a childhood as a member of the “Sunset family” and says why the West needs a magazine that shares wisdom on everything from home design for California’s geography to how to “fish with a tire iron.”

And, can you cure bad sound with good sound? Kate Mishkin takes a sound bath at 1 Hotel and finds that “this is the exact right time for sound baths, because we are living in a society that's increasingly anxious and loud and chaotic.”

The movie “Parasite” is favored for many Oscars, including production design. Director Bong Joon Ho talks about telling a story of class through architecture, saying he gets “pathologically excited and euphoric” when he finds a good space. Eui-Sung Yi, LA-based Korean-American architect, reflects on living in a semi-basement and why Korean-American designers love Bong’s movies.

And how is it that very bad movie villains have such great homes? Designer and author Chad Oppenheim talks about the highly alluring “lairs” of movie villains, from James Bond’s nemeses to Nathan Bateman and Dr. Strangelove.