Pool grottoes on hold in tussle over affordable housing in 90210!
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Dear DNA friends,
I hope you’re doing well and are ready to hit the town for the upcoming Design Things to Do!
Before that, let’s take a detour to Beverly Hills where residents have learned they might have to wait to add that planned pool grotto or bowling alley - until the city delivers on mandatory affordable housing units.
On one hand, it was hard not to laugh at such deprivation in 90210. On the other, it’s no laughing matter. As deftly reported by LA Times housing reporter Liam Dillon, Beverly Hills is one of many cities resisting state mandates for more housing, and now state and local officials are taking steps to force its hand.
In response to the block on permits from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Curtis A. Kin, a longtime BH real estate attorney Murray Fischer told Dillon, “I’m shocked by the judgment…It would mean that the city is at a standstill."
The tony town is a powerhouse of home remodeling, but not the construction of new low-income housing, meaning the builders and gardeners and housekeepers and nannies and hotel and restaurant staff, who keep Beverly Hills chugging along, have no option but to drive in from miles away, adding to air pollution, traffic, and personal stress.
As with other cities going through the same struggle, BH voters insist their city of single-family homes and low to mid-rise apartment buildings has no room for more. “We have intentionally created a desirable environment by deliberately avoiding over-development and over-densification,” Thomas White, chair of the Municipal League, told Dillon.
So now the state is overriding the pushback with incentives like big density bonuses – the right to add more height and more units — for buildings containing up to 100% affordable dwellings in areas zoned for development. This means the advent of some extremely tall towers on thoroughfares like Wilshire Boulevard, and their scale may upset locals even more.
It does not have to be this way. Beverly Hills itself has a legacy of fine multifamily structures (see shining examples in my book, Common Ground), and visionary developers and designers in the Southland have shown that it is possible to build housing that is dense, livable, and affordable. You can see just how in Awesome and Affordable: Great Housing Now,at Friends of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles (FORT: LA).
Awesome and Affordable is a year-long, new media project that attempts, with bold imagery and accessible language, to explain and elevate low-income housing. Co-written by David Kersh and yours truly, it features monthly releases of “awesome" affordable buildings (see Vista Ballona, below), a substantive glossary of housing terminology, and public events like this upcoming discussion about Vienna‘s social housing program.
Check it out, and please let us know examples of affordable housing that you think are awesome!
Vista Ballona, designed by FSY Architects, shows how a building can be "dense" and livable. Image courtesy FSY.
Design Things To Do
Let There Be Light! Electric Moons: A talk with author India Mandelkorn A+R, ROW DTLA, 777 S Alameda St Building 1318, #100, Los Angeles, CA 90021 January 25th, 6:30 PM
“Electrifying design” is on the menu this Thursday evening at A+R showroom at Row DTLA, says store owner Rose Apodaca.
I'll talk with author India Mandelkern about her new book, Electric Moons: A Social History of Street Lighting in Los Angeles. You'll hear about the history of LA's remarkable street lighting, its connection to public art (like Vermonica, below), surveillance, and infrastructure, all while sitting comfortably in a showroom featuring some of the best interior lighting. Enter to win a Luna lamp in a raffle that includes a copy of the book and a special cocktail by Aplós. Photographs taken for the book by Tom Bertolotti will be on display in the store.
Free and open to all. Reserve a seat by emailing rsvp@aplusrstore.com.
The public artwork Vermonica was reinstalled in 2020. Photo by Ian Byers Gamber; courtesy Hat & Beard Press
Under the Influence 004: Maria Langarita and Victor Navarro in Conversation with Jia Yi Gu Baldessari Gallery Residence Saturday, January 27th, 5:00 - 8:00 PM
Under the Influence, hosted by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, brings together speakers from Los Angeles and outside to reflect on the long arm of SoCal modernism and its influence on today’s culture and architecture.
This Saturday’s fourth outing will be a treat: the Baldessari Gallery Residence (2018) in Santa Monica, designed by Frank Gehry for the late artist, is the setting for a conversation between Maria Langarita and Victor Navarro, of the Madrid-based firm Langarita Navarro, and Jia Yi Gu, director and curator at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture and co-director of Spinagu.
Casa PS-50, Tarifa, Spain, 2022, designed by Langarita Navarro.
Powerful Threads and Words Two shows open at Craft Contemporary January 28th – May 5th, 2024 Exhibition Opening Reception: Saturday, January 27th, 6:00 - 9:00 PM
According to its website, “The Happiest People on the Planet Donate to Craft Contemporary.” I’m not sure their donor happiness is provable, but one sure thing is that Craft Contemporary is a delightful museum whose shows, at the cusp of art and craft, are invariably worth viewing. This Saturday sees the launch of two new exhibitions:
This is a display of artworks by nine diaspora Iranian artists who “engage diverse forms of the Persian alphabet… as a visual and symbolic component to longing for a homeland and unity beyond borders.”
Maria A. Guzmán Capron and Minga Opazo use recycled fabrics to make artful sculptures with a message. Opazo’s work “draws attention to environmental degradation caused by textile waste,” while Guzmán Capron “aims to highlight awareness of multicultural identities to empower those who step out of so-called societal norms.”
Parastou Forouhar, The Written Room. Courtesy of the Artist.
UnHoused: A History of Housing in Santa Monica Friday, February 2nd – December 31st, 2024 Santa Monica History Museum 1350 7th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401
As mentioned above, housing is topic #1 in Los Angeles right now and frankly has been front of mind for decades as the region consistently grapples with supply and demand, preservation versus expansion, inclusion and exclusion, and more. All while serving as a laboratory for experiments in domestic living, including bungalow courts (below) and innovative houses.
Now Santa Monica Museum has taken on its own housing evolution, “from the Tongva people to its contemporary beach town metropolis. UnHoused: A History of Housing in Santa Monica opens next week and runs through the end of the year.
The exhibition invites visitors “to engage with the future through interactive models and thought-provoking questions like “What makes a home?” and “Why does Santa Monica look the way it does today?”. While it centers around the future of housing, the curators emphasize “that housing is not merely a structure but a reflection of community, inclusivity, and shared heritage.”
More information here. See a model of Santa Monica housing by James Rojas at the top of the page.
Bungalow Court in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, restored by Duvivier Architects; photo by Frances Anderton
Brilliant Creativity Mayer Rus talks with Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran Thursday, February 1st, 6:00 PM Leica Gallery, 8783 Beverly Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90048 Cocktail reception to follow, at FLEXFORM LA/33SIXTY, 308 N. Robertson Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90048
One of the more entertaining characters in the world of high-end interiors and architecture is Architectural Digest's Mayer Rus. So I’m happy to see that he will be the interlocutor of an upcoming talk entitled Brilliant Creativity: Lasting a Lifetime, with the designers Brett Woods and Joseph Dangaran. They are principals of the architecture firm Woods + Dangaran and have forged a career creating highly crafted, understated furniture and restored and ground-up homes that perpetuate the modernist ethos.
It takes place at the Leica Gallery, with a cocktail reception to follow, hosted by FLEXFORM LA. While at the Leica Gallery, catch its current exhibitions of photography, by Matthieu Bitton, and Kwaku Alston.
RSVP: coralie@socialblueprint.com
Desert Palisades, Palm Springs, by Woods + Dangaran; photo by Joe Fletcher
Synthetic, Organic A Conversation with Elena Manferdini and Claire Isabel Webb Italian Cultural Institute Thursday, February 8th, 6:00 PM 1023 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90024
Ever since she stunned visitors with her sensuous, laser-cut dresses at a fashion show 20 years ago, SCI-Arc professor Elena Manferdini has been fusing digital technology with representations of the organic in marvelous product design, clothing, shoes, buildings, and much more.
Next month, the Italian Cultural Institute, located in Westwood Village, will unveil the exhibition FLORA, "a journey through the fantastical world created by Atelier Manferdini." It will open with a public discussion between Manferdini and Claire Isabel Webb, director of the Future Humans program at the Berggruen Institute. I’ll moderate this conversation about the implications of invented life, and art.
“In our current age of digital ephemera and computational imagery, nature appears familiar and at the same time eerily synthetic,” says Manferdini, adding that “FLORA exhibits this dichotomy between natural and artificial representation, a silent but constant protagonist” of her firm.
In a world of messaging overload, it is hard for designers and marketers to break through the noise and create a trend. But I couldn’t help waking up when a pitch for "Mob Wife Core" landed in my email box. Needless to say, this creative spin on maximalism originated on TikTok and has been quickly picked up, including by the online gallery Invisible Collection and luxury design house L’OBJET. Their PR says 2024 is the year for a “garishly flamboyant… mob wife aesthetic” that will crush “millennial minimalism.” Some items, like this Sofa Broderna Andersson, recast with a flashy fur coat, are at mobster-level prices; others are affordable to the rest of us.
Sofa Broderna Andersson – circa 1950 – re-upholstered by Norki; Invisible Collection
Bubbling Waters
Of all the wellness tonics offered in Southern California, basking in natural geothermal springs is one of the region's greatest pleasures. Unfortunately, many spas have been built over or rendered off-limits to the general public. So it’s great to learn that the Murrieta Hot Springs, which has been a religious center for many years, is reopening to the public on February 1st.
This is going to be a hot ticket, but know you can bathe in natural mineral waters right here at Beverly Hot Springs in Koreatown, recently saved from demolition but still facing an unsure future (see Springs in the Air, here). BHS tops the list in this article about secret spa treats in LA.
Happy to see the return of All Creatures Great and Small, the gentle little show about a vet’s life in 1930s/40s Yorkshire. These beautifully scripted stories about life, love, and loss in a small farming community are a deeply soothing counter to our current world of chaos and confusion. Based on the books by James Herriot, screened on PBS, All Creatures Great and Small is an ode to a time and place where the biggest upset in a day might be some runaway goats climbing on the kitchen table.
Abby and Anna play Betty and Hilda, characters on All Creatures Great and Small; image courtesy PBS
As always, thank you so much for reading this newsletter. Hope to see you at some of the design events around town.
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Image from FLORA, courtesy Atelier Manferdini%20(18).png?upscale=true&width=1200&upscale=true&name=email(600x74)%20(18).png "Not a member? Become one today!")
