Biennale + EggNog (= Bee-egg-nog-leh)

Dear DnA friends,

I hope you and yours had a restful Thanksgiving.

There are plenty of Design Things to Do before settling into the next holiday break — such as Art+Architecture at a SCI-Arc exhibit, Rick Caruso in conversation with Marc Appleton at the PDC, and a Bieggnogle (Biennale + EggNog) combining seasonal drinks with presentations of Angeleno-designed solutions to global problems at the just-finished Venice Architecture Biennale.

Before that... ICYMI.. some real estate news has the design world agog. Case Study House 22, aka the Stahl House, has been put on the market for $25 million. The Hollywood Hills home is 2,200 square feet, with two bedrooms and 2.5 bathroom. Is this price a new Gilded Age joke (from The Agency realty)? Or welcome proof that quality is worth more than quantity? Or a triumph of marketing?

The Stahl House, 1960, Julius Shulman; © J. Paul Getty Trust. GRI, LA (2004.R.10)

The 1960 home, designed by Pierre Koenig for Buck and Carlotta Stahl, on the market for the first time since its creation, is elemental — a bare-bones, open-planned, L-shaped structure wrapping a pool atop a site with staggering views. Julius Shulman’s ingenious nighttime shot of two graceful ladies relaxing in the lounge area exaggerated the cantilever of the house and defined #22 in perpetuity as the epitome of postwar glamor. One wonders if the house would have earned its iconic status and eye-watering price tag without this photo.

What the house, completed in 1960, surely represented was architectural optimism. With its concrete chunk foundation (built by Buck Stahl), its steel frame structure with 20-foot wide panes of now impossibly thin glass, a roof of industrial steel decking, and a concrete floor with radiant heating, #22 captured a moment of limitless horizons in LA, metaphorically and architecturally. Like the earlier Eames House (1949), it elevated the industrial aesthetic, paving the way for the Pompidou Center and other high-tech buildings by the likes of Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano, and Norman Foster.

The Stahl House seen from the road, 1960, Julius Shulman; © J. Paul Getty Trust. GRI, LA (2004.R.10)

"Hope Has an Address"

Today, the mood is different. LA has become a costly, unwieldy, and more cautious place to build. The Eaton and Palisades fires have traumatized homeowners and tested the allure, not to mention viability, of hillside living in high fire risk zones. Architects and builders have raced to support the rebuild, but with humility, knowing that many homeowners simply want to recreate something akin to what they lost, at a feasible price, not be boundary pushers in an architectural experiment.

There are efforts to rationalize and speed up the production of housing, echoing Case Study House program founder John Entenza's original intent, if not its architectural purism: to realize affordable, easy-to-build houses in keeping with modern times. This is modeled currently in a showcase of prefab homes in Altadena, created by UCLA's cityLAB. Read on for more about that showcase and the other impressive housing initiatives by cityLAB, below.

cityLAB's Altadena Prefab Showcase. Photo by Frances Anderton.

Pledge Your Support

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Design Things To Do

Artists and Architects at Work: A Speculative Dialogue
Tuesday, December 2nd, at 7 PM; exhibit open through December 7th
Art/Space 114, 114 W 4th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Over the holiday, I met a young artist who told me he believes that artists and architects no longer collaborate in the fluid, non-transactional way of 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles. Somehow, I thought today's shared digital tools had enabled more cross-fertilization.

What do the experts think? Find out Tuesday night when SCI-Arc presents Artists and Architects at Work: A Speculative Dialogue at Art/Space 114 Gallery in DTLA. Hosts Tom Gilmore (Art/Space 114 director) and Tim Disney (2413 Hyperion director) will talk with Clara Kim, Chief Curator at MOCA, and Winka Dubbeldam, the new head of SCI-Arc.

If you miss the talk, be sure to check out Speculative Artifacts, a show of 18 thesis projects from recent SCI-Arc grads, on view at Art/Space 114 Gallery through this weekend.

Click here for info about the talk.

Image of Art/Space 114 Gallery courtesy of SCI-Arc. Is that Tom Gilmore in the window?

The Majestic opens at Harbor House
Thursday, December 4th, 5:00 PM
921 S. Beacon Street, San Pedro, Los Angeles, CA 90021

Architecture! Food! Music! Art! Tech! It all comes together in The Majestic, newly installed within Harbor House, the former "Harbor View House" YMCA building that has been admirably restored and adapted into housing by the architecture firm Omgivning (whose Creative Director, Morgan Sykes Jaybush, is also relocating defunct houses to fire zones).

The new supper club is a venture of the Trani family (J. Trani’s Ristorante and Trani’s Dockside Station) and promises "a unique blend of dining, art, and technology; combining culinary excellence with immersive art and sound."

Its Thursday opening coincides with San Pedro’s public First Thursday Art Walk. Thank you Shane Reiner Roth for the heads-up.

Click here for details.

Image of Harbor House courtesy of Omgivning.

cityLAB Powers Forward
Designing Research | Reimagining Housing
Wedge Gallery, Woodbury University, 7500 N Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank, CA 91504
Friday, December 5th–January 9th, Opening Friday, December 5th, 6:00PM

Altadena Prefab Showcase
2231 Lincoln Avenue, Altadena, CA 91101
Through December 7th

Small Lots, Big Impacts RFQ
AIA/LA, 4450 West Adams Boulevard, LA, CA 90016
Monday, December 8th, 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM

cityLab, a think tank housed at the UCLA architecture department, punches far above its weight. Helmed by Dr. Dana Cuff, a core staff of six architects, designers, and planners (plus allied researchers, faculty, and partner institutions), pumps out research and realizable policy ideas aimed at solving sticky problems in housing and the urban fabric.

A ten-year study by cityLAB led to the game-changing, statewide ADU legislation.

Since 2019, they have been working alongside UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools and the California School Boards Association to help school districts figure out ways to build much-needed housing for school teachers and staff.

This year, they dove into post-fire rebuilding efforts by teaming up with partners, including LA4LA and a range of manufacturers, to create a showcase of affordable prefab homes at a site in Altadena. They range from manufactured, trad-looking 2-bed homes to chic 200 square feet ADUs. The show has been extended through Sunday. If you don't make it there, and want to understand the pros, cons, costs, and differences within the world of prefab housing, make sure to read this useful explainer.

Click here for details about the showcase.

Earlier this year, they launched Small Lots, Big Impacts, a two-stage competition whose end result is intended to be innovative, low-rise, low to medium density residential complexes on city-owned sites for rent or purchase by the "missing middle."

Phase one involved a design competition to find exemplary design schemes; phase two involves the release of the city’s request for qualifications for the parcels. That deadline has been pushed out several times, and cityLAB says it will be issued in January 2026. This coming December 8th, the city lab team will hold an informational session for anyone interested.

Click here for details.

If you want to learn more about how cityLAB does what it does, head over to the Wedge Gallery at Woodbury University, and check out their exhibition on these "four of cityLAB’s most significant Reimagining Housing projects to date." Go cityLAB!

Click here for details.

A model prefab at Altadena Prefab Showcase. Photo by Frances Anderton.

Rick Caruso and Marc Appleton in conversation
Wednesday, December 10th, 12:30–2:30 PM
Silver Screen Theater, 2nd floor, Green Building; Reception, Thomas Lavin, B310, Blue Building, Pacific Design Center, 8687 Melrose Avenue, West Hollywood 90069

Marc Appleton, designer of luxe period revival homes, sits down for a conversation with the once (and maybe future) mayoral contender Rick Caruso, developer of malls including The Grove and Palisades Village, which survived the Palisades Fire.

You can hear them in a ticketed conversation hosted by Thomas Lavin at the Pacific Design Center. Expect them to “explore how our part of the state is changing due to cultural, economic, and environmental forces, and how we can harness these forces to create an even more vibrant tomorrow.”

Click here for tickets.

Palisades Village, 2018. Photo by Frances Anderton.

From LA to Venice to LA: Bieggnogle!
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Thursday, December 11th, 5:00–8:30PM

The goal of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, which just closed after a highly attended, five-month run, was “to mobilize every form of intelligence to confront a changing climate,” says director Carlo Ratti.

It turns out some of that "intelligence" emanated from Los Angeles, and next Thursday, Friends of Residential Treasures Los Angeles (FORT: LA) will host a showcase of ideas, plus holiday drinks. Think, Biennale + Eggnog = Bieggnogle (Bee-egg-nog-leh)!

Dixon Lu, manager of operations in the US and Middle East at MAD, curators of the China Pavilion (and designer of the Lucas Museum), will talk about how they manifested “Coexistence Through Nature and Technology.”

Sukanya Mukherjee, a SCI-Arc grad, will show the film she made (with Arnar Skarphéðinsson and s. ap arkitektar) for Iceland Pavilion's post-apocalyptic "Lavaforming" installation, which proposed "the technique of harnessing volcanic eruptions to shape new architecture."

Hear about the varied takes on the optimistic PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity at the US Pavilion, from LA firms Brooks + Scarpa, Johnson Fain, Office Of: Office, Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects (EYRC), People's Architecture Office (which also showcased Renew City Plugins at the China Pavilion), and FORT: LA.

It's at Barnsdall Gallery Theater. Hope to see you there!

Click here to RSVP.

Still from the Lavaforming film. Courtesy of s.ap architects.

Move over, Willy Wonka!
Ed Rusha's "Made in California," in chocolate and lithography
Chocolates available now; Hammer Museum show opens Saturday, December 20th

High art meets taste-full merch in a partnership between Ed Ruscha and andSons Chocolatiers. The limited edition (300) bar is molded in the form of a topographic section of California's Central Valley and comes in a cloth-wrapped, keepsake box, featuring a reproduction of Ruscha’s Made in California (1971).

You can’t lick it, but you can can view a Made in California lithograph at the Hammer's upcoming exhibition The Grunwald Center at 70: Five Centuries of Works on Paper, featuring nearly 100 works by over 90 artists, including Dürer, Posada, Lautrec, Kandinsky, Picasso, White, Kent, Asawa and more, from the extensive holdings at the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts.

Click here for the chocolates, and here for the Grunwald show.

Made in California, the edible version.

What I'm Digging

At this gift-giving time of year, I turn to hubby Robin Bennett Stein (just as Maureen Dowd hands off her column to brother Kevin at Thanksgiving). He routinely expresses great enthusiasm for visiting art museums, but then the moment we arrive at a temple of high culture, he speedwalks around the show and makes a dash for the gift shop, which often exhibits a high level of curation. Following are three of his favorites, in his words:

Healing Power at The LA Phil

This joint, nestled right there in the bosom of Disney Concert Hall, is so mad groovy, it lifts you gently up a foot off the ground. First off, you walk in and there spinning on their vinyl HiFi phonograph is Charles Mingus breathing new life into Duke Ellington compositions. And suddenly, you are transfixed by a wall of every single symphony orchestra instrument shrunk down to Christmas tree ornaments. The detailing on the bassoon, the size of a Bic Pen, put a spell on me. I had to touch it 15 times: the dark wood of the fussilage, the silver keys, the black and brass trim. I dream of that bassoon playing Peter and the Wolf in my soul. The miniature cello, have mercy.

They have, for cryin' out loud, a Post Malone Xmas tree ornament with his ridiculously over-tattooed kisser. As well as Bowie, Willie Nelson, and Bach and Mozart Christmas tree ornaments. Then this fab gift shop has loads of rather hipfully, tastily curated classical and jazz vinyl and CD action, and endlessly cool books on music on the much taboo subject of how really, truly, the only medically feasible pharmaceutical a sick puppy (like me) could ever really need is all genre types of music. So flush all your dope and pills down the toilette and rush out to this heavenly methadone clinic disguised as a smart, well-rounded, multi-cultural, music-centered healing emporium.

Photo by Frances Anderton

Dressing the Art Army at The Broad

This gift shop has really gotten its act together. It has very craftily taken the old tropes like Warhol's Brillo Pad box or Velvet Underground banana riff and turned them into cool patches, stickers, bookmarks, decks of cards, and hoodies. I was just there on Saturday. How was I supposed to NOT get a coaster that says, "MUSEUM NERD" in the coolest neo-psych-jazz font and coloration ever? Honestly, how was I NOT supposed to nab one of their enamel pins that riffs off the artist Patrick Martinez' work? In this case, a pin with just two simple words that got right under my skin. The words? "COLOR ALLOWED," a most excellent pushback on the whole Jim Crow signage everywhere for decades all over the American South. Oh, and I really, really, really wanted the Jeff Koons balloon puppy speaker system. I did not get it because it's a tad pricey, it'll set ya back 750 Yankee dollars. I still want one, though.

The Broad also has most excellently done T-shirts reflecting the newly opened Robert Therrien show. I really wanted to grab the T depicting one of his giant card table folding chair sculptures, it was olive green and felt like if you put it on, it made you a soldier of the arts. I always dreamed of being in the art army that might one day declare victory for humankind.

Photo by Frances Anderton

Sensory Seduction at Craft Contemporary

This is veritable labyrinth of wonderment. First, you are lured in by rich reds, yellows, oranges, and cobalt blue of various indigenously crafted scarves, shawls, headbands, and cowbell straps. You're instantly transported to the Andes, or do I mean Tibet, or do I mean an Arctic circle Lapland worship gathering to honor the reindeer god? None of the offerings ever feels mass-produced or trite or commodified to within an inch of its shelf life. Everything they put on offer... you simply have to touch, hold, gauge the weight of, and plot to acquire. This is a gift shop by seduction of all five senses. And there are several smart sciency items too that test to see if your brain even still works, or God forbid, still thinks about stuff, or about anything, about meaning or purpose. Go here soon, if you dare.

While there, check out Material Curiosity, the new show juxtaposing colorful mosaics, textiles, carved wood panels, wall hangings, ceramics, and more, by Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman with complementary works by three contemporary artists, Porfirio Gutiérrez, Jolie Ngo, and Vince Skelly.

Photo by Frances Anderton

That's it for this week. Thank you as always for reading.

Yours,
Frances

P.S. Subscribe to the KCRW Design and Architecture newsletter here, get back issues here, and reach out to me at francesanderton@gmail.com.

Design Things To Do

Artists and Architects at Work: A Speculative DialogueTuesday, December 2nd, at 7 PM; exhibit open through December 7thArt/Space 114, 114 W 4th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013

What I'm Digging

Artists and Architects at Work: A Speculative Dialogue
Tuesday, December 2nd, at 7 PM; exhibit open through December 7th
Art/Space 114, 114 W 4th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013