Could a Santa Monica traffic median become a park, and other ideas for "porch-like" spaces in the beach city...

Dear DnA friends,

I hope you and yours are doing well on this Veterans Day.

Whoever said, ironically, "May you live in interesting times," could have been referring to now. It's been another tumultuous week, with Democrats winning on "affordability" as POTUS futzes with the Lincoln Bathroom and Musk is made a trillionaire. Meanwhile, AI continues to eat our brains.

So it is no wonder that many of us are seeking simpler times... such as when we would sit on the porch and shoot the breeze.

The Porch has been a theme this year. In following an architect duo in Altadena as they rebuild for themselves and many of their neighbors, they have told me that what many of their clients want in their replacement house is a front porch, a place to hang out with family and friends, and view the world outside (more on that on a forthcoming KCRW story). The US Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennial chose as its theme PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity and put out a national call for 21st-century interpretations of this “unheralded American icon, persisting across scales, geographies, communities, construction methods and histories.”

So when artist-photographers Nicola Goode, Jona Frank, and I were selected to be 2025 Santa Monica Artist Fellows and tasked with giving a public presentation, we too took up the theme of the porch, both physical and metaphorical. This Thursday evening, we will share reflections on "porch-like" or "third" spaces in the urban fabric of Santa Monica, both real and imagined.

For example, Jona has a strong desire to see more opportunities for gathering on the San Vicente traffic median. So she placed benches on the grass (below) and waited to see how passersby reacted. Her story will be one of several we will share.

The Porch: A Public Conversation is free and open to all. Click here to RSVP.

Now onto the many other Design Things to Do, which include WestEdge Design Fair, Case Study Adapt unveiled, a show of works by the late Evelyn and Jerry Ackerman, along with works by other artists, including Porfirio Gutiérrez (above), and an Untapped conversation about the childhood homes of some LA designers and artists.

Frances Anderton, Jona Frank, and Nicola Goode, San Vicente traffic median, 2025. Photo by Andrew Turman

Design Things To Do

The House I Grew Up In
Making Space: L.A. Symposium
Wednesday, November 12th, 6:00 PM–8:30 PM, program starts 6:30 PM
Henrybuilt, 806 Mateo Street, Los Angeles, CA 90021

How did the childhood home of Kenturah Davis (below) inform her art? What about architect Annie Chu? Find out this Wednesday when Davis, Chu, Erich Joiner, Sam Klemick, Joe Dangaran, and I share reflections on “The House I Grew Up In” and how it impacted our work and lives today.

This symposium, Making Space, is cohosted by the design journal Untapped and L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, at the DTLA showroom of Untapped publisher, the design company Henrybuilt.

Click here for information and to RSVP.

Sonder, portraits by Kenturah Davis for Downtown Inglewood station on the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Image courtesy LA Metro

Good Development
Westside Urban Forum Design Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, November 12th, 6:00 –9:00 PM

Depressed by some of the clunkier new buildings going up around LA? Consider instead the good ones.

This Wednesday evening, the Westside Urban Forum, a lively group of planners, developers, and designers, will hand out design awards for thoughtful urban development at a ceremony that's free and open to all.

It takes place in the Wende Museum's new Glorya Kaufman Community Center, itself a winner of several accolades for its design.

Click here for details.

Glorya Kaufman Community Center. Photo by Frances Anderton.

Intersections: The Architecture of Victor Adegbite and Charles Polónyi in Ghana
and
Enrique Martínez Celaya: The Sextant

Celaya in conversation with Joes Segal, November 22nd, 2:00–4:00 PM
Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230

While at the WUF awards, be sure to check out the two fascinating new shows at the Wende Museum, about architecture in two postcolonial countries as they embraced socialism.

Intersections: The Architecture of Victor Adegbite and Charles Polónyi in Ghana explores the new housing (below) built following independence from Britain when Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, "envisioned Accra as a showcase of African statehood and invited architects to help shape its future." Ghanaian-born Joe Osae-Addo, cofounder of LA's A-D museum, describes the Howard-educated Adegbite as "our local hero."

Enrique Martínez Celaya: The Sextant showcases sculptures and paintings by the Cuban-born artist and former scientist. It centers on a "sugar-coated scale model of the house built by his father in the sugar-producing town of Nueva Paz, Cuba, between 1957 and 1963," the time spanning the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Celaya will discuss his work with Wende Museum Chief Curator Joes Segal on Saturday, November 22nd.

Click here for details.

Image courtesy © Eric Don-Arthur/Wende Museum.

Case Study: Adapt Unveiled
Friday, November 14th, 6:00 PM
Wong Conference Center (HAR101), Watt Hall, USC School of Architecture, 823 Exposition Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90007

Soon after Dustin Bramell lost his family home to the Palisades Fire, he and his friend Leo Seigal established Case Study: Adapt (CSA).

They selected ten architects they believed embodied the goals of John Entenza's pioneering program and then connected them to homeowners who they felt were in sync with the original mission — not people “seeking a 9000 square foot house,” explained Bramell in this FORT:LA-hosted conversation.

Their designs for custom, "innovative, climate-resilient residences" will be unveiled to the public at a reception and presentation at USC Architecture school this Friday. Hear from architects Barbara Bestor, Noah Walker, Sharon Johnston, Brett Woods, Ron Radziner (Marmol Radziner), Silvia Kuhle, David Montalba, Steven Ehrlich, David Thompson, and Geoffrey von Oeyen (below).

Click here to RSVP.

Geoffrey von Oeyen, architect of the Horizon House, rebuilt after the 2018 Woolsey Fire. Image courtesy von Oeyen Design

Material Curiosity by Design: Evelyn & Jerome Ackerman
November 15th — May 10, 2026; opening, November 15th, 6:00–9:00 PM
Craft Contemporary, 5814 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA

Modernist houses can be stripped down and minimalist. Not when they were touched by the hands of Ackermans. Over a multi-decade marriage and prolific design partnership, the late Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman adorned modern homes with colorful mosaics, textiles, carved wood panels, wall hangings, ceramics, and more, featuring abstract and figurative designs.

Now their work is gathered in an exhibition opening this Saturday at Craft Contemporary, along with a complementary show by three contemporary artists, Porfirio Gutiérrez (see image top of page), Jolie Ngo, and Vince Skelly. The goal, says the museum, is to spark "a dynamic conversation about materials, innovation, and craft." Also available at the show: the new monograph Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman: California Mid-Century Designers (Pointed Leaf Press)

Click here for details.

Ackermans, Morning Dove tapestry, photo by Dan Chavkin, courtesy of Pointed Leaf Press.

Exiled in L.A
SAH/SCC In-Person & Zoom Program
Saturday, November 15th, 11:00 AM
Neutra Office Building, 2379 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039

In 1936, Leopold Fischer (1901-1975) left Nazi Germany, where he had been designing working-class housing that experimented with ecological construction and domestic planning. He arrived in California and set to work on creating custom homes.

Fischer arrived later than fellow émigrés Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, and never achieved their level of fame or influence. But this Saturday offers a chance to learn more about him, when Volker M. Welter discusses his new book, Exiled in L.A.: The Untold Story of Leopold Fischer’s Domestic Architecture (Getty Research Institute) with GRI Senior Curator Maristella Casciato.

Click here for tickets.

Ralph and Phyllis Kohlmeier House, 1941, by Leopold Fischer. Photo courtesy Volker M. Welter.

WestEdge Design Fair
Thursday, November 20th–Saturday, November 22nd
Barker Hangar, Santa Monica Airport, CA

WestEdge Design Fair returns to Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport for its tenth outing.

Meet 150+ interior, furniture, and product designers, and enjoy new offerings including an installation by Kim Gordon, and, at the opening night party, ReBUILD Room Vignettes & Auction, featuring visions of “home in the face of loss and renewal." Designers include Katie Brightside, Rydhima Brar/R·Terior Studio, and Thomas Hayes Studio x Canyon Creative. Proceeds support Habitat LA’s ReBUILD LA™ initiative. Hubby DJ Caviar will spin the tunes.

Also, meet members of Team Palisades, the neighbor-led support network formed after the January wildfires. At the ReBuild Connect Zone, they will offer resources and expertise on resilient, climate-conscious design.

Click here for tickets.

The crowd at the opening of WestEdge, 2024. Photo by Frances Anderton.

Stop the Drips

While on the topic of resilient, climate-conscious design... the US Green Building Council California (USGBC-CA) has launched a global architectural design challenge inviting ingenious designers to "Shape the Future of Water Use at Home."

Participants are tasked with inventing "market-ready, scalable solutions that promote water-efficient living by optimizing water use, reducing energy demand, maintaining comfort and convenience, while ensuring access to water and sanitation for all." There are cash prizes.

Applications are open through December 5th. Details here.

Image courtesy USCGBC-CA

What I'm Digging

Venice-opoly

As a place whose real estate went from bargain basement to more pricey than Beverly Hills, Venice, CA, sounds like a natural for Monopoly. For Venice local Mark Rago, who has created Venice-opoly, the game was a vehicle for sharing local history in a fun way. In relocating the classic board game from Atlantic City to the beach, LAist reports that he recast “streets" as local mom-and-pop businesses, while the "Go" spot is the Venice skatepark, the canals stand in for fancy "Park Place," and Ocean Front Walk is now "Boardwalk." Funds raised from sales of Venice-opoly will support Venice Heritage Museum where it is on sale now, and soon to be available at stores in Venice and online.

Image courtesy Venice-opoly.

I think, therefore I am... no longer?

René Descartes' observation "I think, therefore I am" is understood to be proof of our humanity, of our existence. So do we exist when we let a machine do our thinking for us? I've already been asked that question by my daughter and some of my design students (all in their early 20s) as they forlornly contend with a world in which they are pushed less and less to exercise the muscle known as the brain. Now the New York Times unpacks the correlation between social media use and cognitive decline in How A.I. and Social Media Contribute to ‘Brain Rot.’ Brain rot, incidentally, was the Oxford word of 2024.

Image by Sean Gladwell in Women's Health.

"Rats to Riches"

Larry the cat was adopted from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to "address a rodent problem" at 10 Downing Street, per The Guardian. Fifteen years later, he is arguably the most popular occupant of No. 10 and has seen out six prime ministers. Now he is headed for TV stardom, in a new Channel 4 documentary series, David Baddiel: Cat Man, exploring Britain’s love of cats. Larry has met numerous world leaders, including Barack Obama and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and, as told to The Guardian reporter by a Downing Street source, “He loves the red carpet.” “The minute something happens on the street, especially an official visit, like clockwork, he’ll be out the front.” Adorbs!

Larry the cat at 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP/ in The Guardian

Well, 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.