Dear DnA readers,

I hope you are doing well in yet another turbulent week, especially all who are impacted by the attacks on Iran, including many friends in design-rich Tehrangeles.

Meanwhile, another big story is impacting the design and architecture world. Early March is typically when the annual winner of the Pritzker Prize is announced. Now, the “Nobel” of architecture awards has been postponed, thanks to the long shadow of Jeffrey Epstein. Thomas Pritzker, son of Jay Pritzker, founder of the prize, appears multiple times in emails related to Epstein. He has resigned his position as executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and the unveiling of the 2026 Laureate has been put on hold, until “soon,” according to the award's website.

When Jay Pritzker and his wife Cindy launched the Pritzker in 1979, which comes with $100,000, their goal was to bestow a “meaningful prize [that] would encourage and stimulate not only a greater public awareness of buildings but also would inspire greater creativity within the architectural profession.”

In many respects, it has done so, perhaps even to a fault. Won by Angelenos Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne, this laurel became such a high accolade that, like the MacArthur Fellowship and Nobel prizes, it conferred perhaps excessive status on a singular few. It also obscures the collective effort that architecture entails and, in its first two decades, overlooked women, partnerships, and architects of African descent.

Aravena's "half a house" (incremental housing) model lets residents add their own details to a basic structure.

However, this prize could at times give a much-needed nudge to a talent or building type or design approach — yes, highly creative formal design, but also social goals. The 2016 prize drew attention to Alejandro Aravena's imaginative work on low-income housing. The 2021 laureate for the French firm Lacaton & Vassal elevated the creative adaptive reuse of unloved buildings. "Never demolish, never remove — always add, transform and reuse,’ they say. This was a refreshing break from premiating the new, new thing.

Speaking of which, there is much talk of an avalanche of new housing coming our way in converted, defunct office and other commercial buildings thanks to LA's new Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance going into effect last month. This is an exciting prospect, to be sure, especially when you consider that one of the buildings slated to become 95 desirable apartments is the 1970 Brutalist landmark, the Sunkist Headquarters Building in Sherman Oaks (top of page).

But plenty of market and regulatory roadblocks to conversion remain in place in Los Angeles, and I am interested in what's actually doable and what's in the pipeline. I'll be reporting on it for KCRW, so keep me posted if you have an adaptive reuse project underway in the City of Angels.

Design Things To Do

Top Pick: Docomomo

Our Pick for this week is Docomomo's 2026 conference, which is taking place in LA from March 17th to 22nd, the first time in America since 2004.

Docomomo is a global membership organization originally founded in Europe in the 1980s (when Postmodernism was in full force!). It focuses on the documentation and conservation of modernist buildings and neighborhoods worldwide. This year, its many members are descending on LA, arguably a place where modernist architecture was able to bloom in the sun, in an eclectic range that includes Case Study houses and the aforementioned Sunkist headquarters.

“There's no denying the fact that our climate enabled a very unique type of modernism that really was able to embrace the indoor and outdoor living that was not so successful in other climates,” says conference chair and historic preservation expert Katie Horak.

The Edward Killingsworth House (1961), Crosby Doe Associates; courtesy docomomo

Historical timing helped too. Modernism, especially when it took the form of brutal urban renewal slashing through old cities and cultures, was not always welcome. Los Angeles was young, however, and, at mid-century, optimistic, notes Horak. “We were at an economically prosperous time. There was so much innovation in the city, from the aerospace industry and technologies all the way to the excitement of the entertainment industry. It drew people in creative fields to experiment and be innovative and be rebellious. And that's something that I think gives Los Angeles modernism its special flair and makes so much of it so unique and diverse.”

The conference consists of three solid days of “rigorous academic sessions” held at USC’s School of Architecture, on the themes of Modernism in the Sun, Late 20th Century Modernism, Creativity and Collaboration, Community Adaptation and Repurposing. As lighter fare, there are some very enticing tours — such as Claremont Modern, and a tour of five LA houses by the legendary renegade Charles Moore (highly recommended!!!).

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar, designed by Frida Escobedo

There are also events like a closing Keynote from Frida Escobedo, award-winning Mexican architect, who will take on Underlying Futures, “a plural prospect of the future, engaging with the themes of climate, community, and creativity as they relate to modern architecture.”

Tickets have sold out for some events, but you can buy single tickets to others through the end of this week. Or you can view the whole thing online. 

Quick Picks

LA design showrooms on the Westside come together for a showcase and chance to mingle with design “legends” of the Weho and La Cienega design districts, including honoree Joel Chen at Design LA, this week March 2nd–5th. 

While in the design district, check out HENRYTIMI, a graceful display of monumental furniture and fittings by the Milanese designer Henry Timi, in a new show space at 8745 W 3rd St, LA, created by Mass Beverly’s Mary Ta. For appointments, write to Info@maryta.com.

Plus, catch the current display of art and functional artworks by 30+ artists on show by appointment at The Future Perfect at the Goldwyn House, including Lindsey Adelman’s Illuminated Mobiles II.

Chairs by Henry Timi; photo by Frances Anderton

If housing is your passion, check out Abundant Housing LA symposium and hear from councilmember Nithya Raman and other speakers hoping to ease the path to more housing, not less. Thursday, March 5th, 9:00 AM–1:00 PM.

The Carson-based International Printing Museum marks Women’s History Month with Celebrate Super Women, a Book Arts Lab, on Saturday, March 7th, where you can print a collection of four pre-set letterpress posters to “hang in your window, give to friends, or bring to marches.”

Technology and memory meet in "Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry," a museum-wide installation at USC Pacific Asia Museum, with museum holdings and new works by over 20 artists, including Gautam Rangan, below, deploying digital tools to depict personal journeys through myth and the immigrant experience. The public opening is this Saturday evening, March 7th.

By MC Instal 3 Gautam Rangan Four Guardians Photo JWPictures, 2025.

On March 12th, Kulapat Yantrasast will sit down with the public intellectual Paul Holdengraber at JACCC (Japanese American Cultural & Community Center), quite a model of LA modernism itself, with its 1983 Isamu Noguchi Plaza. This is part of its ongoing series Moveable Feast. Atop wide-ranging themes, the pair will argue for “the paramount importance of JOY as a form of resistance in these troubled times.”

Also on March 12th, a terrific, diverse line-up of architects will discuss their world at the 10th Annual Architects Panel hosted by LAHQ in DTLA. With Mark Guberman, Brian Lane, Rachel Allen, and Barbara Bouza.

What I'm Digging

Design Terrors

The Housemaid did not garner nominations for the Oscars, taking place Sunday, but I loved this soapy drama starring Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in a “postfeminist” revenge movie whose twist still caught me by surprise. In case you have not read a thing about this box office hit, now screening online, design obsession plays a central role, as it also does in By Design, a quirky-sounding take on objectification (of women and chairs), which I look forward to viewing.

The "housemaid's bedroom. Evan McKnight/Lionsgate

Moneylust

There is more objectification — of money — in The Steal — IMHO one of the best heist series in years, starring Sophie Turner (Game of Thrones) in winning form as a seemingly hapless participant in a "steal" in the City of London with a message.

Still from The Steal, courtesy Amazon Prime.

A "Good Developer"

Speaking of powerful women, meet 32-year-old Bridget Wexman, a young developer and now head of 4Site development company, producing workforce apartment buildings with sizzle and curb appeal in Northeast LA. She finds that she is often the only woman and youngest person in the room. But she has embraced the chance to absorb lessons from all players in the construction industry, and has learned she has the “organization” and “impatience” for development, even taking pleasure in seemingly mundane tasks, like passing building inspections! Check out my interview with her here, part of The Good Developer, published by FORT: LA.

Bridget Wexman, on the roof of Barranca, one of her company's developments. Photo by Frances Anderton

What I'm NOT Digging

Family Friendly Assassins

Maybe hubby and I watch too much TV, but we've become aware of a troubling trope: assassins with children. Black Doves, The Day of the Jackal (the remake), The Night Agent, Unfamiliar all feature stylish and loving mothers and fathers who can't wait to get home and play with kiddo as soon as they are done blowing some heads off. So much so that they become relatable characters, muddying the morality of cold-blooded murder. This may in fact vibe with real-world changing views on political violence.

Luckily, I have Twinkle to provide a distraction from these troubling depictions.

Well, that's it for this week's newsletter. I hope you like the new format. Write me with design news and questions at francesanderton@gmail.com. Get back issues, here. And remind your friends to sign up for the newsletter, here.

Yours with very best wishes,

Frances