I hope you’re doing well and decompressing after the epic spectacles of this weekend: the World Cup final, viewed by an estimated 1.8 billion+ people, or The Odyssey, the ancient hero’s journey that garnered more than $260 million dollars on its opening weekend.

So what are we going to do with ourselves for the waning weeks of summer? Well, luckily there are a good number of Design Things To Do, including an Indie Book Crawl, a gathering at Lauren Halsey’s stunning sister dreamer, the elegant Fashioning Chinese Women show designed by Annie Chu, and, this Saturday, a fab FORT-hosted Frame The Future LIVE event at LA Central Library, featuring a bumper crop of speakers who will give answers to poster designers’ pressing housing questions like, "Why can’t LA have more courtyard housing when everyone loves it?"

Habitat, view north. Photo by Jason O'Rear, courtesy SteinbergHart.

Consider Habitat Residences, a newly opened apartment and office development in the light industrial area by the Expo Line at La Cienega and Jefferson, alongside a bike lane, the Cumulus Tower, See’s Candies, and Eric Owen Moss’s (W)rapper. But the design, by SHOP Architects with SteinbergHart, aims to soften its urban location; it steps back in profile and is clad in green metal to evoke, and offer views towards, the mountains both south and north. It has a public park designed by RELM.

One friend of mine called this the slightly dystopian-feeling spot the most interesting urban nexus in LA right now, and I agree. Habitat contains, yes, mostly market-rate dwellings with oodles of amenities and luxe interiors by Kelly Wearstler aimed at workers in the “techtainment” industry (though there are some affordable as well as missing middle priced units).

View south to Baldwin Hills from a rooftop dining room. Photo by Frances Anderton

But the company that built it, Lendlease, has backed off of new development in Los Angeles, said Development Lead Ryan Burton in this interview in The Good Developer series, also for FORT. He faulted the city’s “regulatory environment,” including the ULA or “Mansion” tax.

He is not alone. Many builders make the same argument; take Clare De Briere (abseiling at The Bloc, top of page), a longtime developer of adventurous adaptive reuse projects including Hercules campus at Playa Vista and The Bloc in DTLA, also interviewed for The Good Developer. She says that just getting projects approved can involve some 18 city departments! It’s not a good thing to lose the citymakers who aim high. Without them, one ends up with projects of box-checking mediocrity.

Oceanwide towers seen from the 10 Freeway. Photo by Frances Anderton

Interestingly, Lendlease was the general contractor on the infamous, abandoned Oceanwide “Graffiti Tower.” According to Urbanize L.A, that project may be revived, with Lendlease coming on board as co-owner and developer, and cleanup starting asap. Watch this space...

Design Things To Do

Top Pick: Journey Through Chinese Fashion

LACMA's galleries now offer contrasting curatorial approaches, from the ahistorical, infinite scroll of artworks and objects, with scant explanatory text, in the David Geffen Galleries, to more conventionally installed exhibitions in the other buildings.

One of the latter is the lovely Fashioning Chinese Women: Empire to Modernity, at BCAM, tracing “a century of transformation through the "loose-fitting embroidered robes of the late Qing Dynasty to the sleek silhouettes of 1930s qipao and the globally iconic cheongsam of the 1960s."

Annie Chu beside one of her favorite garments in the show. Photo by Frances Anderton

The installation, designed by Chu-Gooding, was conceived to evoke a journey through a traditional Siheyuan courtyard house, explains Annie Chu, with each room painted to visually thread together the richly colored fabrics, and with openings for views across rooms. Mannequins, designed by Jason Wu, show subtle changes over time through hairstyling, facial features, and footwear. While on tour, we met these visitors, below, specially dressed for the occasion. And the dresses are the stars in this discreetly elegant exhibition.

Two visitors at the Fashioning Chinese Women exhibition. Photo by Frances Anderton

Quick Picks

“Climate debates are going nowhere,” says Zócalo Public Square. So the nonprofit will host a conversation this Thursday, 7:00–9:00 PM, about efforts to “help words win where political ideology has failed.” With moderator Uwe Jean Heuser, and Carlos Curbelo, Heela Rasool-Ayub, and Kate Yoder. At ASU California Center at the Herald Examiner, 1111 South Broadway, LA, CA 90015. RSVP here.

The Herald Examiner Building. Photo by Frances Anderton

Can we bring back courtyard living in LA? How about we "decommodify" housing and create more community land trusts? Why can't we get big residential ideas for the 21st century built... with greener technologies and materials? Get answers to these questions and more this Saturday, July 25th, at Mark Taper Auditorium at Los Angeles Public Library in DTLA, 11:00 AM–12:30 PM, at "Frame The Future LIVE!" With designers and Bubba Fish, Ara Kim, Ben Warwas, Christopher James, Assoc. AIA, Jennifer Siegal, Josh Stephens, Kyle Jenkins, Steve Glenn, Quynh Nguyen and me. Free and open to all. RSVP here.

Posters on display at LA Central Library. Photo by Frances Anderton

This Sunday, July 26th, from 5:30–8:00 PM, check out Lauren Halsey's marvelous sculpture park, sister dreamer, at Western Avenue and 76th St., and learn more about this “architectural ode and gift to South Los Angeles,” from speakers Emanuel Admasu, Zion Estrada, Sean Canty, Katy Barkan, Mira Henry, and Matthew Au. Hosted by the LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. Attendees must be age 21+. RSVP here.

sister dreamer. Photo by Frances Anderton

Here is some good news: Independent bookstores are coming back! Celebrate these vital “Third Places” this weekend, on the self-guided Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl. Thirteen of LA County's beloved bookstores will welcome you during opening hours this Friday – Sunday (July 24th–26th). Spend $10+ on a book to get your Book Crawl Passport and first passport stamp. There will be a raffle and plenty of fellow bookworms to run into. More info here.

Image courtesy Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl

One of the young Indie bookstores on the Crawl, above, is Village Well, which, since its founding by Jennifer Caspar in 2021, has become a very popular Culver City gathering spot, serving coffee, conversation, comfy seating and, yes, books. Now it is partnering with Westside Urban Forum to sponsor a Cities Book Club to “read books related to Los Angeles and urbanism around the world.” First up, the Mike Davis classic City of Quartz. The meet-up is on Monday, August 3rd, 6:30 PM, Village Well, 9900 Culver Blvd #1b, CC, CA 90232. RSVP here.

The Village Well. Photo by Frances Anderton

Three contemporary artists of South Asian descent — Suchitra Mattai, Jagdeep Raina, and Swapnaa Tamhane — “transform textiles of their cultural heritage into celebrations of those who have been unrecognized in public displays of historical memory.” See them at Textiles As Monument, an exhibition opening to the public with a launch party at the Fowler on August 8th, 6:00 PM–9:00 PM (the show lasts through June 2027).

Image courtesy Fowler Museum

Incidentally, if working with textiles is your thing, come transform a T-shirt or jeans at the Samizdat Sundays at The Wende Museum in Culver City. The friendly museum of the Cold War offers "hands‑on textile workshops inspired by the spirit of creative resistance and DIY culture found in samizdat traditions.” Samizdat refers to the clandestinely printed and distributed texts in the Soviet state. The next workshop is Sunday, August 2nd, 10:30 AM–12:30 PM. 

What I'm Digging

Rebuilding... strength and a life with Tai Chi. Guy Horton lost not only his family’s rental apartment to the 2025 Palisades Fire, but also his local Tai Chi business. Now he’s kick-started his lessons at Beyond Karate center on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, and takes the class to Virginia Park on summer evenings. I’ve joined, and it is very calming to stretch and breathe deeply on the grass in the waning sun. As for Guy, he says that following the fire, the Chinese martial art has been a vital stress reliever. "We're all busy rebuilding our lives in different ways, and this is a way to help rebuild the body and mind after all that trauma."

Image courtesy Guy Horton

Fascinated by... the architecture drama underway in Ecuador, where 20,000 petitioners have pushed back against a competition-winning design by Studio Alberto Campo Baeza and MAODA for a new national museum. Now it’s back to the drawing board for some of the shortlisted architects, reports Dezeen. This raises intriguing questions about who gets to judge: architecture and culture cognoscenti or the general public, which deemed this design out of scale, blocky, and incongruent with the country's "national identity." Whatever national identity might look like is thoughtfully explored in this Archdaily article about other contemporary National Museums.

Image courtesy Studio Alberto Campo Baeza

What I'm NOT Digging

Denial in the "Sceptered Isle"

My Anglophile husband had us watch The Other Bennet Sister, which I disliked, partly because this Jane Austen fan fiction lacks, IMHO, Jane Austen’s lacerating wit. Mainly though, however modern a spin it offers on Regency social mores, it comes across as yet another costume drama signifying the nostalgia for a romanticized Olde England that may have helped deliver Brexit, for which there has still been no government-led public inquiry. This week the populace of my native country met their seventh Prime Minister since that calamitous vote. Bring on some programming without Empire waist gowns!

Well, that's it for this week's newsletter. Please send your design news, questions, and comments to francesanderton@gmail.com. Get back issues here. Remind your friends to sign up for the newsletter here.

Yours with very best wishes,
Frances