I hope you are doing well, even though this is a time of mourning, for three giants -- the actor Robert Duvall, and the civil rights leader, politician, and minister Reverend Jesse Jackson, whom I once witnessed in person speaking to a crowd in South LA following the civil unrest in 1992. He was stunningly charismatic. And then there’s KCRW's own Michael Silverblatt, host of the 33-year-long show Bookworm.

The Mighty Bookworm

In all my years with the station, Michael loomed large. He was host of a show that was unapologetically about ideas, beloved by his subjects and listeners for his passionate engagement with all the writer's works (consider that some talk show hosts do not even read the one book they are discussing with their author!). Hubby Robin Bennett Stein, who signed up for Kate Braverman's writing workshop after hearing her on Bookworm, said Michael was "living proof that making time in one’s wee duration of a life to drink in/bong-inhale/vacuum up fiction writing is the highest, most evolved activity a damn fool human could possibly engage in." 

He had wonderful and unexpected quirks, like his love of the band Sparks, who created the theme songs for his show, and a great back story: the invite to host Bookworm from equally maverick former KCRW chief Ruth Seymour after the two connected over Russian poetry at a dinner; and, as I just learned from the LA Times obit, the freshman year mail carrier job (encouraged by his parents!) “that took him past numerous old bookstores and used-books shops.” During that walk, he “purchased the complete works of Charles Dickens.” I am sure he read every word. RIP Michael Silverblatt. Catch KCRW’s tribute here.

Michael Silverblatt; image courtesy KCRW.

Meta on the Stand

Meanwhile, in other news, I'm watching with great interest the social media addiction trial, with star witness Mark Zuckerberg set to testify Wednesday. Having watched my 21-year-old daughter and her friends grow up as lab rats for several of the Apps in question, the current reckoning is welcome. Next stop, AI, also testing that same generation. Why exactly are students paying inordinate fees to attend university to have Chat GPT structure their essays for them?

Municipal Muddle

I'm also tracking the surprise mayoral bid from Councilmember Nithya Raman. She says she’s taking on the incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, who Raman had long supported, because she is frustrated, reported the LA Times, at the city’s inability to “deliver basic services, like fixing streetlights and repaving streets... but also are not moving toward a more accountable, transparent and efficient system of addressing issues like homelessness.”  

If you need any reminder of the city’s unaccountable approach to solving homelessness, look no further than Venice, CA, and the ongoing saga of Venice Dell.

Venice Dell, as designed by EOM; Image © Eric Owen Moss Architects

Today, Venice Dell has still not broken ground. Despite 100+ community engagement events, 2,000+ letters of support, including more than 500 from Venice residents, and a commitment of $42.5 million in state funding, local opponents have maintained a ceaseless war to stop the three-story complex, abetted by current D11 Councilmember Traci Park and City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, who both ran for office on a platform of crushing Dell.

VCH and HCHC have spent enormous amounts of time and money on moving the project forward; they even changed architects to Brooks Scarpa Huber, who are A-list designers with long experience in affordable housing design.

Next Thursday, the developers will tackle the latest obstacle thrown in their path: a trial will challenge the vote by the Board of Transportation Commissioners, a mayor-appointed city body that regulates off-street parking, to reject the project and suggest the site should become a mobility hub instead of housing.

Venice Dell, redesigned byBrooks Scarpa Huber Architects. Image courtesy VCH.

In all of this, Mayor Bass has been notably quiet, despite running on solving homelessness. It's no wonder that Angelenos, wherever they stand on a land-use issue, are feeling frustrated at the muddled decision-making emanating from City Hall.

Now cheer yourself up by reading on for Design Things To Do!

Design Things To Do

As much of the world hides indoors this month because of the cold, February in LA is party time. There are a dizzying number of design and architecture events, including Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee this Wednesday at SCI-Arc: the Hammer's free program this Saturday, The World Around, with global designers and architects (including LA's Kulapat Yantrasast) examining "how designers, thinkers, and artists confront a world in flux — ecological, social, and political."

Also, this Saturday, L.A. Forum's benefit for PAUSE publication at Tattuplex. Julia Morgan Legacy Day 2026 at Annenberg Beach House, featuring a talk about the eclecticism in the architecture of California’s first licensed female architect, and the heritage awareness raising 2026 L.A. Historic Neighborhoods Conference, taking place in West Adams on Saturday. Modernism Week continues into its second week in Palm Springs.

Then, of course, next week come the art fairs: Frieze, Felix (which I love for its relaxed, only-in-LA Hollywood Roosevelt location; see doggy guest, top of page), Post-Fair at the former Santa Monica Post Office, along with West Hollywood Artwalk and many other pop-ups. Get all the info on the fairs in next week's Art Insider newsletter from Carolina Miranda. And read on for some of the other Design events you don't want to miss.

Architecture Uncorked!
Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, 4800 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles
Saturday, February 21st, 5:00–6:30 PM

FORT: LA's Architecture Uncorked! returns for its sixth edition — with a lively mix of talks and wine-tastings, encompassing LA housing visions both dreamy and dreamed-of. I’ll talk with historian Heather Goers about The Life and Work of Arthur and Nina Zwebell, the designing duo behind LA’s gorgeous, 1920’s courtyard housing that brought fantasies of Southern Spain to Los Angeles living. Shane Reiner-Roth will present a fascinating look back at Yesterday’s Tomorrowland: LA Futures That Never Were. 

The evening will wrap with a tasting of wines selected by historian and sommelier India Mandelkern, “to match the Zwebell spell.”

Click here to RSVP.

Villa Primavera, by Arthur and Nina Zwebell. Photo by Frances Anderton.

National Single-Stair Design Competition Winners
Saturday, February 21st, 2:00–5:00 PM
Culver City (exact address to be shared with RSVPs)

To non-housing policy experts, the question of whether multifamily residential buildings should have one or two staircases might seem arcane. But experts like Eduardo Mendoza at Livable Communities Initiative and CA YIMBY argue that California’s code requirement for two stairwells in all multi-family buildings above three stories has made it very difficult to build high-quality projects on small or constrained sites, without incorporating deadly spaces like double-loaded corridors. Single-stair structures are permissible in other jurisdictions along the West Coast, most notably in Seattle, and overseas. Culver City council recently approved them.

To set about raising awareness, Mendoza created a National Single-Stair Design Competition, and this Saturday, you can meet the winners and view their designs at a rip-roaring Single Stair Party.

Click here to RSVP. 

Steplight, by David Baker Architects was a First Place Winner in the Single Stair Design Competition

Under One Roof 
Studios 3026, Santa Monica, CA
Sunday, February 22nd, 2:00–5:00 PM

As small airplanes lift off and land at the Santa Monica Airport (SMO), painters paint, and sculptors sculpt. The City of Santa Monica’s Airport Arts Center has become home to the largest concentration of artists in the beach city, comprising 60 art studios and creative spaces across four airplane hangars and additional buildings, says Studios 3026’s new steward of programming, Community Arts Resources (CARS).

CARS is kicking off its tenure with Under One Roof, an exhibition curated by longtime LA art critic Peter Frank. Enjoy light refreshments and meet the artists, who, says Frank, “plough their own fields, work their own magic, exemplify states of mind and matter as diverse as there are modes of art available to them.”

Click here for details.

Image courtesy Santa Monica Airport Arts Center Studios 3026. 

Architect’s Art
Exhibition, Emeco House, 507 Boccaccio Ave. Venice, CA
Opening Event: February 25th, 5:00–8:00 PM

The Terroir Chair is the name of this chair by WHY founder Kulapat Yantrasast, though maybe Terror might be more suitable for this stylish but bruising-looking seat of stones and steel. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, as part of a show of “architect’s art” on display in Emeco house, the design community gathering spot in onetime sewing shop in Venice Beach, California, created by the head of Emeco, makers of the ubiquitous Navy Chair.

Click here to RSVP.

Image courtesy WHY/Emeco.

Do Snakes Go to Heaven When They Die?
Post–Fair, Santa Monica Post Office, 1248 5th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90406
Thursday, February 26th–Saturday, February 28th

Post-Fair was launched last year as a more affordable art fair ($12) than Frieze (tickets range from around $80 to more than $100, with discounts for students). It’s worth visiting simply to see inside the Art Deco former post office in DTSM, as well as the booths, which include the lovely Silver Lake functional art gallery/showroom, Marta.

While their homebase is showing Isabel Rower, at Post-Fair the Pasadena-based ceramicist George Sherman, with Carsten in der Elst, will display Do Snakes Go to Heaven When They Die?

Expect a “forest of the artist’s floor works” — “waist-high structures, hand-built and fired on his property in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains” that “may be the chimneys of brickworks… or the swiveling periscopes of submarines cruising just below the ocean’s surface.. or “smudge pots, the oil-burning devices used to prevent frost in orchards in Southern California from 1913 to the 1970s.” Interesting.

Click here for Post–Fair tickets and info. Click here for more info from Marta.

Image courtesy MARTA.

Another World Lies Beyond: Garden and Theme Park
Saturday, February 28th, 9:00–11:00 AM
The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino, CA 91108

Chinese garden design principles are related to theme parks and replicated landscapes, says The Huntington, as it invites you to join a guided walk of the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, led by scholar Patricia J. Yu. Her research addresses the "rise and fall of China’s Garden of Perfect Brightness and its revival in modern theme parks." Intriguing.

Click here to purchase tickets, which include the price of admission to the glorious gardens.

Image courtesy The Huntington

What I'm Digging