Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Architecture, Home Design, Homes, Tours, Videos

Los Angeles Design: Tour Of A ‘Modern Bungalow’

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The Local Project (April 30, 2024): For an architects own home, Mark Motonaga, homeowner and creative director at RIOS pulled together a range of design elements that makes his home feel safe yet joyous. Located in Los Angeles, Modern Bungalow was once an original single-family residence.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Architects Own Home 00:41 – The Original Vision 01:35 – A Walkthrough of the Home 02:22 – Designing Your Own Home 03:32 – Ideating the Backyard Landscape 04:12 – Proud Aspects

From the start of the project, the architect envisioned a modern home that could fit the scale of the original structure while reimagining what a bungalow could be. By creating a jungle-like refuge in the back of the house, RIOS has established a juxtaposition to living in a city.

To do this, the architect reversed the typical bungalow layout by putting the public spaces at the rear of the house and the private spaces to the front. Moreover, featured in the backyard is a pool, which is different to the traditional backyard pools often designed in the city.

Built to feel like people were swimming in a pond, it is complemented with a jungle-inspired garden that grows right up to the edge. At the beginning of the house tour, two large grey doors open up to a side courtyard referred to as the home’s foyer.

Tours, Travel, Videos, Views

Travel: 50 Best Places To Visit In The United States

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touropia Films (November 22, 2023) – A video tour of the 50 best places to visit in the United States. The top 15 include:

  1. The Grand Canyon – Arizona
  2. New York City
  3. Hawaii
  4. Yellowstone National Park – Wyoming
  5. Florida Keys
  6. San Francisco – California
  7. Zion National Park – Utah
  8. Las Vegas – Nevada
  9. Los Angeles – California
  10. Glacier National Park – Montana
  11. Washington D.C.
  12. Miami – Florida
  13. Seattle – Washington
  14. Rocky Mountain National Park – Colorado
  15. New Orleans – Louisiana

Architecture, Home Design, Homes, Tours, Videos, Views

Architecture Tour: Ridge Residence In Los Angeles

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The Local Project (September 8, 2023) – Ridge Residence by Hsu McCullough is an architect’s own home. Conceived as an experimental, pavilion-style form in Los Angeles’s Sherman Oaks neighbourhood and designed by owners and architects Peggy Hsu and Chris McCullough, the experimental, Japanese-inspired house embraces its topography and provides a feeling of solitude in California.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Experimental Japanese-Inspired Home 00:54 – The Private Location 01:14 – External Materials 01:36 – An Original 1960’s Home 01:52 – The Functional and Balanced Design of the Kitchen 02:50 – The Internal Material Palette 03:48 – Integrating Japanese Wet Rooms 04:06 – Showcasing Collections 04:41 – Working with Dark and Brawny Materiality

Peggy and Chris – an avid collector – were drawn to the site’s potential for an experimental, Japanese-inspired architecture. Peggy says, “the area is less densely populated on the hillside and most properties have deep backyards. Ours frames an uninterrupted view of Fossil Ridge Park – it can never be developed and there are no homes, just a natural landscape featuring hillside oak trees and unique wildlife.” The interior design of this Japanese-inspired house features a textural materiality, and plants blur the boundaries between inside and out. Inside, texture, art and materiality converge in a layered interior.

An architect’s own home can often lead to experimental and deeply personal design outcomes – a sentiment that rings true in this house. The kitchen sits beneath a picture window that captures western sun and provides sightlines to the street. Given its proximity to the living room, its aesthetic relationship to the rest of the home was an important experimental consideration. As such, Peggy and Chris looked to Fisher & Paykel for appliances, tapping into the company’s integration capabilities and refined aesthetic to match their experimental vision.

Economics, Financial, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews

Previews: The Economist Magazine – August 19, 2023

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The Economist Magazine (August 19, 2023): This week’s issue features Why are China’s young people so disillusioned?; China’s defeated youth – When Xi Jinping plays down their individual aspirations in favour of the collective interest, he adds to their gloom.

Why are China’s young people so disillusioned?

Xi Jinping wants them to focus on the party’s goals. Many cannot see why they should

The crowd did not seem excited to see George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. When Wham! became the first Western pop group to perform in Communist China, the audience was instructed to stay in their seats. It was 1985 and, despite appearances, the young people in attendance were in fact joyous. The country around them was by no means free, but it was starting to reform and open up. Over the next three decades the economy would grow at a rapid pace, producing new opportunities.

China’s defeated youth

Young Chinese have little hope for the future. Xi Jinping wants them to toughen up

A worker tests parts for e-cigarettes on a production line

In the southern city of Huizhou an electronics factory is hiring. The monthly salary on offer is between 4,500 and 6,000 yuan (or $620 and $830), enough to pay for food and essentials, but not much else. The advertisement says new employees are expected to “work hard and endure hardship”. The message might have resonated with Chinese of an older generation, many of whom worked long hours in poor conditions to give their children a brighter future. But many of those children now face similar drudgery—and are unwilling to endure it. “I can’t sit on an assembly line,” says Zhang, a 20-something barista with dyed-red hair at a local tea shop. He scoffs at the idea of making such sacrifices for so little gain. The job at the tea shop pays just 4,000 yuan a month, but he enjoys chatting up customers.

Architecture, Home Design, Homes, Tours, Videos, Views

Design: A Tour Of Moore House In Los Angeles

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The Local Project (June 16, 2023) – Though Moore House was originally designed by Craig Ellwood in 1965, the newly restored house by Woods + Dangaran is a respectful design that enhances its rich history for both the owners and the wider Los Angeles architectural community.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Magical Restored House 00:30 – The Clients Simple Goals 00:43 – The History of Mid-Century Tropical Modernism 01:05 – The Restoration Process 01:46 – Designing Inline with Craig Ellwood’s Style 02:34 – Playing on High Contrast and Linking Spaces 03:32 – Background Architecture 03:53 – The Advantage of Hillside Properties 04:22 – Interesting Features of the Home 04:44 – Respecting the History 05:00 – Preservation and Timeless Design

However, once owned by a local band that left it in disrepair, the home needed a complete renovation of both exterior and interior design. Tasked with this challenge, Woods + Dangaran has infused contemporary design methods that restore the midcentury home’s character in a modern light. As the architect and interior designer, Woods + Dangaran were able to save the home through a thoughtful and delicate renovation.

From the street, the finished design of the restored house appears above the carport and unfolds in a rectangular form, where the majority of the original structural and interior elements have been kept. Throughout the restored house, two of the main kept character elements are seen in the two bookends of the original home. The first bookend holds the new fireplace, which is maintained in both its original proportion and location and modernised with a patinaed brass that wraps around it.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

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The Art Newspaper (June 8, 2023): Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood on their collaborative art, Wayne McGregor on his new choreographic work—a collaboration with the late Carmen Herrera—and Whistler’s Mother returns to Philadelphia.

Ahead of an exhibition of their work in London in September, we talk to Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood—who has created the artwork with Yorke for every Radiohead album since 1994, as well the visuals accompanying Thom’s solo records and side projects including the recent records by The Smile—about their collaboration.

A new work for the UK’s Royal Ballet by the choreographer Wayne McGregor premieres at the Royal Opera House in London on 9 June. Untitled, 2023 is a collaboration with the Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera, developed before Herrera’s death last year at the age of 106. We talk to McGregor about the piece and the intersection between visual art and choreography.

And this episode’s Work of the Week is one of the most famous pictures in the world: Arrangement in Grey and Black, better known as Whistler’s Mother, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler. It’s part of an exhibition called The Artist’s Mother: Whistler and Philadelphia, curated by Jenny Thompson, and we speak to Jenny about the work and the show.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Reviews, Tours, Videos

Exhibits: “Keith Haring- Art Is For Everybody”, Broad Museum In Los Angeles

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KCET (June 2, 2023) – Keith Haring’s first museum exhibition in Los Angeles debuts at the Broad, featuring over 120 artworks that showcase the artist’s legacy of blending fun street art with activism.

“Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody”

May 27 – Oct 08, 2023

The exhibition features works that span the artist’s career, tackling pertinent social issues of the time like anti-Apartheid movements and the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s as well as works that address relevant issues that persist today — from capitalism and environmentalism to race, sexuality and religion. “” at the Broad is on view from May 27 through October 8, 2023.

In his short but prolific career, Keith Haring was known for his fluid, uniform lines, intricate compositions, and repeating imagery such as the barking dog and radiant baby. Since the 1980s, Haring’s art has garnered worldwide recognition, breaking down barriers and spreading joy while shining a bright light on complex issues from capitalism and the proliferation of new technologies to sexuality and race.   

Born in 1958, Keith Haring grew up in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, where his father, Allen, taught him to draw cartoons from Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss. He moved to New York City in 1978 to enroll in the School of Visual Arts (SVA). In New York, he embraced his homosexuality, which informed his worldview and art practice. The city was pulsing with energy with the emergence of hip-hop, graffiti art, and an active nightclub scene. In alternative spaces such as Club 57 and Paradise Garage, Haring developed his visual style alongside artists Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat, performers Grace Jones and Madonna, and many others.   

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

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The Art Newspaper May 25, 2023: This week: the first ever museum show of Keith Haring’s work in Los Angeles. We talk to Sarah Loyer, the curator of Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody at the Broad in Los Angeles. Alex Farquharson, the director of Tate Britain in London, has led the complete rehang of the museum’s collection, including a vastly expanded presence of women and artists of colour across 500 years of British art.

He tells us about the project. And this episode’s Work of the Week is The Room, Part 1 (1975) by the late San Francisco-born painter Joan Brown. The painting is part of the touring survey that opens this week at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and Liz Park, the curator of the Pittsburgh show, tells us more about it.

Keith Haring: Art Is For Everybody, The Broad, Los Angeles, 27 May-8 October; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 11 November-17 March 2024; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 27 April-8 September 2024.The rehang of Tate Britain is open now.Joan Brown, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 27 May-24 September. Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, California, 7 February–1 May 2024. Joan Brown: Facts & Fantasies, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, until 17 June. 

Analysis, Reviews, Transportation, Travel, Videos

Reviews: Can California Finish Its High-Speed Rail?

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CNBC (May 16, 2023) – In 2008, California voted yes on a $9 billion bond authorization to build the nation’s first high-speed railway. The plan is to build an electric train that will connect Los Angeles with the Central Valley and then San Francisco in two hours and forty minutes.

Chapters: 1:35 Intro 1:41 The Vision 4:48 Progress 8:17 Setbacks and challenges

At the time, it was estimated the project would be complete by 2020 and cost $33 billion. But 15 years later, there is not a single mile of track laid, and there isn’t enough money to finish the project. The latest estimates show it will cost $88 billion to $128 billion to complete the entire system from LA to San Francisco. Inflation and higher construction costs have contributed to the high price tag. Despite the funding challenges, progress has been made on the project.

119 miles are under construction in California’s Central Valley. The project recently celebrated its 10,000th worker on the job. The infrastructure design work is complete, and 422 out of 500 miles have been environmentally cleared. CNBC visited California’s Central Valley, where construction is underway, to find out what it will take to complete what would be the nation’s largest infrastructure project.

Culture, Food, History, Restaurants, Reviews, Videos

Food: The History Of Los Angeles Sushi Restaurants

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Los Angeles Times Food (May 16, 2023) – Times writer Daniel Miller spent nearly eight years researching the origins of sushi in Los Angeles. In 2022, Daniel met with Gil Asakawa, an author and journalist who writes specifically on the Japanese-American experience, to find the location of L.A.’s first sushi bar. Along the way, the two stop by several restaurants and locations in Little Tokyo to look into the evolution of sushi.