Got Milk?

The Teknion Showroom in Santa Monica, design by Vanderbyl Design, features white lattice panels that appear from afar to be painted MDF but are actually water jet cut panels composed of recycled milk cartons.

Check Please

The check carpet at the leasing office of 1600 North Vine is a throwback to Hollywood glamour of the 1930s. Together with the red carpet at the living room of the W Hotel which shares the same block, a subtle reminder to watch where you step in the new Hollywood.

Heart on the Vine

Spotted this heart in the parking lot of the former Big Lots and the future home of the Acadamy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Museum on Vine Street in Hollywood. Curious to see the heart so carefully guarded by chain link and barbed wire.

Out of the Shadows Hollywood

Located just outside the entry to the new W Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, this art installation by German artist Christian Moeller is fabricated from anodized aluminum and uses shadow density generated by projecting horizontal tabs to create an image of hands pushing out into space. Christian Moeller is Professor of Design/Media Arts at UCLA. The work was funded jointly by the Community Redevelopment Agency and Gatehouse Capital, one of the joint developers (with Legacy Parnters) of the new $600 million Hollywood and Vine Mixed-Use Development.

Getting the LED Out

I just made a site visit to one of my projects currently under construction. The design includes the introduction of illuminated canopy elements spanning above a previously poorly lit and underused courtyard and streetfront entry along Wilshire Boulevard in west Los Angeles. The LED panels were recently installed and powered up along with the new exterior glazing at the ground floor. The polycarbonate panels that will function as lenses for the canopy have yet to be installed -- the individual light sources will be diffused -- but there is something intriguing about seeing the LED matrix revealed. The long life of the LEDs mean that replacement of the fixtures will be minimized over the life of the project and the quality and color of the light should remain uniform. Looking forward to seeing the installation of the new courtyard paving and furnishings.

Inner Space

On September 22, I had the privelege of hosting a program in downtown LA on private/public private partnerships for open space in a city that is home to over 6500 lineal miles of road and 900 miles of alleys but in which over 2/3 of children are not within walking distance of a park. Panelists included Richard Loring who discussed his innovative Formosa 1140 project which includes a neighborhood pocket park, Alfred Fraijo, a land use attorney with Allen Matkins discussing plans for the Hollywood Freeway Central (Cap) Park, and Sarah MacPherson with the Hollywood Property Owners Alliance discussing the greening of alleyways in Hollywood. One of the highlights of the event included display of presentation boards and a concept model of the Park 101 Freeway Cap Park provided by EDAW.

GREEN Tea

Another 'Green' facade has popped up. This one is in Culver City. Royal/T on Washington Boulevard is a So. Cal. incarnation of the popular Cosplay restaurants that originated in Tokyo as a part of the otaku culture and that include maid cafe's (Meido kafe) and butler cafes (shitsuji kassa) where the service staff dress as traditional maids or butlers. Inside, the space includes playful pieces by Takashi Murakami. The facade is uninterrupted fuzzy plastic green grass. The first significant artificial turfs were developed in the 1960s and AstroTurf was installed at the Astrodome in Houston in 1965. The quality and variety of synthetic grasses have increased dramatically in the last decade. Still, one wonders why it took so long to start applying it to the vertical surface of buildings.