Farewell, LA Memorial Sports Arena
The LA Memorial Sports Arena in Exposition Park will soon be torn down to make room for a new 22,000-seat soccer stadium. We remember the arena's history and architecture as we say farewell.
May 26, 2016•5 min
Design and Architecture
Host Frances Anderton looks at design and architecture from a Los Angeles perspective.
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Episodes
WeHo's Sunset Spectacular, Megaships and Global Shipping
The City of West Hollywood wants to make the Sunset Strip the spectacle it was back in its heyday. So it's hosting a design competition for an innovative billboard. Also, DnA boards a mega-ship at the Port of Long Beach, the largest container ship to ever dock in the US, and learns about the impact of global transportation on our infrastructure and environment.
May 24, 2016•30 min
West Hollywood's Digital Billboard Design Competition
Do you hate digital billboards? A lot of people do, and so the City of West Hollywood, in a bid to create a lovable digital billboard on a site it owns on the Sunset Strip, has created a design competition for ideas.
May 18, 2016•6 min
Light Rail, Hyperloop, High School Shop Returns as Career Tech
The long-awaited Expo Line extension to Santa Monica opens this weekend. What does it mean for mobility in the Southland? Meanwhile, some transit dreamers are working on a vehicle that would leave light rail in the dust: Hyperloop. In this week’s “Modern Trades” we visit a lighting factory in the City of Industry and a school in Van Nuys to find out how high schoolers are being prepared for high-tech manufacturing jobs.
May 17, 2016•30 min
Riding the Expo Line, High Rise Horrors
All aboard the Expo Line! Starting May 20 you can ride all the way from downtown LA to Santa Monica for the first time in over six decades. Metro officials say this is part of a future where cars are just one of several viable modes of transportation in Los Angeles. And, the director and producer of the new dystopian film High-Rise talk about architecture as a storytelling device to tell a story about class and morality.
May 10, 2016•32 min
Solar Training, Dream Cities, Hollywood Interiors
Here's a job that can't go overseas -- solar panel installation. We meet the laborers who are attending a "rooftop university" in Long Beach. Plus, a conversation with Wade Graham about "castles," "slabs" and the shaping of cities, as Los Angeles goes through a transformation; and Anthony Iannacci discusses "Hollywood Interiors" and what makes for uniquely Angeleno style and design.
May 03, 2016•30 min
Pershing Square Renewed?
Today four competing schemes for a renewed Pershing Square were unveiled. Tonight the design teams will present them to the public at Broadway's Palace Theater — and the crowd is expected to reach capacity.
Apr 28, 2016•7 min
Pershing Square, Plastic Sculptures, William Wegman
Four finalists present schemes for redesigning Pershing Square, and their approaches will be a litmus test for competing views on what makes public space work -- lots of programming or strong design? Gigantic plastic containers leave Pershing Square on a journey of environmental education through art. And when William Wegman's Weimaraners pose on Eames and Nakashima chairs, you get a very stylish dog story.
Apr 26, 2016•30 min
Can "Modern Trades" Be an Alternative to College?
On the campaign trail, presidential candidates have been talking a lot about the price of college. But does a four-year degree make sense for kids who might be better suited for a trade?
Apr 21, 2016•6 min
Community Plans, Ramiro Gomez, David Hockney
Painter David Hockney defined LA as a British transplant in the 1960's. Now another young artist, Ramiro Gomez, is putting a new face on it. We meet two painters with unique perspectives of Los Angeles, and the critic who brought them together. And the LA Mayor's office has vowed to revise the city's 35 community plans in the next decade. Will this diffuse the moratorium effort, and create a better planned LA that also provides much-needed housing?
Apr 19, 2016•30 min
Who Speaks for the Los Angeles River?
LA is about to get its own biennial, with a focus on public art that will comment on one of LA's most important pieces of infrastructure, the LA River.
Apr 13, 2016•5 min
Tomorrow's Electricians, Nkandla-gate, Hitler at Home
At the Electrical Training Institute, in the City of Commerce, 1,500 apprentices are becoming the electricians for an energy-efficient future. Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, has been criticized for his taxpayer-funded, excessive home renovations. And we hear about an infamous dictator whose interior decor was the subject of glowing spreads in glossy magazines: Adolf Hitler.
Apr 12, 2016•30 min
Clothes Make the Man
Here are two assumptions being challenged at LACMA: men don't care about clothes, and fashion is frivolous.
Apr 06, 2016•5 min
Zaha Hadid, Burglar's City, Men's Fashion
We pay tribute to a titan of architecture, Zaha Hadid, who died in Miami last week. Writer Geoff Manaugh argues that burglars have a lot to teach architects about buildings. And we remember a time when men wore corsets, padded stockings and used swords as fashion accessories.
Apr 05, 2016•30 min
Bringing LA's Sidewalks into the 21st Century
The LA City Council now has a comprehensive plan to repair the city’s aging sidewalks.
Mar 30, 2016•5 min
Modern Trades, Build Better LA, TOM House
Jobs have left America, but there's growth in new high-tech manufacturing jobs. What are they? How are people being trained for them? First there was the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, now there's the Build Better LA initiative. Why has housing become a ballot box battle? And we visit TOM House in Echo Park, a museum and mecca for LA "leathermen" and admirers of the homoerotic illustrations of Tom of Finland.
Mar 29, 2016•30 min
A Controversial LA Development Gets a Key Endorsement
The LA City Council’s thrown its support behind a new development project near the Hollywood Palladium.
Mar 23, 2016•6 min
Watson Mixes Drinks; Streetfight: Moses, Jacobs, Sadik-Khan
Is artificial intelligence a threat to "human culture and history" or a pleasant addition to it? DnA meets Watson and considers the implications of assistance from 'cognitive computing' in our daily lives. Plus, a new opera dramatizes the epic battle between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, and Janette Sadik-Khan continues the fight over the streets of New York.
Mar 22, 2016•30 min
Engineers and Elections, Woody Guthrie in LA
China's top government officials are scientists or engineers. Is there a connection between innovation and the types of politicians we elect? Plus, a new book explores American balladeer Woody Guthrie's early years in Los Angeles. Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, a vast new art complex, opened this weekend in downtown LA's Arts District. And LA Fashion Week launches this week.
Mar 15, 2016•30 min
Does Luxury Housing Trickle Down to Affordable Apartments?
Can you create affordable housing by building luxury towers? A boom in development of large apartment towers has prompted a fight for a two-year moratorium on new projects that don't comply with the city's general plan. But planners say this moratorium will stymie efforts to create much-needed affordable housing. We visit the people at the heart of a development fight.
Mar 08, 2016•31 min
The Design and Culture of Surveillance
Apple's public feud with the FBI over cyber encryption offers a lesson in surveillance -- and branding. MOMA's Paola Antonelli takes us to the violent side of design, and artist Laurie Lipton captures the humor and horror in our dependence on technology.
Mar 01, 2016•30 min
The Power of Logos, Costume Design, LACMA's House
Clinton campaign logo designer Michael Bierut discusses the power of logos. FIDM curator Kevin Jones looks at the Academy Award nominees for best costume designer, and double-nominee Sandy Powell shares the ideas behind her costumes for Carol and Cinderella. And we go inside LACMA’s new gift, the Sheats-Goldstein Residence.
Feb 23, 2016•30 min
Stadium Rings Changes in Inglewood; Sturges House for Sale
Will the new NFL stadium in Inglewood be a “monolithic hulk” or an “aesthetic anchor” for a popular entertainment district? Designers, critics and the mayor of Inglewood discuss the design and its urban impact. Plus, a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Brentwood goes on the auction block.
Feb 09, 2016•30 min
A Citi Bike Goes West; Pritzker & Obama Library; Cool Cats
DnA meets the man who rode a commuter Citi Bike across the country, gets the lowdown on the Pritzker Prize winner and the Presidential Library finalists, and looks at the exotic new breed of cat magazines.
Jan 26, 2016•30 min
The Internet of Things; Bowie's Legacy; New Objectivity
DnA goes to CES, meets Girl Scouts and tours the Internet of Things. The shock of the new, a century ago, is on show in LACMA's New Objectivity . David Bowie's death leaves a massive legacy for music, fashion and "the fluidity" of today's world.
Jan 12, 2016•30 min
The Metropolis Considered
DnA reflects on what mattered in design and architecture in Los Angeles this year; the Chicago Biennial shows that big change can happen at a small scale; Gideon Brower finds that maintaining a city is a challenge, even when it's a model.
Dec 22, 2015•30 min
Fear and Public Space; Can LA Be Water Self-Sufficient?
Recent shootings in Paris, Colorado and San Bernardino have added to growing jitters about public gathering. Will this impact the design of civic space? El Niño is coming but will we save the rain? Maybe not this year. But cities and water agencies across the region are looking at ways to become water self-sufficient in future.
Dec 08, 2015•30 min
Getting High Speed Rail Right; What Makes a House a Home?
High Speed Rail works when it connects people and businesses. Joe Mathews and Sam Lubell ask, will California’s bullet trains do that? What makes a house a home? A look at how designers create "homes" for absentee owners, and how the home-less create a sense of home.
Nov 24, 2015•30 min
Electric Cars, Black Panthers and Road Trips
Faraday Future, an electric car startup, looks to compete with Tesla. A graphic designer pays tribute to the Black Panthers. And a film about American road trips asks whether mobility is still a path to self-discovery.
Nov 10, 2015•30 min
Farewell to a Bridge, Pershing Square, "Ghoulish" LED Lights
Thousands bid farewell to the Sixth Street Bridge, a Pershing Square redesign competition moves ahead, aesthetics versus cost and energy savings with "ghoulish" LED streetlights, and inside the Art Deco hotel of American Horror Story.
Oct 27, 2015•30 min
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