Design and Architecture - podcast cover

Design and Architecture

Host Frances Anderton looks at design and architecture from a Los Angeles perspective.

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Episodes

Farewell LA freeways, Peter Shire is back

Angelenos don't want more freeways but we seem not to want mass transit either. Metro has killed the 710 freeway extension, and bus and train ridership is down across the region. What's the future of getting around in LA? And, Peter Shire is having a comeback. What attracts a new generation to his playful ceramics and furniture?

May 30, 201729 min

Bus ridership declines in LA

Ridership on LA Metro buses continues to decline across Los Angeles. Passengers say the service needs improvement. Metro now wants to overhaul the system's 170 lines and 15,000 stops, and is conducting a study due out in April, 2019. How are other cities dealing with this issue?

May 25, 20175 min

The Art of Manufacturing, Apple's new headquarters

What's one mile around, has a four-story glass door, and looks like a spaceship? DnA gets a tour of Apple's new headquarters in Cupertino. And we learn about Los Angeles' creative economy, and why LA is a hotbed for manufacturing.

May 23, 201729 min

Border wall builders, private art museums, Stamen Design

An LA city councilman wants companies who want to do business with LA to disclose if they're also working on the US-Mexico border wall. Forget old-school bar graphs and pie charts -- depicting data has become an art form. And another private art museum opens soon in Los Angeles, but this one takes you into the fascinating world of freemasonry.

May 16, 201729 min

Uber at the LA Times, Preserving LA, 'The Handmaid's Tale'

Uber moves into the Times Mirror Square complex in downtown LA. Preservationists want Frank Gehry to incorporated a mid-century bank into his mixed-use project on Sunset. And Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale uses color and costume to make a dystopian story visually stunning.

May 09, 201730 min

Ron Finley saves his garden

South LA's "Gangsta Gardener" has won out. Ron Finley, a community gardener and activist for healthy food in underserved neighborhoods, has managed to overcome a threat of eviction after successfully buying his property from an Agoura Hills developer.

May 04, 20175 min

Michelle Obama, LA 2024, Vespertine

Vespertine fuses taste, sight, sound, smell and touch in a novel eating experience coming to Culver City. We'll hear from chef Jordan Kahn and architect Eric Owen Moss. Bill Hanway updates us on LA's 2024 Olympic bid, on the eve of a visit from the International Olympic Committee. And former first lady Michelle Obama tells architects why they matter.

May 02, 201730 min

Neutra landmark, Thom Mayne's home, I.M. Pei turns 100

Pioneering architect Richard Neutra's Silver Lake home has been added to the list of national historic landmarks, with an assist from Rep. Adam Schiff. Thom Mayne's new house in Cheviot Hills replaces the former home of writer Ray Bradbury, and the neighbors like it! Paul Revere Williams posthumously gets AIA's top prize, and I.M. Pei turns 100.

Apr 25, 201729 min

A new park springs from ancient soil

This Saturday, Los Angeles State Historic Park will celebrate its newly-renovated green space with a party that's been 16 years in the making.

Apr 20, 20175 min

Symbols of protest, lighting up EDM festivals

The Women's March made a huge impact, in part because of its widely worn pink knitted "pussyhat." Does the March for Science need its own unifying symbol? Lighting designer Steve Lieberman is "the man behind the lights" for the country's leading electronic music festivals and nightclubs. He talks about his early experiences with rave culture, and what it takes to spark the excitement of today's EDM fans.

Apr 18, 201729 min

Santa Monica's historic Sears store to be repurposed

When the Sears store in Santa Monica opened in 1947, thousands of people lined up around the block to get in. Seventy years later, it is being mothballed, joining hundreds of other closures of US department stores.

Apr 13, 20175 min

LA cleantech's future, music photographer Mick Rock

As President Trump embraces dirty fuels, what happens to LA's burgeoning cleantech industry? Start-up companies are planning for an uncertain future but staying optimistic. Veteran photographer Mick Rock defined a musical era. Now the camera has been turned on him. Mick Rock and Barnaby Clay talk about capturing glam and its legacy in Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock .

Apr 11, 201729 min

Border wall designs pour in, but is the project even real?

Hundreds of companies have expressed interest in participating in the construction of a new US-Mexican border wall. The designs range in terms of materials, shapes and complexity. But many questions still remain about the project and how it will be funded.

Apr 06, 20176 min

Drought-friendly lawns, gangsta gardener, Aeron chair

Fear of drought has inspired a new look in landscaping. But could an abundance of rainfall bring back bad old habits? Plus, gangsta gardener Ron Finley fights for his Eden in South LA. And Aeron chair co-designer Don Chadwick explains why designers should not be "dumbhanded."

Apr 04, 201730 min

Watergate Offices, Trump Hotel; 'The Price of Illusion'

Joan Juliet Buck was fired from the helm of French Vogue and later wrote an ill-timed profile of a tyrant's wife. Now she examines her life in The Price of Illusion . And architecture meets politics in the Watergate complex and Trump's hotel in DC's Old Post Office Building.

Mar 28, 201730 min

Parker Center one vote away from demolition

The former headquarters of the LAPD avoided a date with the wrecking ball Wednesday after a vote on its fate was postponed due to a clerical error. But city leaders are still moving ahead, despite concerns from preservationists.

Mar 23, 20175 min

Building homes near freeways, 'Rick Owens: Furniture'

The White House wants to roll back fuel economy standards. Could that mean more air pollutants coming out of car tailpipes -- just as LA is seeing a surge of home construction along freeways? And a fashion world provocateur, Rick Owens, talks about designing furniture inspired by land art and brutalist architecture, and raising existential questions on the runway.

Mar 21, 201729 min

How DC's post office became Trump Hotel

In Washington, DC, the historic Old Post Office Pavilion has earned a second life as Trump International Hotel. The luxury hotel with a restaurant and bar has become a favorite hangout for the DC elite. It’s also earned criticism -- including a lawsuit by owners of a nearby wine bar -- because President Trump, his family and White House staffers continually promote the hotel.

Mar 16, 20175 min

Big plans for tiny houses, homes for hope

The tiny house movement is booming, even though in most places, people can't legally live in them. But that didn't stop a group of enthusiasts from learning how to build one at CAFAM. What will they do with their tiny homes? And as Angelenos have passed measures to build more housing for the homeless, a group of architecture students is trying to speed up access to shelter -- with designs for temporary housing with "curb appeal."

Mar 14, 201730 min

Measure S was defeated. Now what?

An effort to slow development in Los Angeles has failed, with Measure S receiving less than a third of LA voters' support. So what's next?

Mar 09, 20176 min

Bidding on the border wall, new apartment architecture

President Trump wants to build a border wall along the US-Mexican border, and hundreds of construction and engineering companies are lining up to help. Who’s interested, and why? Plus, as Los Angeles gets taller and denser, more of us will be living in apartments. We look to other global cities for design inspiration, and hear from an L.A. architect who is embracing an apartment-centric future.

Mar 07, 201730 min

Life's a game, 'Never Built New York'

Much of daily life is spent on menial tasks but game designer and philosopher Ian Bogost says it's time to think of chores the way we think of playing games -- as fun. And, big dreamers built New York, but what about the dreams that got away? Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin talk about Never Built New York, and what LA can learn from the Big Apple's missed opportunities.

Feb 28, 201729 min

A walking tour of Compton architecture

Architecture buffs can take a walking tour this Sunday highlighting the work of black architects in Compton. The tour is in honor of Black History Month, and is an offshoot of a new map documenting the contributions of African American designers and architects in Los Angeles.

Feb 24, 20175 min

Production design, art and politics, the creative mind

What makes production design so special? We consider the five Oscar nominees this year for production design and why their films stand out. As artists respond to President Trump's administration, we look how art movements became weapons in the past century's great ideological battles. And what makes a person creative? And what does the Cold War have to do with it? A historic study of the minds of the greatest Mid-Century architects is described in a new book.

Feb 21, 201730 min

Santa Monica leads the way in seismic retrofit plan

Santa Monica is one step closer to having the most extensive, earthquake retrofitting program in the nation. The City Council gave tentative approval Tuesday night to a plan that could require safety enhancements for as many as 2,000 buildings. City leaders say the action is long overdue.

Feb 16, 20175 min

Connecting The Bloc, modernist art, mapping the heart

Retailers in LA have been slow to welcome transit riders into their stores, but that's changing: a new passageway connects The Bloc directly to the Metro. Will Angelenos use it? As Modernism Week kicks off in Palm Springs, we hear about two Los Angeles exhibitions of modernist art, design and architecture. And an engineer has created a 3D model of the human heart, inspired by his daughter's heart condition.

Feb 14, 201729 min

The Bloc, Metro open new portal to downtown transit riders

Usually when you went to go to the mall you drive there, park, and then drive home. A new shopping area in downtown LA called The Bloc wants to make it easy to get there by train. So they’ve opened a pedestrian passageway that connects directly to the busy 7th Street/Metro Center station. This marks a shift in how retailers view public transit, and is meant to appeal to downtown's growing car-free residential population.

Feb 09, 20175 min

Measuring the impact of Measure S, Netflix on design

Measure S, the development moratorium on the March 7 ballot in Los Angeles, could have a profound impact on the city’s future growth. But exactly how? Experts on both sides of the issue consider how S might affect high-profile projects already in the pipeline. And, Netflix explores the creative process of designers in their new documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design.

Feb 07, 201729 min

Elon Musk's plan to dig a tunnel under LA

Elon Musk has always claimed innovation as central to his reputation, from sending rockets into space to building luxury electric cars. Now he's taking on a different sort of problem: LA traffic.

Feb 02, 20175 min
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