Host Frances Anderton looks at design and architecture from a Los Angeles perspective.
Two women, one aging at home, the other priced out of her home, come together through a “home share” program. A graphic designer celebrates Concorde. Could supersonic flight make a comeback? And a data artist turns the Walt Disney Concert Hall into a multi-screen spectacle.
DnA visits The One, a "gigamansion" under construction in Bel Air with a record- breaking price tag of $500 million. And we'll compare the opulent homes of the first Gilded Age with the sleek glass boxes of what may be a new Gilded Age.
California state and city leaders are taking the lead in cleaning up the environment, with initiatives designed to help cities speed towards their emissions reduction goals in buildings and transportation. But some critics are asking, just how green are electric vehicles? Would greater energy reduction be achieved through car-unfriendly land-use planning?
As LA homes get smaller they are also getting bigger. Can they keep on growing? DnA explores large luxury houses, and finds out who is building them, who is buying them -- and why amenities matter. Plus, Tower of Voices in Pennsylvannia memorializes, with wind and chimes, those who went down with a fight on United Flight 93.
These days, if you want to play a video game, there’s a good chance you’re doing it at home… on your computer or a console like Xbox or PlayStation. But starting this weekend you’ll have another option: a futuristic version of an arcade in the Arts District of downtown L.A. It’s called the Two Bit Circus Micro-Amusement Park.
DnA’s series This is Home in LA continues with a look at architect-designed homes and the continuing influence of midcentury modernism. We visit a dramatic, Case Study inspired house that's ruffling feathers in South Hancock Park; and we ask if design media have turned Modernism into a homogeneous style that's dampening creativity. Jenn Swann reports on American Legion Post 43's Art Deco home in Hollywood, now being turned into a movie theater in a bid to bring in a wider audience.
A controversial plan to develop thousands of acres cleared a major hurdle this week in Los Angeles County, securing approval from the region’s planning commission. The idea is to convert 12,500 acres of open space into a new housing community. But not everyone is on board with the plan.
LA’s small lot ordinance was created to add density to residential neighborhoods and to expand home ownership. It's had a big impact, but a mixed one. And is Santa Monica about to kill e-scooters, or turn them into good citizens? Hear from the city’s mobility manager about choosing a roadworthy partner.
There’s an old service station in Silver Lake, just a couple blocks south of the reservoir. You might not even notice it if you walk by. And yet this dilapidated old building has become the latest flash point in the debate over whether to preserve buildings that may have historic value, or allow new housing developments to take their place.
The LA Phil's Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (or YOLA) is getting a new home in an old bank, designed by architect Frank Gehry. What does it mean for Inglewood? And, how about living 90 seconds from Whole Foods? DnA visits Runway at Playa Vista, a "vertical mixed-use" development, and a loft above a business on Pico Boulevard, and learns about LA’s version of living over the store.
Santa Monica lawmakers are weighing a proposal that might result in taking e-scooter sharing companies Bird and Lime off the streets. The companies are fighting back and rallying their supporters.
Los Angeles is following a trend set in other high cost cities for micro-units, at market-rate rents. Could this be the solution to a housing problem? Or could it validate living spaces that might just be too small? And you may have stayed at a hostel while traveling, but some LA residents are using Podshare as a long-term housing solution, sleeping in bunks with a roomful of strangers for months at a time.
Downtown Los Angeles has been experiencing a renaissance. It was known for decades as a place to work, but not live. That’s changing, as the area is seeing a boom in high-rise construction. One new megaproject, Metropolis, is a harbinger of things to come.
Is high-rise living the future of housing in downtown LA? DnA visits the Gensler-designed Metropolis tower complex to learn how the architects turned a freeway-adjacent site into sky-high luxury condos, and how its Chinese developer Greenland and Beverly Hills realtor The Agency are selling the new “downtown dream” to prospective buyers.
Affordable housing is being really well-designed, but it’s also very expensive. At every level, designers and builders are trying to work around a Rubik's cube of obstacles. DnA looks at the challenges and possible solutions to creating housing for the formerly homeless and low-income residents of Los Angeles.
How do you take a generic housing type and create a very personal home? DnA visits a new apartment building in Koreatown to find out how multi-family living can be the new LA dream. And we remember LA’s beloved restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, who died Saturday. DnA recalls how Gold taught Angelenos about LA through its food, from mini-malls to Vespertine.
The City of Los Angeles’ Department of Public Works voted today to remove 18 trees in Hollywood. The city says the trees are damaging the sidewalks. Urban forestry advocates say it’s imperative that a hot region like the Southland maintains its tree canopy. Can we have both?
Los Angeles is pushing for greater densification, even as many Angelenos still dream of the single family home. We visit the city of Lakewood to see how they are keeping that dream alive. And we visit a metals supplier in Gardena, to find out how steel tariffs are impacting design projects in Los Angeles.
President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum have angered foreign leaders and led to retaliatory measures. How are these economic taxes affecting the construction and manufacturing industry here in the Southland?
Sick of high rents but want to be close to the ocean? Very close? DnA explores the charms and challenges of living aboard a boat, and learns about the changes coming as Marina del Rey becomes more “corporate.” And we meet Emory Douglas, “revolutionary artist” for the Black Panthers whose bold graphics still hold lessons for protest art today.
Is the solution to LA's housing crisis in our backyards? DnA visits a Highland Park couple that worked with the city on test-building an ADU, or accessory dwelling unit. Did it pencil out, and can ADUs be a new frontier for design innovation? And do you know the name of the man who built much of downtown Los Angeles? DnA speaks to the director of the first-ever documentary about architect John Parkinson.
A new supportive housing complex opened last week for formerly homeless families, low-income people and seniors. As the city and county of Los Angeles invest in building new affordable housing, Mosaic Gardens at Westlake is a sign of things to come.
How did the invention of the modern-dome tent change the story of homelessness in LA? And are they a form of "home" for their occupants? This is the first episode in a series DnA is calling “This is Home in LA: From the Tent to the Gigamansion (and everything In between).” It’s a look at house and housing archetypes in LA today, and we begin with the smallest, cheapest form of dwelling: the tent.
Orange County Museum of Art gets new a museum designed by Morphosis Architects, and it tips its hat at Richard Serra’s “Connector.” Will it bring urban life to suburban Costa Mesa? And design critic Alexandra Lange explores “good” toys and playgrounds and wonders if children would be just as free and creative if left to play with a cardboard box.
The Orange County Museum of Art closes this weekend. But not forever. After 41 years in Newport Beach, it’s moving to its new permanent home in Costa Mesa. And one of LA’s best-known architects, Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis, has designed it.
A historic summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un raises hopes among Korean-Americans. Could brothers and sisters reconnect? Could technology and infrastructure in the hermit kingdom make a great leap forward? And Santa Monica considers a pilot program for dockless e-scooters, as competition heats up between rival companies. Will it limit a popular, clean, first mile last mile solution -- or contain a public nuisance?
Starting Thursday, LA’s design community will congregate at the four-day Los Angeles Design Festival (LADF), an annual celebration that celebrates our city’s rich design culture. It includes four days of conversations, studio tours, design shows, and parties all centered at ROW DTLA in downtown LA’s industrial district.
We remember fashion icon and handbag designer Kate Spade. The arrival of autonomous vehicles and online shopping has Santa Monica considering the way forward in a future disrupted by tech. Ruth E. Carter designed the costumes for "Black Panther" and tells DnA about creating an identity on screen for a community long left out of the picture.
If you’re at a restaurant or cafe in Malibu and ask for a straw, starting June 1 you won’t be given a single-use plastic straw. The same goes for stir sticks or other plastic utensils. The environmentally-oriented beach town is just one of a growing number of cities outlawing single-use plastic implements.
We bid farewell to Andy Warhol’s Interview, and talk to artist and celebrity photographer Matthew Rolston about working for the magazine, and the creation of the “glamour- industrial complex.” And the hippie movement may have begun in California, but it spread across the globe - even beyond the Iron Curtain. We visit an exhibition of Soviet hippie culture at The Wende Museum.
