Design and Architecture

Silicon Valley is embracing the idea of the company town, as even high-paying tech companies struggle with the high cost of housing. A westside school district also considers building homes for its teachers. The new downtown federal courthouse wins a major design award, but did an aversion to postmodernism lead the same jury to withhold this year’s 25-year award?

Did you know the city owns almost 9,000 parcels of land and properties across LA County? LA City Controller Ron Galperin released a map last year of unaccounted-for property, with a view to making the city more accountable and transparent, as well as pushing elected officials to amplify the value and best use of these sites.

LA photographer Cathy Opie has made a short film about an arsonist who loves mid-century-modern LA houses so much, he’s driven to destroy them. And the late LA artist Mike Kelley was obsessed with Kandor, Superman's hometown on the planet Krypton. Both artists address the utopian ideals of modernist architecture, and what happens when those ideals fail to materialize.

After the battle in Playa del Rey, have road diets been run off the road? The head of Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation describes how you can pitch bold new transit improvements. And the scooter-sharing startup Bird in Santa Monica has taken flight, but it’s also ruffled feathers at City Hall.

California’s recreational pot marketplace is open for business and, already, sales are booming. Take yesterday, for example: marijuana sales jumped more than 300 percent above last month’s daily average. That’s according to the company Green Bits, which tracks pot sales. Even in its early days, it’s becoming clear that recreational marijuana is for sale in stores that don’t look much like the stores of old.

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel defined 1970s Los Angeles. DnA remembers its creator, John Portman. Tech and entertainment companies are descending on Culver City. We’ll hear about the big changes coming to the one-time “Heart of Screenland” -- and meet two young developers who believe in brick-and-mortar retail.

Singer-songwriter Dar Williams has spent years on the road and along the way she learned a lot about America’s small towns and what makes them thrive. She talks about her book, What I Found in a Thousand Towns, and plays songs that relate to those themes. 

There’s been a trend of so-called "selfie museums" in LA, with “made-for-Instagram” sets designed for taking flattering self-portraits. So how does selfie culture jibe with “high art”? Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based curators bring new architectural ideas to the Windy City. But are they “boring”? And, one of Apple’s first “town squares” opens in Chicago too.

Coming in January, you'll be able to buy tickets to the Museum of Selfies in Glendale. It's part of the trend this past year of "made-for-Instagram" museums, collections of colorful sets designed for taking flattering self-portraits.