Design and Architecture

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.