Learn more about J. Yolande Daniels' work at MIT, StudioSumo, and The Black City. Follow The Black City on instagram here. 

Show notes and Yolande’s Five Places:

1.      Biddy Mason Place (in today’s Downtown LA): more on Biddy Mason here.

2.      Brick Block (in today’s Downtown LA)

3.      Los Angeles Street (formerly Calle de Los Negros, near today’s Union Station)

4.      Azusa Street Mission (in today’s Little Tokyo)

5.      Bronzeville (in today’s Little Tokyo): How 'Little Tokyo' Of Los Angeles Changed Into 'Bronzeville' And Back Again (NPR); and Azusa Street to Bronzeville: The Black History of Little Tokyo (PBS SoCal)

Honorable Mention: El Prieto Canyon—named after Robert Owens

Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? Amy Murphy, Akira Mizuta Lippit 

Interview Date: 02-24-21

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

J. Yolande Daniels, Black City: the Los Angeles Edition, The Museum of Modern Art (2020).

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, The Museum of Modern Art (2020), 

Totem House by studioSUMO + Histories of Negation by J. Yolande Daniels, Architecture at Home, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art  
MIT Center for Art Media and Technology

Crystal Bridges Museum debuts five house prototypes that take on Northwest Arkansas’s housing crisis (The Architect’s Newspaper)

The Open Hand: A Conversation with the Descendants of Biddy Mason

What’s in a street name? LA’s forgotten Calle de los Negros (KCRW) – refers to the 1871 anti-Chinese massacre in downtown Los Angeles and the forthcoming memorial designed by Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong and Judy Chui-Hua Chung. 

How Can We Create Communities of Care? Projects by architect Sekou Cooke and designer J. Yolande Daniels explore how architecture can nurture people and communities.

A Glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven: the Azusa Street Revival (PBS)

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Monica Lamela, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on unceded Chumash and Tongva land.

© 2024 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org

Discover more of Mike’s work via his instagram, and Linktree, and find other relevant links in the show notes for his original interview with art critic Shana Nys Dambrot (E14). For Shana’s bio and her Five Places L.A. interview, check out Episode 12, here. “Los Angeles A to Z” is a poem included in Mike Sonksen’s beautiful tribute to Los Angeles, “Letters to My City”, the second edition of which was just published by Writ Large Press in 2023. “The poems and essays in Letters to My City combine two decades of field experience, research, personal observations, and stories told to the author, Mike Sonksen, a third-generation Los Angeles native, by his grandfather and other family members, to interrogate all sides of Los Angeles, its streets, its people, its neighborhoods, as a means to examine the postmodern metropolis.”

Discover more of Mike’s work via his instagram, and Linktree, and find other relevant links below in the notes.

This is our first “plus-two” interview! In each episode, we ask our interviewees to name someone whom they in turn would choose to ask about the five places that define Los Angeles for them. Artist Laurie Lipton, our episode 8 guest, chose art critic Shana Nys Dambrot as her plus one. To watch or listen to Laurie interview Shana about her five places, check out her interview and episode here. Shana then chose Mike, making this our first plus-two. Stay tuned for Mike’s extraordinary interviewee, who will be our first plus-three.

Show notes and Mike’s Five Places:

1.      Cascades park in Monterey park.

2.      Beyond Baroque, Venice. Mike also mentions: the LA-founded punk band X, the extraordinary Wanda Coleman, aka “the L.A. Blueswoman”, Scott Wannburg, S.A. Griffin, Tom Waits, Allan Ginsberg, Michael C. Ford, and Jim Morrison.

3.      Judy Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles, about which Mike has recorded this video: “Whose Story Do We Tell?”  Also mentioned: Stefano Block, the graffiti artist formerly known as CISCO, and the bell hooks book All About Love.

4.      Los Angeles City Hall. Also mentioned, Phillipe’s restaurant, since 1908!

5.      Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Temple in Boyle Heights. East First street. Brooklyn Avenue. Nisei week festival in Little Tokyo.

Honorable mentions:

Leimert Park Village

Suehiro restaurant in Little Tokyo and Robert Vargas mural

Cerritos Library

Spoon House Japanese Italian restaurant in Gardena – whether you like Japanese Italian-food or not, this Jonathan Gold review is a joy to read.

Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? The great Lynell George.

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

Mike Sonksen’s prose poem: “For Mike Davis”

Joan Didion

Robert Arenevar – muralist

The Roots’ Illadelph Halflife album for sunset drives.

“Seven Books to Help Understand Judith Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles and L.A. Itself”, by Mike Sonksen

Memorial to the Victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre

Glenn Kaino’s show, Aki’s Market, at the Japanese American Museum

The Hood Historian

Huell Howser, as Mike says “respected human dignity. He let others shine.”

bell hooks’ book  All About Love

Marugame Monzo Japanese fusion restaurant

Page Against the Machine bookstore

D. J. Waldie

Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way

Natalie Goldberg

Lynell George

Ruben Martinez

Brian Cross

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.

© 2024 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org

Show notes and Ingalill’s Five Places:

1.10,000ft above LA (preferably in a small aircraft, but also in a commercial plane)

2. Grand Park, designed by Deborah Sussman / SussmanPrejza

3. Angel City Football Club games at Gensler-designed BMO stadium, and the walk from Metro, through Exposition Park with the Rose Garden, the CAAM, the upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Coliseum.

4. The back yard, in general, Ingalill’s family’s back yard in particular, and the view from her deck which includes the DWP Building, the  Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles City Hall, and Dodger Stadium.

5. Community colleges in general, ELAC in particular, whose campus includes the Vincent Price Art Museum by Arquitectonica, EYRC student center building. HGA, house & Robertson. Los Angeles Mission renovation by W-ROAD.Downtown Library Art (Docent Tours).

Honorable Mentions: The Downtown Public Library, The Whiskey a Gogo, Busch gardens, Hollywood Blvd.

Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? Ingalill’s students, and also: Barbara Bestor, Doris Sung, Carmen Suero, Demar Matthews.

Interview Date: 08-08-23 

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

Lawrence Weschler, “L.A. Glows,” The New Yorker, February 15, 1998.

Rebecca Ellis, Julia Wick, “Downtown L.A.’s Grand Park to be renamed in honor of longtime Supervisor Gloria Molina,” The Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2023.

Alissa Walker, “The Designer Who Helped Give LA its Look,” The New York Times’ T Magazine, December 17, 2013

Christopher Hawthorne, “Deborah Sussman Loves L.A. (and She Always Has),” Metropolis, March 12, 2014.

Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, “DEBORAH SUSSMAN (1931–2014),” ARTFORUM, October 15, 2014

Oliver Wainwright, “More is More: The Gaudy Genius of the Late Deborah Sussman,” The Guardian, August 27, 2014.

Diana Budds, “The Woman Who Made The 1984 Olympics A Masterpiece Of Design,” Fast Company, May 18, 2016.

The Los Angeles Olympics project overview, Sussman Prejza.

Emma Kemp, “Meet Angel City FC, the women’s team owned by Natalie Portman and a host of stars,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 5, 2023.

HBO special on Angel City Football https://www.hbo.com/angel-city

Jen Carlson, “Photos: The Charming Mid-Century Dingbats Of Los Angeles,” LAist, Sep 7, 2015.

DINGBAT 2.0: THE ICONIC LOS ANGELES AS A PROJECTION OF METROPOLIS, a Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design publication

M. Nolan Gray, “The UCLA Students Who Live in Their Cars,” The Atlantic, August 3, 2023.

Liam Dillon, “‘Gimme Shelter’: California’s housing crisis forces college students into homelessness,” The Los Angeles Times, Nov 17, 2022.

Visual Intelligence by Amy Sherman, with a Deborah Sussman graphic design on the cover

KCRW Sounds LA

Credits:

Ingalill’s headshot photo: Monica Nouwens (graphic treatment by Anali Gharakhani)

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.

© 2022 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org

This is our third “plus-one” interview. In each episode, we ask our interviewees to name someone whom they in turn would choose to ask about the five places that define Los Angeles for them.  Artist Laurie Lipton, our Episode 08 guest, chose art critic Shana Nys Dambrot as her plus one, and this is their wonderful conversation.

Show notes and  Shana’s five places:

1. Chateau Marmont (in the 80s and 90s). 

2. Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine (Palisades). 

3. Downtown Library Art (Docent Tours). 

4. Getty Villa (and Getty Center).

5. L.A. Flower Mart, and Shana recommends the Poppy and Rose cafe next door. 

Honorable Mention: Tales of the American (documentary on the American Hotel). 

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

William Douglas Lee, architect of the Chateau Marmont

Art and Architecture of the Downtown Central Library and Maguire Gardens

Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and his wife, famed choreographer Anna Halprin

The Mark Taper Forum at the Downtown Central Library

Fountain Design at the Downtown Central Library

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Creator and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.

© 2022 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org

Watch this episode on YouTube  |follow us on instagram

Los Angeles native Gary Baseman is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the human condition through fine art, illustration, performance, film, fashion, and toy design. Known for his raw style and humor, his art has appeared in international publications (The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, TIME, Rolling Stone), games and toys (Cranium), digital collectibles (VeVe), and in the ABC/Disney animated series and feature film “Teacher’s Pet,” for which he was creator and executive producer. Baseman’s awards include multiple Emmys, a British Academy of Film & Television Arts award, and Fulbright and Sundance New Frontier fellowships. His many brand collaborations include COACH, Lladro, and Dr. Martens. His fine art has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America.  

We highly recommend watching this episode on our YouTube channel, as Gary shows several of his extraordinary drawings onscreen, his cat Bosko drops in several times, and we have embedded photographs from Gary’s long history in LA into the video. Big thanks to Gary for sharing his art, his photos, and his stories so generously.  

Show notes and  Gary ’s five places 

1. Canter’s Deli
2. Fairfax district: Pan Pacific auditorium, Pan Pacific movie theatre, and bowling alley. Gilmore drive in, Kiddieland, Tail o’ the Pup, Original Farmer’s Market, CBS Studios. Many of the buildings Gary remembers no longer exist. This neighborhood guide and this post by The Hundreds dig into the history.
3. La Brea Tar Pits
4. The Witch’s House aka the Spadena House (though Gary nearly chose “his hill” in Griffith Park)
5. Musso + Frank

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode

Discover more of Gary’s work on his website and instagram

Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”: The New Yorker’s view of Los Angeles

Remembering Beverly Park and Kiddieland

Beverly Park and Ponyland: The 'Kiddieland' that Inspired Walt Disney

The Carol Burnett show, and The Price is Right. 

The Formosa Café

Genghis Cohen

Chateau Marmont

The Griffith Observatory

The Mamas & The Papas

Jim Heimann and his many books on California

History and photos of the Pan Pacific Auditorium (1935, architects Wurdeman & Becket) and Pan Pacific Movie Theatre (opened 1942, architect William L. Pereira).

A Pan Pacific history from the perspective of Scotty Moore, studio and touring guitarist for Elvis Presley between 1954 and 1968.

Annie Hall driving scene in which the Gilmore drive-in appears at timestamp 1:06

CBS television City (1952, architects Pereira & Luckman) 

The tastes that define LA for Gary Baseman: The martini at Musso &Frank; the potato knish with gravy, or the chocolate rugelach at Canter's, the enchiladas Howard at El Coyote. 

Credits:

All photos © Gary Baseman 2023 unless otherwise noted

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Creator and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

© 2022 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org

Show notes and Julie’s five places:

This interview was recorded on March 30, 2023

1. Beach (ex: Santa Monica beach)

2. Topography of hills and plains (as you might see from the Griffith Observatory): a mythical place with elusive edges

3. Distinctive and walkable neighborhoods (Santa Monica, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Arts District, Atwater Village, mid-Wilshire, pockets of the Valley, Sierra Madre, West Ventura) Cuernavaca café on Ventura avenue.

4. Strip malls, with their ephemeral signage, and Park’s barbecue in particular

5. Homeless encampments

Also mentioned in this episode/related links:

KoningEizenberg on instagram

KoningEizenberg firm overview video

LA Times neighborhood mapping project - most of the distinctive and walkable neighborhoods mentioned by Julie are included in this project.

Disney Concert Hall

Eames House (Case Study House No.8)

Reyner Banham and Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies

Jonathan Gold

Joan Didion on Driving as Secular Worship and Self-Transcendence (The Marginalian)

Julie Eizenberg interviewed in Madame Architect

The Right Touch, article on KoningEizenberg by Christopher Hawthorne in Metropolis Magazine

Five Places L.A. LISTENER SURVEY!

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

© 2022 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org

(Note: "Athey" is pronounced with a long "A", as in "āi", as opposed to Emmanuelle's short "a" pronunciation in the intro. The episode was recorded in Dec. 2020 and includes mention of recent closings due to the pandemic.) 

Show notes and Ron ’s five places

1. Grand Central Market
2. Griffith Park, with its archery range, zoo, and Autry Museum
3. Huntington Library and Gardens
4. Silverlake and Sunset Junction, Tabasco’s, Cliff’s Edge (closed but maybe reopening), Catch one, Pacific Dining Car
5. Farther afield: The unincorporated community of Zzyzx, California.

Also mentioned in this episode/ related links

Five Places L.A.  LISTENER SURVEY!

The Grapes of Wrath

Hemet and Pomona

Mark Steger

John Rechy

James Ellroy

Guardian article on the 2028 Olympics by Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin: Los Angeles has already ceded too much power to the Olympic machine

Versailles Cuban chicken

The unincorporated community ofZzyzx, California.

Rita D’Albert

Christopher Knight’s LA Times review of Athey’s 2012 show “Queer Communion: Ron Athey” at ICA LA: Review: ‘Queer Communion’ and the engrossing, squirm-inducing world of Ron Athey

Show notes and Laurie’s five places:

This interview was recorded on December 22, 2022

1. The Getty Museum
2. LACMA
3. Pacific Coast Highway aka California State Route 1 and 3b. Hummingbirds
4. The Pacific Ocean, the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. And that famous L.A. light quality, as described by Patt Morrison in the L.A. Times: You’ve noticed it, right? There’s just something about L.A.’s light
5. Trader Joe’s (and fresh produce in general, especially avocados!)

Also mentioned in this episode:

The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck

Art for art’s sake

“Happy”, the painting behind Laurie during the interview

Shayna Nys Dambrot

Related Links

Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black & White Drawings, a documentary film by James Scott

Newest Book: LAURIE LIPTON drawing

Website: www.laurielipton.com

On instagram: @laurieliptondrawings

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Monica Lamela for her extraordinary video editing skills

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

© 2023 Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, and FIVE PLACES L.A.

www.laforum.org

Show notes and Frances’ five places:

This interview was recorded on December 29, 2022

1. The Sixth street replacement viaduct

2. Santa Monica Pier

3. Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation

4. Schindler House

5. Outdoor dining in Los Angeles

Also mentioned in this episode:

April Greiman

Deborah Sussman

To The Point hosted by Warren Olney on KCRW

Which Way L.A. hosted by Warren Olney on KCRW

Michael Sorkin, the architecture critic who was originally assigned to the project that brought Frances to L.A., and who died of the coronavirus in 2020.

From the L.A. Times: 6th Street bridge: A civic wonder that reflects L.A.'s promise and its simmering problems

From the L.A. Times: More than a bridge: Michael Maltzan’s 6th Street Viaduct addresses mistakes of L.A.'s past

From the New York Times: Los Angeles Enjoys Its New Bridge a Little Too Much

Patti Smith at the Santa Monica Pier (one of many appearances).

“‘Rewilding’ the land brings back birds, bees, butterflies” by Frances Anderton on KCRW.com

An L.A. Times piece on the surge in outdoor dining brought on by the pandemic: The year of the party tent: What the age of COVID taught us about architecture in 2021

Related links:

Read: Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles, Frances’ redefinition of "home" in the Southland.

Watch: 40 Years of Building Community, a short film Frances co-produced about Community Corp of Santa Monica.

Listen: Audio tour of buildings in Common Ground, with KCRW's Steve Chiotakis; Q + A with KPCC's Larry Mantle about Common Ground and why he loved apartment living in L.A..

Credits:

This podcast is produced by a small team of volunteers at the LA Forum. To keep us going and growing, we’d greatly appreciate your support! Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen, and share with friends and colleagues. Or, make a donation at www.fiveplaces.la. Thank you for listening.

All images of “Common Ground: Multi-family Housing in Los Angeles © Angel City Press 2022

Opening video © Emmanuelle Bourlier 2023

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

© 2023 Los Angeles Forum AUD, and FIVE PLACES

www.laforum.org