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On Today’s DnA: Design books!

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

design-books-feature

It was a great year for design books (especially a certain architectural walking tours guide that would make a great last-minute stocking stuffer)! A bunch of my favorite design writers published books that go far beyond the typical pretty picture books one associates with design—these are compelling stories and essays with really great writing. I wrote and produced a slideshow of my favorite 14 design and architecture books of 2009 on Fast Company. From that list, Frances asked me to pick a few of my favorites and come on the show to talk about them, along with some of her picks from the year. It was so much fun chatting with Frances about what books we liked and why. You can listen to the whole show, and see our entire list of recommendations, including a bunch we didn’t have time to mention.

Also on the show, another incredible writer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Dan Neil talks about the pieces of design that define the decade, my good friend Dakota Smith discusses Curbed LA’s best Los Angeles buildings of the decade, and Sammy Hoi from Otis College of Art and Design talks about their annual report on the creative economy of Los Angeles.

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On Today’s DnA: Billboard blight

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Besides having Sir James Dyson on today’s show, whose super-sucky products I have always patronized—from my pink vacuum cleaner to the only hand dryer I have ever taken a photo of (I seriously dried my hands three times)—a highlight has to be concerned citizen Dennis Hathaway talking about getting tough on billboards. It’s serious business, I suppose, so much so that the Planning and Land Use Management committee has indeed approved a new sign ordinance which means it will now go before our city council. But I had to laugh when I saw the image that Frances posted on the DnA blog to illustrate the kinds of clutter that the Coalition to Ban Billboard Blight is fighting against:

Hollywood!

That was pretty much the view out my bedroom window for three years. And I have to say, I never minded it. Actually? I liked it.

I know what you’re thinking. But I ask you to think, for a moment, about the tourists, because when you live in Hollywood, you become an honorary tourist every time you leave the house (and if you move to Hollywood, and are somehow expecting this not to be the case, my friend, I believe Tujunga is calling your name).

Now think about those people—perhaps even you—exiting the 101 and heading south on Highland, cruising into Hollywood for the first time. You want to see ads for three movies, one car and one Renaissance festival (?). You want to see Seth Rogen. You want to see HOLLYWOOD!

Across the universe

You want to see movies not only plastered on billboards, but plastered on buildings!

Another bad wrap

And come on, you gotta hand it to people like Asics for converting this building into a shrine of sweat.

Protectors of your money

And Wachovia, who conquered it next, transforming it into a veritable castle, complete with two-dimensional knights.

Plug it in, plug it in

Actually, I thought this one was rather clever.

Semi-Pro synergy

And I was always impressed with the (accidental?) synergy between ads.

Everywhere fires

Okay, I admit it was a little creepy when that single bionic eye was watching me sleep for all those weeks.

The critic

But sometimes, being the only lit object in the sky made for a fantastic cinematic image.

Good evening, Oscars.

If not the most appetizing.

Enchanted

And if you caught the right billboard, at the right moment, with the right backdrop, with the right message, the effect was nothing less than…well, you get it.

You can listen to DnA on KCRW live every 3rd Tuesday at 2:30pm PST, by podcasting through iTunes, or by streaming the audio at any time by clicking the little ‘Listen’ button underneath each show’s title on KCRW’s website. Be sure to check out the DnA calendar this month, freshly restocked with delicious items. And as always, if you know of any design or architecture events in Los Angeles—or have any good billboards to show me—please send them my way.

Posted in DnA, advertising, building, eating, traveling | Comments

On Today’s DnA: Relevance vs. Extravagance

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

10-afh-bookTomorrow is, symbolically at least, an interesting day. For those of us who have working credit cards and travel budgets, it’s the launch of the Milan furniture fair. And of course for the rest of us, it’s Earth Day. With uncanny timing, Frances decided to tackle both these issues in the design world on today’s show: Is It Goodbye to Architectural Excess?

The show is really just two interviews. One is with Cameron Sinclair, a TED Prize-winning architect whose work I’m sure you’re familiar with—over 40,000 architects and designers worldwide are working with the decade-old Architecture for Humanity or contributing to the Open Architecture Network, an open-source network for distributing good design concepts. And one is with Frank Gehry, a Pritzker Prize-winning architect who is so famous he starred on The Simpsons. I don’t know about you, but I believe that is the standard against which all fame must be measured.

conversationswithfrankgehrybarbaraisenberg

I encourage you to listen to the show in its entirety but there’s way more swirling around this story than just the interviews. Sinclair and Gehry make great points about each of their perspectives but they don’t get to answer some of the bigger issues in this argument (that’s also because they didn’t get to talk to each other directly since Sinclair’s busy jetting to every public speaking venue imaginable on earth and Gehry’s out on his yacht. I mean, he’s on a boat).

So I decided to collect a bunch of the major articles written on the topic—and there have been many since the beginning of the year—into a longer post on Fast Company so I could hear your thoughts. In all these arguments, it’s the words like ethical, moral, relevant, and modest that have become really interesting to me…before I thought that architects were pretty much only ethically obligated to make sure their buildings don’t fall down. But looking at some of the stories I’ve covered lately—Designers Accord, Objectified, Project H—I have started to wonder if this really does signify the beginning of an age where we judge designers based on their austerity. Are we promoting a generation of work that’s more Rural Studio than Burj Dubai? In Milan, at least, it already seems like the furniture world has gotten the hint: “The dominant style of this year’s Milan Furniture Fair seems to be utilitarianism, with many designers showing spartan, minimalist objects.”

So read on over at Fast Company. There’s plenty of great commentary in there by people I adore and admire—Michael Cannell, Murray Moss, Allison Arieff, Sinclair, Gehry and even Frances herself entering the argument in a saucy HuffPo post. Let me know what you think, or be sure to sound off in the comments if you’ve got something to say.

Posted in DnA, Fast Company, building, designing, greening | Comments

On Today’s DnA: David Rockwell does the Oscars, George Lucas does architecture

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

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No, this is not the stage for Frank Gehry’s 80’s birthday party, even though the milestone for the man born Ephraim Owen Goldberg is celebrated with well-wishes from friends and collaborators on today’s DnA. No, friends, this is the quite glamorous set that will greet viewers this Sunday on the Academy Awards. The return to the classy-sparkly-loungey look is thanks to David Rockwell of the Rockwell Group. I suspect it will look better than usual this year, not just because he’s same rockstar who designs thing like the new Jet Blue Terminal at JFK or the new Aloft hotel concept by Starwood (which I just wrote about in a hotel roundup for the Architect’s Newspaper and looks puuuurdy nifty), but because the Rockwell Group—famed set designers on Broadway—actually designed the Kodak Theater itself. Frances talks to Rockwell about this year’s show, the mantra for which is “more intimacy and less lamé.” Let’s hope less lamé also means less lame.

I’ll be on a plane flying back from San Francisco when the actual awards are broadcast but no matter:  Star statistician Nate Silver has already predicted the Oscar winners, including Mickey Rourke for Best Actor (yay!) and an almost complete shut-out for The Curious Case of Forrest Gump (double yay!).

Now speaking of movies, you may have heard of this guy George Lucas, who you may know holds a very special place in my family (a sort of honorary godfather, I suppose). Frances got to speak with him about USC’s new School of Cinematic Arts complex he funded (Lucas attended USC back in the day, and there’s even a famous and very funny student film set at USC called George Lucas in Love). Lucas also oversaw the design of the new building, doing all the early sketches, and it turns out he actually has designed a bunch of the Lucasfilm facilities. But no Death Star modernism for him: He loves Victorians.

The USC center isn’t fully operational, but luckily, we got this exclusive video of inside the new building as some of the students were breaking the place in:

You know, I can never watch that clip without thinking about poor Ponda Baba and how his architecture career was cut short.

Be sure to check out the DnA calendar this month, freshly restocked with delicious items. If you know of any design or architecture events in Los Angeles, please send them my way. You can listen to DnA on KCRW live every 3rd Tuesday at 2:30pm PST, by podcasting through iTunes, or by streaming the audio at any time by clicking the little ‘Listen’ button underneath each show’s title on KCRW’s website.

Posted in DnA, advertising, building, creating, designing, eating, partying, watching | Comments

On Today’s DnA: Back to the handmade, and hand-crafted poetry by me!

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008

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As I hit the skies for what is potentially going to be the most painful travel day of my life, a quick post to remind you to listen to a special holiday and year-end episode of DnA today at 2:30pm PST (or stream or podcast using the icons added after the show). This month has a theme that’s most near and dear to my heart as Frances talks about a return to the handmade with Jenny Ryan, founder of the excellent Felt Club and director of the new Home Ec department at my favorite neighborhood design store, ReForm School. She also covers the opening of the pretty new Heath Ceramics store here in LA (I covered the opening for the Architect’s Newspaper blog) and has some fantastic tips for hosting high-style soirees with low budgets from Ron Woodson and Jaime Rummerfield.

Then, don’t touch that dial! After reading my “The Night Before Layoffs” at the last de LaB, Frances commissioned me to write and read another piece “rapping up” the year in DnA. I’m really looking forward to hearing the results…apparently engineer extraordinaire Ray Guarna tricked it out with music and a beat.

If you want to read along while you listen, we’ve posted the entire poem on the DnA blog.

(Oh! And the buttoned-up winter wonderland scene above? That’s a detail from a pillow, handmade by my talented mom.)

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