Results tagged “design”

Spanish, Colonial, Mid-Century Modern, Craftsman, Streamline Moderne, Art Deco...Los Angeles is packed end to end with architecture reflective of so many different styles. Sometimes we pause to celebrate a building, its design, and designers only when it reaches a milestone or when we say goodbye to it. But this month the American Institute of Architects: Los Angeles (AIA) wants to encourage all of us to celebrate architecture for all 31 days of October.

  

Last week a celebration was held on the lawn of City Hall during the weekly farmers' market to rejoice thirty years of locally-sourced farm-fresh produce in Los Angeles, and to look ahead to a future where we make buying and consuming such produce a priority. Part of the event was to announce the winner of GOOD magazine's "Redesign Your Farmers' Market" contest, which invited entrants to articulate and render their vision for the next generation of farmers' markets and how they'll serve the public.

It's quite a change from the old look, but a welcome one at that. It's more mature and newsie with a hat tip to the past--much better than that corporate turquoise thing that was going on before. There's an interactive tour you can take and over at the Readers' Represenative blog, online managing editor Meredith Artley explains and highlights the key changes made, such as better navigation, the new font (Georgia!), a faster loading video application and other features. Your thoughts?

The poshest gas station in Los Angeles--directly abut the Beverly Hills border at Olympic and Robertson--just recently changed its branding from BP to the company-owned and consumer friendly ARCO. Usually, the brand is cheaper or seems so without the 45-cent charge to use a card. But that's clearly not the case here. Catty-corner in Beverly Hills, the listed prices are same, sans credit charge.

Four Los Angeles eateries received awards tonight at Dwell on Design honoring excellence in their design. The 4th annual 2009 Restaurant Design Awards presented by American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA/LA) presented Bottega Louie and Chaya Downtown with top category jury prizes and The Conga Room with the lounge/nightclub award. The Lab Gastropub on USC's campus garnered the People's Choice award in the cafe/bar category.

LAist is stoked about the three-day style and design event Dwell on Design, taking place today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Exhibits, panels, and special events are taking place all over town, and while we're most excited about some of the on stage speakers and panels this weekend and tomorrow night's movie & mobile food event, things get underway today at the Convention Center for the Dwell on Design Exhibition, open to Trade and Dwell Conference Plus ticket holders only until 8 p.m.

Meet Freya Estreller and Natasha Case, the twentysomething women behind the Coolhaus ice cream sandwich brand. You may have already caught them proffering their wares at various events around town -- Barnsdall Park, Venice First Fridays, Stories Books -- in their pink, chrome-rimmed converted postal jeep. But for those who haven't had the Coolhaus experience, we'll break it down for you.

By Gareen Darakjian for LAist

By Gareen Darakjian, Special to LAist

Jonathan Jarvis, a master's candidate at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, kept it more than a little bit real with "The Crisis of Credit Visualized." This 11-minute animation is just one part of Jarvis's thesis. May his grad school debt vanish with great haste.

The Neighborhood Map hanging in GOOD's offices on Melrose (Photo by Emily Lerman for LAist)

Depending on what time you're visiting LAist today, things might be a little screwy. We're going through some changes by upgrading our blogging software and doing some graphic redesigning. Our tech team, led by the best man to do the job, Neil Epstein, are working hard to get us through this as fast and smoothly as possible. Housekeeping: This is a good time to remind that you can read us via RSS (subscribe at http://laist.com/index.rdf) and follow us on Twitter @LAist. If you're going "what the hell are those," then this RSS and this Twitter video should help (plus, they're fun to watch!).

The Information Technology Agency (ITA) of the City of LA is beginning the redesign of the City's official website. This is a god send considering the outdated website is a product of some ancient time, possibly 2004. They want residents to take this survey in order to help them make a new website that serves our needs. So the more of you that take it, the better the city will be able to serve you, in theory. Earlier this year, the city released a pretty killer tool that let's you follow city council motions vis RSS and E-mail. UPDATE: Today's the last day for this survey, so hurry up!

LAist's weekly LAistory series is taking a break this weekend!

       

Back in August, a large mural went up on the facade of Quicksilver SiteLA on Sunset Blvd. It's a vision for the future of transportation and was executed by the locally based drawing group Sumi Ink Club, who will have events next week leading up to an exhibition in November. But tonight, an exhibition called "We Ride By Night" opens featuring art influenced by LA bicycle culture with cyclist Dorothy Le curating. The event goes to 9:00 p.m. at the gallery in Silver Lake. Below are photos of the building just in case you were wondering what it was when passing by.

Art Center College of Design President Richard Koshalek, whose contract ending in 2009 was not renewed earlier this summer, left the high-profile art school today. The school will not comment on the situation beyond a statement with the usual he-was-great and we-wish-him-luck statements. It was in June when the board decided not renew is contract. Some speculate that it was over $50-million price tag for a Frank Gehry designed research complex that students were upset over ("what about our pricey tuitions?") and others point to the direction of the program and the lack of quality with the non-commerical work coming out of the school.

       

For their Park[ing] Day LA project, Chattel Architecture, a planning and historic preservation firm, in Sherman Oaks took a spot in front of their Ventura Blvd. office and designed a simplistic homage to landscape architect Thomas Church. "With plot sizes shrinking after WWII, Church recognized the necessity of landscaping for small yards on limited budgets," their sign taped to a parking meter said. "Church designed 2,000 gardens in 40 years of practice."

Here's a photo of Torti Gallas and Partners, an urban design and architecture firm based in downtown, setting up their commandeered parking space at 6th & Grand Avenue.

Nearly 70 parking spaces around Los Angeles will be turned into parks tomorrow. The event where designers, artists, activists and others come together to make a park in a metered parking space, seeks to promote a dialogue in how our streets and urban space are used, especially for a city that has little park space per resident.

Since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood has been damaged closed and has been awaiting repairs and retrofitting over the last 14 years (however, it is still open for tours). Some of the work has been done, thanks to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds that went towards the first phase of seismic retrofitting, repairs, and restoration, but the usual wild card for getting anything done these days (one word: funding) hindered the other phases to be completed.

KarmaloopTV visits Shepard Fairey, Amanda Fairey, to talk up their new Subliminal Projects gallery in Echo Park. We visited opening night when Blek Le Rat was showing and found it to be one of most exciting gallery spaces in Los Angeles.

Chicago graphic designer, Jenny Beorkrem, designs neighborhood posters of various cities in her own simple typographic style. A couple weeks ago, she released the Los Angeles one (available in three colors, see large image here), adding to the collection of other cities that include San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

       

It's that time of the month again... one of the best Los Angeles events is back here on the second Thursday of the month: the Downtown Art Walk (and Comedy Walk). Here's some of what happened last month through the eyes of Ed Fuentes at View from a Loft and Blogdowntown (he wrote tonight's Art Walk Preview).

    

The richest treasures are sometimes the simplest. Whether in need of a basic get away home or backyard reading room, Modern Cabana has done it with a great design of stunning minimalism. Part of the Dwell On Design Conference, the structure is one of the many offerings this weekend at the LA Convention Center (It's $50, but you can get in free).

       

At the Dwell on Design Exhibition this weekend (you can get free, check this post on how), various builders, designers and eco-friendly businesses are displaying their works of pride and joy. Within the LA Convention center room is a 1000 square foot home called the Hom Escape in Style. It's one steel building, manufactured in Los Angeles and thought up by a group of locally based designers from the KAA Design Group.

The newest and hottest trends in new modern design and eco-friendly building are hitting the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend at Dwell on Design. Over 200 exhibitors will display their outdoor, indoor and prefab wares including new products being launched this weekend. Additionally, there will be displays (ex., the Nomad yurt), sixteen private home tours and after hours parties.

Along with their art opening last week in London featuring the new "LA" work, pixel art group eBoy released the artwork as a poster in a series of many including Tokyo and New York City.

              

A cool and rather large crowd of art lovers attended last night's fun Downtown Art Walk; enjoying an evening of great works, good music & yummy food. Next month's artwalk is scheduled for Thursday, June 12th. Check out www.downtownartwalk.com for more info and if you need more reason to go, here are seven.

       

The Downtown Art Walk is every second Thursday of the month (that means tomorrow!) and is easily a staple of those things you have to do at least once. For us, however, we prefer it to be on the list of things to do at least once a month. More than 30 galleries participate along with events happening in conjunction such as the Comedy Walk, Town Square's cocktail and networking party and Possum Saloon at the Regent Theatre.

A job listing popped on Craigslist yesterday that might be music to the right web and graphics dork's ears. It seems Nine Inch Nails is on the prowl for "an internet-savvy web and graphics assistant who will work with an art director on a wide variety of tasks relating to web development, graphic design, video editing/production, and online marketing."