Wednesday, February 27, 2013 at 12:01PM A Closer Look at Catherine Opie
Catherine Opie, Tavir (Gas Station), inkjet print, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles © Catherine Opie The built environment of Los Angeles has served as a muse for Catherine Opie for over 25 years. From the city’s freeways to the gated homes of Bel Air to the shopkeepers of West Adams, Opie has focused her lens on all.
On Saturday, March 2, Catherine Opie will join the ranks of previous awardees Iwan Baan and Richard Barnes as the recipient of the 4th annual Julius Shulman Institute Excellence in Photography Award. Opie will receive the award at the opening of the exhibition Catherine Opie: In & Around L.A. at the Woodbury University Hollywood Gallery (WUHO). Included in the show—and exhibited for the first time in LA—will be photographs from her Shopkeepers series documenting small businesses in Opie’s West Adams neighborhood.
We had a chance to talk with Emily Bills, who, along with Karin Higa, curated the exhibition, Opie and her work.
Monday, December 17, 2012 at 9:54AM Never Built: Los Angeles Hopes to Inspire Design Ambition
Image courtesy of Never Built: Los AngelesWe at FORM are super excited about the A+D Museum’s upcoming Never Built: Los Angeles exhibit, which is in the middle of a series of fundraising events leading up to its spring 2013 opening. The most recent effort is a Kickstarter campaign running through February 14, 2013, which sets a fundraising goal of $40,000 for the implementation of the exhibit. Luckily for your eyeballs, the Kickstarter page also provides a video that offers the first glimpse of some of the truly ambitious and even outrageous proposals of yesteryear, assembled by the exhibit’s organizers, Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin. FORM spoke with Lubell recently, who explained that the intentions of the exhibit are deliberately political: “the idea is to change the culture—to be more open to ambition and vision.” Lubell continues, “it isn’t just about what could have been; it’s about what still could be.
Exhibits | tagged A+D Museum, Los Angeles, Never Built Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 7:52PM What to Do this Weekend: de LaB's Echo Park Home Tour
Image: ©Laure Joliet/Sunia HomesGlad to see that the good people of de LaB (stands for Design East of La Brea) are broadening their reach with an inaugural home tour. The tour will be held on March 24 in Echo Park, California—one of Los Angeles' recently hip neighborhoods, characterized by the urban perks of walkability, mixed use commercial corridors, some of the city’s oldest, most charming neighborhoods, and great examples of homes built in the last decade with modern design sensibilities and sustainable technologies.
Keeping with the local milieu, all of the destinations on the tour are within walking distance. The tour features homes by Good Idea Studio, Simon Storey, Heydey, and Jerome Pelayo (pictured above--the first effort by Sunia Homes is the newest addition to the neighborhood among this batch).
Below is the rest of the info you will need to buy tickets for what is hopefully the first of many home tours by de LaB. Act quickly because there is only one day left to buy tickets!
Saturday March 24th
12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Self-directed, tickets will be issued via email with addresses of the homes.
Tickets for the tour cost $35/person and must be purchased in advance. We will not accept payment for tickets on the day of the tour.
Architecture | tagged Echo Park, Home Tours, Los Angeles, de LaB Monday, February 20, 2012 at 9:03PM Advocating for the Built Environment: AIA|LA Commences Mayoral Candidate Forums
Christopher Hawthorne and LA City Councilmember Jan Perry discuss the future of LA's built environment. Image via Blogdowntown.The AIA|LA has launched the Mayoral Candidate Forum series, commencing on February 17 with mayoral candidate and LA City Councilmember Jan Perry. The forum series will be moderated by LA City Planning Commission President Bill Roschen and LA Times Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne.
According to a recent post by Blogdowntown, Councilmember Perry’s initial forum was a collegial affair, with Roschen and Hawthorne agreeing with most Perry’s points—her arguments included support for policies that would drive economic development at the neighborhood level and policies that would require urban design guidelines for LA’s ongoing build-out of public transportation resources.
Will Wright, director of government and public affairs for the AIA|LA, has taken the occasion of the forums to make a broader appeal for the next mayor of Los Angeles to appoint a “Deputy Mayor of Architecture and Urban Design.” Stuart Magruder, AIA, current president of AIA|LA, has also taken to the Internet leading up to the events, making the case for strong leadership from LA’s community of architects and urban designers leading up the 2013 mayoral election in a short YouTube video.
The schedule for the remaining candidates is as follows:
Friday, February 24 (7pm - 9pm) - Mayoral Candidate Austin Beutner
Friday, March 2 (7pm - 9pm) - Mayoral Candidate Kevin James
Friday, March 9 (7pm - 9pm) - Mayoral Candidate Wendy Greuel
Friday, March 16 (7pm - 9pm) - Mayoral Candidate Eric Garcetti
Wednesday, June 8, 2011 at 11:10PM 
Events | tagged Los Angeles, VDL Studio and Residences, tour