oneshotexhibition.org blog

A few days a ago L.A. Times reported that an audit by LA County Audit Official, Wendy Watanabe, and the independent firm who wrote the report, Harvey M. Rose, LLC, on how some L.A. County Supervisors use their power to circumvent their influences into the Planning Department Policies and firing of the Planning director, Bruce McClendon (see link).

Excerpt: “Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s planning deputy, Ben Saltsman, and Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s planning deputy, Paul Novak, issued conflicting e-mails to department staffers during the development of a Green Building ordinance that “could be interpreted as violating” rules that prohibit supervisors from issuing directives to employees outside public meetings.”

This should not single out the County Supervisor indiscretions but with all local and federal governments who abused their positions to gain their agendas being co-opted by corporations and developers, especially when the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited amount a money for candidates who running for office, which is wrong. Who knows where the money is coming from and how it is influenced their authority to other government agencies. Good government should start with transparency with the public and media, involvement with local leaders and neighborhood councils that are affected in their area and not serve themselves for the benefit of their careers.

A good example of the misuse of government authority is the LA City Planning and Land Use Department or PLUM on determining and allowing certain amount of development that adds an adverse effect to the neighborhood surrounding area. Most of the contention is elevated by developers wanting to change the zoning area that supports their pet project without public opposition, environmental impact and design reviews. Without any of these criteria to challenge any type of development, we’ll be insured that the future doesn’t look bright and less prosperous.

It could only be serve to notice that the general public are not only mad but angry about their representatives who are enriching themselves and play a diabolical act to deceived the public and their constituents, rather than their financial supporters and cronies, that is why there are tea party and grass roots organizations who are fed up with their government’s power plays. The only hope is when laws are change and are enforced for the public’s well being and that all decisions in urban policies will be concentrated in respect to their neighbors and to the city. Most of the projects are not interconnected within the city parameters and not socially connected with the diverse culture we live in, therefore there is should be accountability for all government who represents the republic.

Song of the Blog: Senses Working Overtime by XTC in the album English Settlement

With Chrysler and General Motors filing bankruptcy and the closing of Car dealership around the country, the question is what will become of the dealership, especially in Southern California, once they are closed? Sometimes opportunity knocks for urban development. The auto industry will change their practice by how the public will respond to their direction and how will cars be produce for the environment and sell them.

Most of the dealership that are closing are located along commercial corridors, which give the opportunity to reimagine the streets as a whole with the amount of  square acres each dealership owns, a clear investment for the locals to build something new and make it relevant for the community. What is meant about local to have something being built is people living within their community has the opportunity to influence the development and design in the area of concern. The notion of auto dealership is almost becoming obsolete as relevant of real estate agents are being taken over by real estate brokerage website in selling property, consumers are more apt to buy thru the internet because prices, specific preference on car model’s accessories and ease of purchasing thru dealers without traveling.

In a report by Planetzen,  The Future of Empty Car Dealership, the majority of web readers stated that local residents should determine what kind of development to replace the empty car dealership which says a lot because the importance of local input and a foreseeable opportunity of social experience other than politicians, developers, planners and architects. The more input between professionals and ordinary folks who have a stake can be educating, less trivial in terms of identity and a move towards a sustainable community in the American suburbs.

One case for debate and focus is the Big Valley dodge Dealership on the corner of Van Nuys Blvd. and the MTA Orange Line in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, which is the North-East of the intersection. The possibility of a new urban center that connects itself along Van Nuys Boulevard that can spread to neighboring communities.

While the world’s economy is in a downturn and one of  the primary focus in it’s survival is saving the environment, the redevelopment of suburbs can infuse hope and rejuvenation of once hopeless landscape that is catered to the automobile and consumption. Each of us has a responsibility to choose where they work and live, but also to invest their interest in improving their neighborhoods by community involvement such as local neighborhood councils meetings, grassroots organizations and personal choices (live near work, shop at local farmer’s market, grow your own vegetable garden and buy local products). The re-imagination of our suburbs one step in the grass.

Site of a possible transit oriented development at the Big Valley Dodge on the corner of the Orange line stop & Van Nuys Blvd.

Song of the Blog: Stop Boogie Shuffle by Charles Mingus on the Album Mingus Ah Um

While much of the US economy is trying to survive from the downfall of the real estate market, there is one project that is still going and building with less fanfare but has most of the tourist gawking about is the City Center on the Vegas Strip. It is a City Center (aren’t all hotel casinos a city within itself) along Las Vegas Blvd, near E. Harmon Ave. intersection, with its own zip code that cost 11 billion dollars, consisting designs by world re-known architects: Daniel Libeskind, Ceasar Pelli, Helmut Jahn, Rafael Viñoly, Norman Foster and David Rockwell, having it bill as a world-class city development focusing on art and architecture with an emphasis on sustainable design, being develop by MGM Mirage Company at the cost of 11 billion dollars. It shows what kind of diversity in architecture can bring to Las Vegas at a price.

It was an opportunity to hang out with some friends in last month’s March Madness in New York, New York Hotel and Casino to check out the center. During the day, I could overhear crowds of revelers and tourist commenting the look of the center. A couple with a heavy southern accent commented that they didn’t know what to think about the look of the complex, especially at the Daniel Libeskind design, “it didn’t look pretty, but I think it’s ugly.” In some of the theoretical world of architecture, it is a compliment and reveling in it. It’s weird. Las Vegas, in a whole, is a town that is perceived of being of not knowing what to think.  With all the kitsch, urban sprawl, traffic, lack of water resource and the fact it is in the middle of the dessert. It seems that people like myself escape to an area made out of nothing for something other than the truth and the reality of a sustainable city.

Back to City Center, late in the evening at 4:00 in the morning, I got the chance to really check the center up close while walking to the Sahara Hotel to get to the hotel room. While there were less people on the strip, I found there were no security at the gate and had the possibility of walking inside the complex with no problem. It seems that there resources are running thin, construction is moving in a snail pace and MGM Mirage are trying to get more financial backing to finish the project, the possibility of selling off some of their casino resorts to avoid bankruptcy.

What the problem is with this lifestyle center is the cost and livability in comparison to the rest of the City of Las Vegas; a unit of one can cost up to 23 million dollars. More people are losing their homes in break neck speed. The role of well known architects has been co-opted in designing over the top designs that become a selling point for the exclusive and not for all classes. While mainstream Las Vegas has become a bastion of the absurbity, we could always come to the originator of gaudiness and kitsch is Liberace.

View of City Center w/ Daniel Lebeskind designed building in the foreground (tilting walls).

A closer look @ City Center

The front entrance to City Center

The Dessert night brings comfort, where no secure place has no purpose nor reason that pierces  the conscious mind.

Exposed beyond the surface of doubt.

                                       The true originator of Las Vegas: Liberace

Song of the Blog: Holiday in the Sun by the Sex Pistols in the album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here are the Sex Pistols

Recently, there was a competition in regards to the recent voters approval for having mass transit in Los Angeles County, Measure R and Proposition 1A. Sponsor by Sci-Arc and the Architect’s Newspaper, this competition expressed an opportunity to come up with ideals and designs that will take advantage for government’s interest in improving public transit and life, even President Barack Obama is giving billions of dollars for creating a better infrastructure.

The winner of this competition was the group firm Radical Craft led by LA based Joshua G. Stein which proposed a high speed rail that loops around the LA basin at speeds of 100-150 miles per hour (MPH), with a urban corridor development along Sepulveda Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. While the winners were praised for their radical ideas in this format, what really lies is the lack of practicality, shows no certain nuance of the community and does not fix the immediate problems that exist today. It is more conceptual and abstract approach in which the analysis are convincing and insightful, but the end product brings more questions than probable solutions. What should have been an opportunity of a lifetime to bring a cohesive proposal to the public becomes a lost cause for 15 minutes of fame and disclosure. It’s hard to imagine to come up with one clear view where the issues are broad and  diverse that can bring a sigh of hope for a particular community and the rest of the area.

  Transit oriented development winning proposal from Radical Craft along the Sepulveda Blvd in the Sherman Oaks area. (from LA Curbed)

      Site development map along the Sepulveda Corridor of Sherman Oaks in phases. It would eliminate mostly medium-rise apartment complexes and single family residences with civic and commercial development. What about Mix-use development? (from LA Curbed)

                                    Can anybody say Monorail? (from LA Curbed)

This idea reminds of a Simpson’s episode of bringing a monorail into the town of Springfield, rather than improving mainstreet in downtown. Another scenario can be seen in a much smaller scale is Disneyland.

Song of the Blog: What Difference Does it Make? by the Smiths on their Debut Album The Smiths.

One of things in moving away from car culture that lasted for more than 50 years is to develop areas that are pedestrian friendly near transportation stops, meaning transportation oriented development (TOD); Make places more inviting and pleasing of the senses by integrating mixed use, open space and connectivity to the neighborhood.

One sort of banal and mundane approach of the typical urban sprawl that hasn’t brought any revitalization nor a paradigm shift of urban renewal into a community is the proposed commercial development at the corner of Woodman Avenue and Oxnard Street in Van Nuys (it’s really called Valley Glen for real estate purposes and local governing councils). It’s right in the center of a transportation stop for the gold line and is a perfect opportunity to have a new type of development in that corner with some good design acumen. This type of development is the same approach that disenfranchises communities than to more forward into a sustainable society.

This development could exacerbate the mindless cost to extend the practice of more parking lots and boxy buildings for the area that doesn’t tell about the people, area and locale of its richness and diversity. When will there be some kind of civic approach towards urban design that has the capacity to embrace the neighborhood and capitalize urban growth.

It is time to rethink this type of development and design, to bring down the hideous mini-mall that’s going to be obsolete.

The site on the corner of  Woodman and Oxnard where the mini-mall is being develop.

  The proposed development of vacant lot. A typical approach to Urban Sprawl near the TOD site on the Orange Line.

Close up of the building. Check out one of the name of the businesses (Modern Design). Far away from the truth.

Song of the Blog: the pre-released song Georgia by Eagle and Talon on the up-coming CD THRACIAN

The state of California is in a verge of a movement of epic proportions by a propose Legislation, Measure SB 375, to limit the urban sprawl to reduce global warming. It is the first state or government that has tackle urban development as a source to regulate land use policies that will create smart urban planning & infrastructure, and reduce carbon emission. It will give not only urban designers but Architects a broader context on designing environments for the future of society.

There is a belief that it will entail new business for energy technology, better research & invention on clean energy, such as solar, geothermal & recyclable,  and spur a new age of global environmentalism and emerging markets. The new book Hot, Flat and Crowded by New York Times “foreign affairs” columnist Thomas L. Friedman stated that there is a need of new innovation of clean energy and shift away from the waste that society is accustomed to their lifestyle choice. He calls it the Green revolution and that American has the opportunity to become the leader in this movement.

The hope from the possible new California state legislation measure and the series of books and articles addressing for a newer and daring approach towards the environment and society is that Architects and Designers has the opportunity to come up with innovative ideals and designs that will capture the spirit and the nature of moving towards a sustainable future. The ideal is to have a more responsible practice in reinventing the built environment while preserving our natural resources and the earth.

Song of the Blog:  This is Good by Fascinoma on their Myspace website.

The biggest debate in the general shift of neighborhoods that has pitted neighbor against neighbor is older neighborhoods that are dominated by the middle class or lower middle class being inundated by development to increase value in its area, changing the look for the better and allowing young professionals to move in, causing a dissension on what it should be presented as. Some people call it white flight, others call it gentrification, but the truth is that it has created a bastion of the old guard neighbors fighting against the affluent who want to improve the neighborhood.

The word Gentrification is defined by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary : the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.

Some may quote that it will eliminate crime in the area, which bodes well, but in the meantime it will displace and discourage the lower income people to afford living in the area close to work, unless they make enough capital to live there, which means working 2 jobs and allowing more tenants move in dilapidated units or houses that becomes a hazard for public safety. It would not only cause a class struggle but also race struggle, immigrants trying to resort their means of survival and live the American dream.

One example gentrification running amok is the article in the LA times regarding the Echo Park/ Elysian Park area. It is one hotly debated area besides Santa Monica and parts of the Westside and serves to notice that the community is still redefining itself, urbanistically. It is a more complex matter which geographically and creatively, how are new development, businesses and people could basically turn a page of a culture that is diverse in nature and is dealing with increase population and traffic with no center or point of interest.

Another one is the prospect of East LA and Boyle Heights is in verge of urban renewal. Boyle Heights has a different approach in which much of the new businesses and development are home-based, meaning there is no outside sources influencing the landscape of the neighborhood and the racial make-up is largely Hispanic, there is no such movement in white flight. If there was, hell would break loose.

Much of the shifting urban landscape is how to balance the area for affordable housing, urban renewal, culture identity and sustaining itself from shifting away from its historiography and spatial identity. More and more, designers, planners and architects are needed to know about the area’s certain nuances and characters in order to come up with theories, ideas and proposals that embraces the community rather than to facilitate the masses.

Muffler Shop in East LA

Song of the Blog: People as Places as People by Modest Mouse on the CD We Were Dead Before the Ship Ever Sank

With the gasoline prices @ more than $4.50 for unleaded in Los Angeles, the major shift how society is shifting their everyday habits in regards towards the high cost of living. Decision are made in taking a more responsible approach, away from the excess and greed that all of society is taking for granted.

More and more families & individuals are starting to realized the impact of the environment and the high cost of living, they are starting make conservation and responsible choices, on how they live their lives. Such as recycling, walking to shops at a short distance, composting yard and food waste, eat less meat, taking mass transportation (subway, train, bus-line), working close to home, growing organic fruits and vegetables, spending less money.

What is happening here in this global economy is people are starting to think locally and to invest into their own communities which are inundated with subdivisions and the built environment of strip malls, car shops and billboards that has no distinction. There is a movement to reassess how we live, communicate and to be engage with the public in moving towards a sustainable society. It is how suburban communities will eventually become urban and what are the ways to transition it into a integral part.

The important signs of this transition are coming to ahead and to look at the increasing depth and complexity in which we live in, how we take things for granted and the circumstances that surrounds it. To take a proactive search and understanding can only harness new ways of thinking and practice for the future.

The truth is we need to go a long way in order to see there is a future for mankind.

My shopping cart is limited and the world is wasteful.

 Song of the Blog: Everything Wrong is Imaginary by Lilys on the CD Everything Wrong is Imaginary

There’s an article in the LA Times regarding the shifting animosity towards development along Ventura Blvd., from Studio City all the way the Woodland Hills because the impact of traffic in the area. A lot of attention goes to mix-use housing to create a more a pedestrian friendly atmosphere but complaints from neighborhood councils are becoming more frequent and a lot of bickering amongst city planners, developers and residents.

In the meantime, Barbara Faga wrote that the problem is not about the density and sprawl. but design on Planetzen. Then on the Economist article, politicians are pushing density in order to redesign areas near mass transit station to have pedestrian friendly places. The question are they following on what they preach or they are selling out to developers without concession from the public in terms of building smart growth?

One of the Redline subway station stops

Song of the Blog: Handle with Care (Traveling Wilburys tune) sung by Jenny Lewis on the CD Rabbit Fur Coat

One of the most disparaging articles in regards of urban development in Los Angeles is the city has 130 million dollars earmarked for providing parks and recreation when a developer pays for Quimby fees per unit. The article in the LA Weekly Why LA is Park Poor explains the logic that when you build high-density projects in an area, you should compensate open space (parks, gardens, rec.-centers) to balance living conditions that are beneficial to the community. Can anybody calculate the amount of public park space per unit in a 3-mile radius of the highly densely populated area, lets say in Hollywood?

One of the intriguing aspects if there is no open space to compensate future development in LA which increase the population and crowdedness, then a solution might be is converting golf course into parks. Sorry Tiger.

Song of the Blog: Shimmer by Throwing Muses on the album University