oneshotexhibition.org blog

Angeleno Heights is the very first suburb in Los Angeles. Built around the late 1880’s, its historical area is one of the highly concentrated Victorian Homes that survived from decades of development which were originally owned by industrialist on top of the hill overlooking Downtown to the South-East. Here are some images from Scheer Images.

One of the Historical Homes on Carroll Avenue in Angeleno Heights

1355 Carroll Avenue on Angeleno Heights

A pure coincidence of the image of 1355 Carroll Avenue on an historical album published in 1987 with the image done by Scheer Images (above).

Close up version of 1355 Carroll Avenue.

Song of the Blog: Walking with a Ghost by Tegan and Sara on the CD So Jealous

In Reseda in the San Fernando Valley, north of metropolitan LA, there was a stir, which neighbors are up and arms on a graffiti mural on the wall of a liquor store. The mural was a homage to a fallen colleague who was a graffiti and tattoo artist. It was on the Daily News Friday edition.
The reason for the attention is the lack of dialogue on the significance of graffiti art or what people call it tagging. There is a difference:

-Graffiti is an art form that is raw from a source of creativity that is taken from a street-wise sensibility that has influence a wide variety of people from different part of the world. Graffiti has translated into different art forms to animation, painting, music, custom motors and tattoos. From Artist/animator Takashi Murakami, exhibiting at the Geffen Contemporary, to West Coast Customs.

-Tagging is a guerrilla warfare that is about territoriality, which is normally gang, related. It is a quick attach on one’s territory by marking their criminal names on walls, surfaces and objects. It has an alarming rate where they kill off each other, unless they get caught or find a way to escape this lifestyle. It has no affiliation with graffiti but can crossover with deadly circumstances.

The neighbors of Reseda has come down hard on the person who is responsible for the mural but has vow to resurrect another one and will do it the right way with having the proper permits, approval from the owner of the property and the neighborhood council for the area.

The hope is both parties can mediate into an arena that is consider open and acceptable to graffiti as a art form and the graffiti artist can reach a level of global acceptance without losing their integrity and to honor a friend. Ignorance is bliss (from Thomas Gray poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eaton College”).

Graffiti mural on honor of Anthony “Ohjae” Sena which is later painted over because of neighbors opposition and it done without permits and owner of the liquor store approval.

(both images taken from the Daily News)

Song of the Blog: It’s Great When We’re Together by Finley Quaye on the CD Album Maverick A Strike.

Last week, LA city planning commission approved a program that will focus in green building for future developments in the city. The article in the LA Times wrote the article on November 16 that the program is the most ambitious program by any city to have rules to limit waste, water and energy.

But will it make an impact into slowing down global warming?

The U.N. Security Council made a report last Friday that global warming is at its crisis and the reports are worst than it was previous projected. Even if there is no major change in reducing carbon emissions immediately, there will still be an impact on communities which will suffer from drought, food shortages, the rise of ocean levels, increase of temperature and catastrophic storms.

The next day, there was a presidential forum Global Warming and America’s Energy Future which only 3 candidates of the Democratic Party showed up for this event; Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich and  John Edwards, all the Republican and Democratic party candidates were invited. It shows a disappointing point of the candidates priorities  when they can’t spend a amble amount of time to show and give their two cents ways to curtail global warming and show an act of responsibility towards the environment and society concerns. The major acts of terrorism is not only from Al Queda but from ourselves (every single person in us)- pollution, wasteful practices and population growth.

There is a need for someone in the political spectrum to lead in moving in a direction of living in a sustainable environment which should be the President of the United States and other world leaders. If it is not late to reverse the impact, then we as a country should be a leader in saving the planet from our consumption and reassess our lifestyles in living, working and practice before all species, including ourselves, will disappear.

A view Hurricane Katrina from space on August 28, 2005 (via M.I.T.)

Song of the Blog: Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine on the self-title CD Album Rage Against the Machine.

There is a new website dedicated to Architecture. The same people who gave Wikipedia, is now started a database of Architects, buildings and categories- Archiplanet

It’s still in its infant stages but they need to fix their portals of information. For example, Frank Gehry is categorized under the letter F (first letter of his given name), but when you look up for Frank Lloyd Wright, he is under the letter W (the first letter of his surname)

Hopefully, they will better job in collating their data and will have more insights and photos. It depends on how contributions are added and not heavily depend on GreatBuildings, ArchitectureWeek and Design Community.

Kresge Auditorium in Cambridge, Massachusetts by Eero Saarinen (via GreatBuildings.com)

Song of the Blog: I Can See Now and American Dreaming by Dead Can’t Dance on the CD album Toward The Within.

This picture taken at 1330 Fourth Street in Santa Monica. This is refined and artistic expression storage container that has been deconstructive and reconstructive to be use as a office cubicle which is probably use  an art gallery in a Art-Deco building.

Its expose rust of the steel shows its rawness of materiality and invention. Plus the interplay of the materials being applied.

Decontructed storage container with interesting results. 1330 Fourth Street.
View from the front of the gallery on 1330 Fourth Street.

Song of the Blog:  Destroyer by The Kinks on the Album Give the People What They Want.

Park Plaza Hotel (607 S Park View St, Los Angeles) hasn’t change when it was first built in 1925 but the use of the building has been evolving more than 30 years; from being a club called the Scream when Jane’s Addiction would play one night and the Cult would play the next night, to being a film/video shoot location. It always has a niche in Los Angeles folklore that more the citizens value its historical content around MacArthur Park. There are always stories about Park Plaza and the surrounding neighborhood by people who has lived in LA for more than 25 years.

Recently, it has been reported that some Korean businessmen bought the place and is converting it to a hi-end hotel. There hasn’t been much notice as far the renovations on the uppers floors for hotel guest to start occupying nor any kind of hotel operation exist right now.

In the meantime, here are some fotos taken nearly nine months ago by Scheer Images. Enjoy.

The vaulted ceiling in the grand lobby of Park Plaza Hotel by Scheer Images.

Upper lobby of Park Plaza
Organ in the hallway
The Ballroom

Song of the Blog: Ripple (Grateful Dead tune) by Jane’s Addition on the Album Deadicated: A tribute to the Grateful Dead.

Culver City, the movietown that has change quite significantly. It really show what a small community can change the fabric, But is change is good for the better part of society?

I remember that downtown Culver City, which Washington Boulevard and Culver Boulevard intersect each other, was mostly an area where middle class families hang out and eat at family own restaurant. The only restaurant that is still a fixture of the local business and the area is the S & W Country Diner.

S & W Country Diner along Washington Boulevard.

What has change is the gentrification of the area. There are boutique restaurants, replacing San Gennaro and Sagebrush Cantina, Starbucks has invaded it and there is burgeoning arts district along the east portion of Washington Boulevard.

The most interesting and successful revitalization of Downtown Culver City is it becoming a part of the urban fabric. The historic Culver Hotel is the integral part of the restructuring of downtown with an open public space and the Lion King fountain. Plus, a new movie complex to go with it. The sidewalks along Culver Boulevard are far and wide with outdoor dining, benches, lush greenery and trees that canvas over the area is such a attraction which gives Culver City which gives a boost in their identity and quality of life.

The Lion King (or the MGM Lion) fountain with the historic Culver Hotel in the background.

Wide sidewalks with trees, outdoor seating, park benches along Culver Boulevard, near the cross section of Washington Boulevard.

Another part of the revitalization of Culver City is the Hayden Tract on the southern industrial area of Culver City, which is near the intersection of National and La Cienega Boulevard. Designed by Eric Owen Moss, much of the development is taking old industrial warehouse and converting/integrating them into über-strass Style Architecture; a Metropolis meets Freddy Kruger approach towards urban theory and design. It’s hard to point the dots when there is no cohesiveness and connection when they are competing themselves in a disturbing way. Much of the interest goes towards the construction and detailing. It would be interesting if you take that approach and integrate in Downtown Culver City. The ideal is to take a more structural design like Moss into a historical facade of Downtown. It really depends on execution and subtlety, which is not his strong points.

The Box on National Blvd. by Eric Own Moss (from Moss website)

Soon, Culver City will have a connective transportation, which is the Expo Line developed by the MTA in 2010. It is an integral part of Culver City as being a important part of the the region’s infrastructure, but a new appreciation for Culver City. Hopefully mix-used housing will come to play as far as bringing people away from the automobile and make it a sustainable community.

Song of the Blog: When Stars Go Blue by Ryan Adams on the CD Gold

With all the attention going on with green architecture, some builders are tending to build Straw Bale buildings as a alternative mode of boundness of sustainability but most of the construction and development are located on rural areas.

The metropolitan area of Los Angeles has been a adversary towards Straw Bale Construction. Mostly the green homes are old historic adobe buildings, homes built out of local stone quarries and recycle material (glass bottles and other discarded items).

The only and possibly the first Straw Bale building in the county of Los Angeles is the Santa Clarita Transit Maintenance Facility, the northern outskirts of LA. Designed by Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK), one of the major architecture firms in the world, has created a niche in sustainable architecture.

An article on the website Inhabitat wrote about the facility received the first LEED-certified award in LA county.

Santa Clarita Transit Maintenance Facility w/ a sectional detail of the straw-bale wall

Hopefully there would be more straw-bale construction not only in the county of Los Angeles but the city itself.

Song of the Blog: They’re So Sharp by Eagle and Talon on the EP Eagle and Talon Cares

The issues of gender in Architecture has been swirling on whether there is an identity that can be defined. It is a subject that will bring into question about the roles of producing architectural space.

Can the audience decipher what is feminine architecture to the rest of the male dominate world that is ever-changing with the shift of woman playing a important role in world politics, business, commerce and leadership. Does feminine architecture has to come from a woman whose ideals evoke femininity in their work or someone else other than whose work displays forms of femininity for the stimuli of men desire? It is a subjugated issue which should be understand in ways of define relationships on what are men and women perspectives, to show the mobility and visibility of public space, historically and theoretically, whether it comes from a woman’s point of view.

There are 2 books that addresses those issues, both by the same author, is sort of an introductory of gender architecture and space- Gender Space Architecture: An Interdisciplinary Introduction and The Pursuit of Pleasure: Gender, Space and Architecture in Regency London by Jane Rendell. It is an important subject that looks in the make up and influences towards the relationship of man, woman and commodity.

Julia Morgan, the celebrated woman Architect form the early 20th Century who was responsible for the design of the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, is considered of great talent but what’s interesting is the attire she wearing, not necessarily from the exquisite design of her work. The reason it was significant was the woman’s appearance of their roles in a male dominate society; she did not dress in womans’ attire, she dress in male clothes with the suit and tie, as she did it before Diane Keaton’s character dressed on the movie Annie Hall.

Julia Morgan with William Randolph Hearst

Diane Keaton (Annie Hall) w/ Woody Allen (Alvy Singer) in the movie Annie Hall.

Similar to gender discrimination, a women back in the past disguised or masked themselves into being a male cohort in order to be accepted in their professional field. The reality of women are subjectively introduce themselves as part of a problem on gender roles when the merit of work is not into question. The masculinity in their presence can only be serve for their acceptance.

Today, there might be still a disparity between men and woman in the field of Architecture, but there is more of a visibility in the media that is focusing on design and architecture. Women who collaborated with their male counterpart and some women on their own practice seems to be on a rise of acknowledgment for their work in art, design, writing and architecture.

Zaha Hadid, the Iranian-born and Pritzker Prized architect, is the most publicized and well-known in terms of her work and been able to received commissions base on merit. She doesn’t believed being a woman reflects her body of work as being female and she is not worry or even care as being as a role model for women because she is only cares about the work she produces, a sort of ego-maniacal rant mostly associate with men.

Now she finding herself into a quandary. In the Building Design (BD) website article, the contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, refuse to build the Architecture Foundation Headquarters Building in Southwark, England, on grounds that it cost too much to build and is unwilling to work on the scheme.

Would it make a difference if it was designed by male architect like Rem Koolhaas? Is there gender politics in this matter when the Architect is a woman in a man dominating machine?

Zaha Hadid’s Architecture Foundation Headquarters

The reason for this inquisition and the focus in one of the subjects on diversity for the exhibition is the interdisciplinary study of discourse in regards of race, gender and politics in Architecture and design, possibly today’s race for the presidency. The only hope is to have different perspectives in tackling the issues of development, response and openness.

Is it the female who produces architectural space cause a definitive mode of representation in becoming gender architecture or is it the author themselves (male or female) who creates define qualities of architectural space inherently femoral or a feminist point of view that can be understood? Still searching for those ideals that makes sense.

Song of the Blog: Is this Desire? from PJ Harvey from the album Is This Desire?