Architectones at Neutra's VDL Research House

Architectones by Xavier Veilhan

VDL Research House

Excerpted from the Los Feliz Ledger:

French artist Xavier Veilhan’s site-specific sculptures are now on view at Neutra’s VDL Research House on Silver Lake Boulevard through Sunday Sept. 16th. Veilhan's intention was to trace Neutra’s life and times via abstract and figural sculptures. During the exhibition, water has been returned to the house for the first time in ages as both the front reflecting pool and rooftop pool have been refilled.

Richard Neutra profile on Silver Lake Blvd.

Veilhan’s detailed notes on his monochromatic sculptures inspired by the house and Neutra’s professional and personal life are here. Check out the site for an artist's look at the exhibition. The installation's mobiles and sculptures were conceived as a dialogue between art and architecture displayed in “the most important modern architectural private residence in America,” per Veilhan.

Visiting hours: Thursday/Friday 3-8pm and Saturday/Sunday 11am - 4pm.  Admission is $10. Guided tours of the house are only on Saturdays.

VDL Research House
2300 Silver Lake Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039

Neutra Architectural Practice @ 85 to be celebrated in Eagle Rock and Silver Lake

2440 Neutra Place. Photo by Don Higgins courtesy of Dion Neutra.

Lovell Health House, Los Feliz

Upcoming on April 10, 2011 is a rare chance to tour 10 buildings designed by architect Richard Neutra and his son Dion Netura in Los Angeles, including homes in Silver Lake along Neutra Place.  Los Feliz's Lovell Health House (a memorable location in "LA Confidential") will also be open to the public as well as the Neutra Architecture office on Glendale Blvd. The tour is one element of a busy weekend commemorating the 85th anniversary of the practice organized by the non-profit Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design.  Activities on Friday night and Saturday will be at the Eagle Rock Recreation Center Clubhouse, also designed by the firm.

Richard Neutra's VDL Research House II, Silver Lake

Saturday night there will be a reception at the VDL Research House II, which is now owned by the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design. The last time there was a public tour of many of these homes was in 2001.  Don't miss out on this chance to look inside these iconic modernist structures that helped establish Silver Lake's reputation as an architectural enclave.

Neutra Architectural Practice at 85 Weekend Celebration: April 8 - 10, 2011

Previewing 2011 Palm Springs Modernism Week

A home by E. Stewart Williams in Palm Springs, Calif.

Excerpted from the Los Feliz Ledger:

The crisp, clean lines of modernist homes look fine in Los Angeles but out in Palm Springs’ brilliant sunshine, they gleam and appear of-the-moment. Attributes such as post-and-beam construction, walls of glass that bring the sagebrush closer and the requisite shimmering swimming pool are highlighted in the desert climate. For those that are fans of the style, Palm Springs Modernism Week (February 17-27) is an increasingly popular salute to the genre and its esteemed architects like Richard Neutra, Albert Frey and William Krisel.

More than 16,000 attended the fan fest for all things mid-century in 2010 and this year organizers expect to welcome even more to the 10-day event. Activities range from a Modernism (design) show with 80 dealers, daily architectural tours via double-decker bus, several exclusive home tours, a design-related film series (including Doug Pray’s documentary Art & Copy), a vintage travel trailer show and a retro-styled martini party and fundraiser for the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation.

Jacques-Pierre Caussin, board chairman of Modernism Week, notes the show draws participants from across the U.S. as well as Australia, France and Japan—all interested in the architectural and design style that defined the post-war era. Home tours this year provide a rare glimpse inside some pristine examples such as the E. Stewart Williams-designed Edris House perched on a promontory in the Little Tuscany Estates or his estate for Frank Sinatra with its iconic piano-shaped swimming pool.

E. Stewart Williams-designed Edris House, Palm Springs

Although numerous buildings of the era have been torn down—most famously Richard Neutra’s Maslon House in nearby Rancho Mirage—many have been energetically restored. For those seeking a revived mid-century experience, check out the King’s Highway diner (once a Denny’s) at the Ace Hotel.  Built by the firm of Armet & Davis, which also built Silver Lake’s 1958 Googie-styled, Astro Family restaurant, the flagstone walls have been sandblasted clean, the original terrazzo floor revealed and the booths restored in dark leather all under a dramatic vaulted roof.

Googie architecture restored: King's Highway at the Ace Hotel

If you can’t make it out to Palm Springs for Modernism Week, get a modernist fix locally via annual home tours conducted by the CSSLR.  Upcoming: Dion Neutra is planning a Richard Neutra site tour for April 10.  Or check out Silver Lake News and graphic artist Nate Schulman’s online map that carefully cites more than 230 modernist and modern homes in the area.

Silver Lake's Michael Maltzan Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art

Exhibition entrance at MOMA

From December 2010's Los Feliz Ledger:

Silver Lake-based architect Michael Maltzan’s project for downtown’s Inner-City Arts is front-and-center at New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s (MOMA) exhibition Small Scale, Big Change: New Architectures of Social Engagement. Running now through Jan. 3rd, the show presents 11 architectural projects from around the world that bring well-designed buildings to underserved, often impoverished communities. Although limited in scale and budget, the projects highlighted have had positive wide-reaching effect in terms of social, political and economic transformation.

The Inner-City Arts project began in 1993; Maltzan was commissioned to remake a former auto body shop on Skid Row into a new home for an after school arts program. He incorporated the body shop’s roll-up doors, making an aesthetically pleasing space that allows seamless movement between inside and outside. For the children who come to the center, the space’s openness is in direct contrast to the more institutional type buildings they typically occupy throughout the day. The building is purposefully all white and meant to enforce a sense of optimism and possibility for the future.

Over time, the now one-acre complex (a micro-city of creativity) has evolved from its modest beginnings. At MOMA, the exhibit maps the project’s evolution and includes a full-size model of the current building, design elevations and a wall-sized architectural photograph that shows Inner-City Arts in context, just east of downtown—an unlikely location for ambitious architecture of this caliber.
“It’s in an area of the city, which is anonymous for most people,” said the architect.

One of the tenets of modern architecture is the idea that architecture can advocate and partner in social change. Maltzan believes that while architecture should aspire to be progressive, the question of change is more complex.  “Change at times is good and is at times bad but it is always inevitable. It takes ambition, focus and hard work to make society in a more progressive way; architecture can be an agent in that way,” he said.

Maltzan and his firm have also received acclaim for two other socially conscious projects built for Los Angeles’ Skid Row Housing Trust, and the firm is now in the final stage of drawings for a third mixed-use effort for the Trust, the Star Apartments. For those that may miss the exhibition in New York, a comprehensive view is available on the museum’s website.

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Resnick Pavillion at Los Angeles County Museum of Art opens soon

Resnick Pavilion designed by Renzo Piano

Opening to the public on October 2, 2010, Los Angeles County Museum of Art's (LACMA) ultra-contemporary $53 million, 45,000 square foot Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion was unveiled to Los Angeles' media today.

An Olmec basalt rock monument

Three exhibitions fill the space. Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico features monumental prehistoric stone sculptures as well as smaller objects from Mexico's earliest civilization.

An Olmec Colossal Head 1200-900 BC

Fashioning Fashion is a rare chance to look into history's closet and has nearly 160 exquisitely made examples of  clothing and accessories from intricately embroidered silk and muslin dresses to tailored waistcoats to a rather sexy c. 1900 leather corset accessorized with fetish boots.

18th Century-style fashionistas

Eye for the Sensual: Selections from the Resnick Collection has more than 100 fine pieces of furniture, sculpture and decorative art (such as a pair of Art Deco lamps made from bronze cobras) that span centuries and reflect the couple's eclectic taste. The building's numerous skylights face north, so the entire space is flooded with natural light. The palm garden and surrounding landscaping is by Robert Irwin who also designed the Getty Center's landscaping. Check out the impressive new space, BCAM and LACMA's vast holdings for free during the inaugural weekend of October 2-3. Ticket info here.

LACMA's new Resnick Pavilion

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-857-6000

Dwell on Design to tour Eastside L.A.

June 24-27, the design and architecture conference Dwell on Design will come to the L.A. Convention Center. Home tours are included in the event.  The Sunday June 27 Eastside Home Tour (which starts in Larchmont--not even faux or near Eastside) features six modern homes such as Silver Lake's very fab Auburn 7.  Expect hills and hipster enclaves per the website: "This isn't a part of L.A. that many tourists get to see. We head East from Larchmont into Silver Lake and Atwater Village along their peaceful, leafy streets for anyone who dares to stop by. "

Tour if you dare! Screen shot is from the concurrent Mobius LA event.

Atwater's New Modern-Home Subdivision The Mews

L.A.'s New Modern-Home Subdivision

Went to The Mews open house this weekend in Atwater. I really liked the open plan and light-filled, brand new construction with "green" building features like solar panels.  Location not so much: betwixt the 5 freeway and train tracks, on the street that parallels the massive Costco lot, though close enough to walk to the Village bakery on Los Feliz. Please comment if you check it out!

Rodeo Drive's fashion houses attract design star-power for housingwatch.com

Rodeo Drive's fashion houses attract design star-power

A round-up for housingwatch of famous architects and their retail projects on Rodeo Drive including OMA Rem Koolhaas' Prada store, Angela Missoni (designer of the all white Missoni boutique) and Frank Lloyd Wright's Anderton Court. Inside, the Missoni boutique evokes memories of Milan's famous shopping street Via della Spiga, with a long corridor punctuated by doors to smaller rooms. Look for Converse shoes made with Missoni fabric in April at the just opened flagship store.


I think the Chanel store is a well executed example of architecture serving the brand. Just looks elegant.

Silver Lake: The new library exposed.

Curbed LA (top photo from Curbed) got an exclusive sneak peek at the Silver Lake Library. It's looking rather clean, bright and modern; an homage in part to nearby Neutra houses and the Neutra Office building on Glendale. Looking forward to opening day which should be sometime in September though there's no official date. I wrote about the design back in 2006 for the Los Feliz Ledger. Here's an excerpt:

Coming in 2008 (that didn't happen) to the corner of Silver Lake and Glendale Boulevards: a new branch library that will not only be a community and cultural hub but also an inventive “green” building at one of the most traveled gateways to the area.

After investigating several alternate sites in the neighborhood, the city’s library construction department selected the vacant corner, once a gas station and most recently, the seasonal home to a Delancey Street Christmas tree lot. Previously, both Burger King and Walgreens had also considered the tract. In addition to the empty parcel, the adjacent mustard-colored auto shop will be demolished (that happened, thankfully), contributing 7000 square feet to the library’s future home.

Similar in size to the Edendale branch library, Silver Lake’s 13,200 square foot state-of-the-art library will include a public meeting room, a glass box reading room, welcoming plaza, and will be “green” – utilizing sustainable building practices such as solar power. (Panels are installed). Parking will be underground with the garage entrance lined up with Brier Avenue and Gingergrass’ main entrance. There will be no public driveway off congested Silver Lake Boulevard.

Architectural firm M2A Architects worked closely with the community developing the Silver Lake branch, their fifth library project. The Arroyo Seco Regional Branch Library is one of their designs, as are the Allessandro Apartments in nearby Echo Park. “We tried to take architectural cues from modernist Silver Lake,” explains architect Barry Milofsky of the design. “There is a sense of light, air and space and an indoor/outdoor relationship.” Stone and glass will be the branch’s primary construction materials. A glass spine extends through the building that will provide natural light in the day and a dramatic glow to the plaza at night. Mature sycamore trees will frame the library’s entrance. Low planters, benches and landscape finishes to the curb are part of the plan from landscape architect Mia Lehrer.

Construction is expected take 18 months and is slated to start by the first quarter of 2007. (Start date was later; construction still ongoing). Budget for the building is $9.5 million, with funding from library bond funds. A non-profit Friends of the Silver Lake Library has been established to help further the library’s collection as well to support and generate enthusiasm for the long-awaited branch.

M&A: A net for mega-fish on Silver Lake Blvd.

The talented minds at Silver Lake Blvd.'s Materials & Applications have a new installation that's part of a current project that aims for pure experimentation. Made from nylon strap and rip-stop fabric, it kind of reminds me of a section of fish net--though the fish they're aiming to catch are rather big.  Check it out as you pass by on Silver Lake Blvd. (Photo courtesy of the M& A website).

Media watch: Daily Show, Anthem Magazine & Audi

The Daily Show did their own mash up of Shepard Fairey's Obama poster on Monday night combining it with his Obey logo part of an amusing bit on Fox News and how Americans are now under tyrannical rule aka the Democrats are in the majority.  Next up an Audi commercial shot at John Marshall High school called "School's Out." Also amusing because the commercial makers came in and repainted the school's doors a nice dark brown and replanted the front lawn so now there is a lawn.  Kids in the school are a nice diverse lot and picture perfect as you'd expect but night-and-day away from Marshall's actual student body.  And Anthem Magazine's current issue features and interview and photo spread with Rashida Jones, of "The Office" now "Parks & Recreation," shot at Neutra's VDL house on Silver Lake Blvd.  

Road trip: San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences

We're on a rooftop in the picture above, though it looks like a Sci-Fi movie set. It's a living roof-- covered in wildflowers and skylights. Spent an afternoon at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and if you remember the former building, all dark, depressing and crowded inside, then the new structure will be quite the revelation. I compare the building to Los Angeles' very own BCAM, also by architect Renzo Piano, in this month's LF Ledger.

If you've ever had to accompany young children to a natural history or science museum, you'll totally appreciate the innovations (natural light!) and the inspiring bio-sphere like structure (below) that houses the Rain Forests of the World exhibit where butterflies and birds fly free.

Hollyhock House Lecture Series: Thomas Hines on modern architects and their Hollywood clients

Oh, to be a Hollywood player c. 1925-1950, when you had the pick of modernist masters like Richard Neutra, Lloyd Wright and Irving Gill to design and build your LA manse or signature office building. On Sept. 3, author and UCLA professor Thomas Hines spoke on the connection between mid-century Hollywood creatives and execs and LA's famed modernists in an inaugural lecture sponsored by Hollyhock House. Among the highlights: a discussion of Richard Neutra's aluminum-clad house for film director Josef von Sternberg that was demolished in 1971 (Dion Neutra advised a film of the demolition is available on the Neutra website); a look at Neutra's also long gone, classic international-style office building for Carl Laemmle in Hollywood; and a tidbit I didn't know: Lloyd Wright designed those eternally sinking mastodons caught in the La Brea Tar Pits. A second lecture from writer/filmmaker Thom Anderson is scheduled for Oct 1, also in the Barnsdall Gallery. In this month's Los Feliz Ledger special Arts section I highlighted the lecture as well as profiled famed street artist Shepard Fairey, Machine Project and a locally made film called "The Scenesters."