terra non firma: monday media

Monday, October 17, 2005

monday media - latimes edition

so normally I hunt and peck thru a few select media sources, newspapers and blogs for good links about socal architecture and urban planning (almost) every monday. today the latimes (and planetizen) made that easy - the latimes is chock full of absorbing, provocative articles on our little burg.

christopher hawthorne provides an opinionated, articulate ple a for his favorite design entry for the orange country great park. its been awhile since I can remember hawthorne being this enthusiastic about a project, and as he points out, LA currently has piano, gehry, koolhaas and mayne all currently working on projects in this city or pasadena.

An aerial view of Ken Smith Landscape Architect's design for the Orange County Great Park. (Orange County Great Park Corp.)

is it pulitzer time already? the latimes is clearly gunning for one with its five-part series on skid-row. but can it beat the nytimes' series on class a few months back? this one tells its story through the eyes of a paramedic, slightly less affecting than describing life on skid row from one of its "residents" but good muckraking, nonetheless. will downtown developers be reading? will it make a difference? will skid row ever be seen by them as something other than a nuisance?
and a slightly confusing article on how seawalls might actually create more erosion for southern california beaches, rather than protect the beaches they were erected to protect.

and I know I mentioned the out there, doing it lecture series at the mak center before. I haven't yet been to any of the lectures, but will be attending this week's with a friend from the lear center. doug suisman will be this week's guest lecturer. I didn't know much about him until recently, but he'll be presenting his plan for palestine, which has remarkably achieved praise from both israel (cautious praise, but praise nonetheless) and palestine. from the email:

All lectures begin at 7.30pm and are outside. Dress warmly if it's cold!
$10 admission, $6 for students, free for Forum members and Friends of the Schindler House.