Art and Architecture: A ‘Cosmic’ Fusion?

The Broad Art Foundation is halfway done. Charles Renfro talks about turning a high-concept design into a reality, and Linda Taalman and Michael Govan discuss the fusion of conceptual art…

The Broad Art Foundation is halfway done. Charles Renfro talks about turning a high-concept design into a reality, and Linda Taalman and Michael Govan discuss the fusion of conceptual art and architecture. Plus, did Restoration Hardware go too far when it knocked off Emeco’s Navy Chair? Marissa Gluck explains the complexities of design copyright.

Banner image: Bennett Stein

Knockoff Artists: How Design Copycats Flaunt Design Copyright

Emeco’s Navy Chair on the left, Restoration Hardware’s Naval Chair on the right, via UnBeige

It’s a design industry problem that was described by the New York Timesas being “as irritating to furniture manufacturers as lice are to elementary school parents: a perennial problem and devilishly hard to eradicate.” The problem is knockoffs: copying a designer’s product and often selling it for far less. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Restoration Hardware was offering atoo-close-for-comfort take on Emeco’s Navy Chair, which they even had the audacity to name the Naval Chair. The chair was taken off the market, and Emeco filed a suit against the company. Can designers protect themselves from such flagrant fakery? Marissa Gluck, a Los Angeles-based consultant with Radar Research, explains the complexities of design copyright.

Guests:

• Marissa Gluck: Radar Research,

  @marissagluck

Can the Broad Art Foundation Transform Grand Avenue?

A rendering of the completed building

A few years ago, New York’s High Line architects Diller, Scofidio + Renfro won the commission to design Eli Broad’s art foundation, located opposite MOCA on Grand Avenue. The self-described, “unreasonable” Broad has not wasted a minute, and the Broad Art Foundation building is around halfway complete (we last checked in during January of 2011). Architect Charles Renfro was in LA last week, talking at Woodbury University about the firm’s work, which is known for its theatricality or what they describe as “mise-en-scene.” While there Frances sat down with Charles to talk about the project—from its conception to the status of its complex construction, and most importantly, what it can do for Grand Avenue.

The Broad-in-progress, photo by Bennett Stein

The “hole” in the middle of Grand Avenue, opposite The Broad, photo by Frances Anderton

A rendering of the completed building

Guests:

• Charles Renfro: Scofidio + Renfro

A ‘Quasi Legal Skyscraper’ in Pasadena

In Pasadena at One Colorado Court, you’ll find a “small skycraper” created by artist Chris Burden with architects Taalman Koch. It’s not actually that tall, at 35 feet high, but Small Skyscraper, subtitled “Quasi Legal Skyscraper,” feels like a tower because it’s so slender, at 10 by 10 feet wide, built of extruded aluminum, with four wooden floors. It was conceived ten years ago as a kind of folly: the largest structure allowable that you could build without needing a building permit: 35 feet tall and no larger than 400 square feet. The project was part of a series of collaborations with artists, initiated by Taalman Koch called Trespassing: Houses by Artists. Linda Taalman of Taalman Koch is the co-designer with Burden and talks about the point the project was hoping to make. The project was sponsored by the Armory Center for the Arts and it was previously shown at LACE gallery.

The Small Skyscraper at One Colorado Court and an explainer of the project by Chris Burden, photos by Frances Anderton

Guests:

• Linda Taalman: Taalman Koch Architecture

• Chris Burden: Artist