Design and Architecture
Riding the Expo Line, High Rise Horrors
All aboard the Expo Line! Starting May 20 you can ride all the way from downtown LA to Santa Monica for the first time in over six decades. Metro officials say this is part of a future where cars are just one of several viable modes of transportation in Los Angeles. And, the director and producer of the new dystopian film High-Rise talk about architecture as a storytelling device to tell a story about class and morality.
By Frances Anderton • • 30m ListenPhoto: Elected officials, Metro board members and the press were invited to take a test ride on the Expo Line extension on May 9, 2016. (Rob LaFond)
In this episode
2 storiesRiding the Expo Line
The last time Los Angeles residents were able to take a train to the beach, it was the Red Car in 1953. But on May 20, Angelenos will be able to board an Expo Line train in downtown LA and take it to downtown Santa Monica, just blocks from the pier. The extension was delayed for decades over safety, environmental and funding concerns.
Read the story14 minHigh Rise Horrors
You may have seen Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun or David Cronenberg's Crash. They're both stories based on books by J.G. Ballard. Now a movie has been made about a novel of Ballard's that was considered impossible to adapt into a film. It's High-Rise, a story in which the occupants of a luxury apartment tower descend into barbarism.
Read the story16 min
