KCET
D.J. Waldie is a writer and commentator on Los Angeles, and a historian emeritus, for the City of Lakewood, California. An essayist, poet and historian of Los Angeles County, Waldie is the author of several books including Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir, Where We Are: Notes from Los Angeles and California Romantica: Spanish Colonial and Mission-Style Houses. He is a former blogs for public television station KCET.
"5 over 2": Rethinking the box In the boom years of the last century, Los Angeles developed homes that were specific to the region, the culture and the economy. These include revival-style homes, bungalow courts, garden apartments and dingbats. Now we are in the midst of another LA building boom. But are we producing homes that are distinctively Angeleno? Yes, say some and it might take the form of cool, multifamily apartment buildings that creatively tweak a generic building type. Author and historian DJ Waldie posed this question to DnA: “what is that characteristic form for Los Angeles today? We have accessory dwelling units. We have tiny houses. We have fantastical mega mansions. But among all those forms that are being built now, what is the characteristic Los Angeles house?” Historian and USC librarian Ruth Wallach says there is a contemporary archetype and you can find it in 5 to 7 story blocks of residential over parking and commercial on or near major streets across the Southland. She describes it as “that Bauhausian type of modernism of plain facades and ribbons of windows. They're rectilinear. There are plain facades. Sometimes there is color to kind of provide a variety. And then there is a lot of glass.” Mariposa 1038 in Koreatown. Photo credit: Paul Vu. These buildings seem similar and often bland because they are all built of a construction type nicknamed “5-over-2.” In the fifth episode of our series “This is Home in LA: From the Tent to the Gigamansion (and everything in between),” DnA looks at this this typology and finds that some designers are making it special, so special that for some residents it’s a preferred alternative to the LA dream of a single family home. “It's two levels maximum of type 1 construction, which is concrete, so formed in place. And then up to five levels of Type 3 construction, which is a fire-rated or fire-treated wood system,” said Scott Parker with the architecture and urban planning firm Studio One Eleven. This form, he says, “gives you a not-high-rise construction and it gets you to seven stories, which sort of maxes out the economic return on investment. And you can do it very efficiently and cost effectively.” Parker cites a building by his firm, Domain in West Hollywood. Its six stories of market-rate, one-, two- and three-bedroom units over ground level stores and offices, with swimming pool and roof deck, featuring International style rectilinearity and splashes of color. But, they added a twist. “Formosa Cafe is literally across the street. You could sit at the Formosa Cafe and look at the Hollywood sign. This building would block that. So what we did… is actually carved a hole in the architecture itself and framed the Hollywood sign so you can still sit, have your coffee or lunch and look up and see the Hollywood sign,” Parker said. The “5-over-2” is the architectural equivalent of the 1960s-era dingbat apartments, says Alan Pullman of Studio One Eleven. “It's denser than what we did before. But like the dingbat, it's a kind of archetype. And the building code dictates so much of this building that it leaves the designer with just tweaking the edges. Eighty five percent is already done based on the… International Building Code,” Pullman said, adding,“people really complain about it as this generic kind of architecture. I've heard it called ‘fast casual’ architecture.” A classic dingbat apartment building in Los Angeles. This generic kind of building is one that LA’s new Chief Design Officer, Christopher Hawthorne, says he’s thinking about. “I'm really interested in looking at that formula, that collection of recipes that come out of various city requirements and thinking about how it can be tweaked to promote better architecture, because that's really what shapes the architecture of most of what is being produced by private development,” Hawthorne told DnA. While the city works on tweaks, some private developers are already tweaking the formula. You can find an example in Koreatown, at an apartment building called Mariposa 1038. DnA recently joined a group of residents for drinks on the roof. “I've always thought of roofs as being the most active space conceptually, because it allows opportunities for people to come and sit and hang out and communicate,” said Lorcan O’Herlihy, the architect of the building. Taj Stansberry, Sophia Chang, Jonathan Schkolnick and Jonathan Chia are among a group of designers, filmmakers and photographers who were drawn to the building and now call it home. They appreciate the communality of the design layout, the open balconies and shared roof garden, as well as the thoughtful sourcing of light. “What Mariposa 1038 really offers is architecture. And even today this morning when I woke up in the bedroom and we have a certain type of lighting that hits the room. I was like, ‘I'm so happy to be here,’” Chang said. “It is my home. Yeah. You want to come back here,” said Stansberry. “It's a great place to create, and you don't feel like a hermit here. You just feel like you're at home.” O’Herlihy has garnered a reputation for distinctive-looking condo and rental apartment buildings that maximize liveable interior space and shared open areas, like rooftops. “I'm always intrigued about having an opportunity to meet people who are living in the buildings I do, because this is why I do it. It's about the people who are living here and I'm always thinking about, through the design process, how to create an environment that's uplifting, that's inspired, that in a sense gives you a place of not only a home but also a place where you look forward to coming back to, and also helps to inspire you,” he said. A view of the rooftop of Mariposa 1038. Photo credit: Paul Vu. The architect also played with the four sides of the Mariposa 1038 block. He pushed in each to make curving walls. Then he added overhangs for shading, balconies and sharp black and white detailing. All of these special features added construction costs and lengthy waits at the planning department for approvals. The market-rate apartments range from $2600 to $3600 for one or two bedrooms. And the building is currently full. Sitting on the roof of Mariposa 1038, drinking rose with a group of dynamic Angelenos, enjoying the spectacular view, you get a taste of the new architecture that’s emerging to house the new Los Angeles lifestyle. It’s “fast casual” but when it’s done thoughtfully it can be a new version of the LA dream. The one in which you don’t actually own a home but you have a home that still embraces the outdoors and the big LA sky, and that is still modern in spirit. “We know that in the early years the patrons of architects were people living on hillsides and hiring architects to design these individual houses. Whereas I'm convinced that the new patrons... are intrigued about building multifamily or larger housing complexes in urban environments, infill projects which is all throughout Los Angeles. So this building represents that new culture of Los Angeles,” said O’Herlihy. Mariposa 1038, an apartment building in Koreatown designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects. Photo by Paul Vu.
Lakewood, a "Paradise of the Ordinary" DnA is currently exploring the theme of “This is Home in LA: From the Tent to the Gigamansion (and everything in between).” The premise of the series is that in the boom years of the last century, Los Angeles developed homes that were specific to the region, its lifestyle and the economy. “When I think about how the lifestyle product called California was marketed to the world, I have to start with the houses of Southern California,” says DJ Waldie, historian and author of “Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir.” DJ Waldie stands in the middle of a typical street in the City of Lakewood. Photo by Avishay Artsy “These structures embodied before and after the Second World War much of what America thought was the good life. They were homes that were accommodating without being pretentious. They were open to novelty and experiment.” The question is, are we realizing the same level of novelty, experiment and specificity to place today? To find answers, so far we’ve looked at contemporary LA homes starting with the very smallest: tents, ADUs and boats. Today we visit the longtime California ideal: the single family home, specifically the mass-produced tract houses of Lakewood that were built in the thousands in the early 1950s to house young couples who had experienced the Depression and World War II. These represented a “paradise of the ordinary,” says Waldie, as he tours DnA around Lakewood’s residential streets, recalling the time when you might find as many as 80 children out roaming together, without parental guidance. These streets of small, three bedroom houses on 5,000 square foot lots make up 94% of the city’s development. When they were built, a typical Lakewood house would sell for about $11,000, or around $108,000 in today’s dollars. Now the cost is nearer half a million dollars or more. Despite their relative priciness, Lakewood is trying to preserve this lifestyle, even as neighboring cities like Long Beach and Los Angeles are looking to densify and expand mass transit. One way planners and elected officials hope to achieve more affordable housing while enabling homeowners to pay their high mortgages is through permitting ADUs. Todd Rogers, vice mayor of Lakewood, tells DnA he would resist ADUs if he could. “What we're trying to do is is educate our legislators that there's a disconnect between the social engineering that's taking place at the state capitol and how real Californians feel.” He adds, “If you took a survey of most Californians they want someplace where they can go... in their backyard, play with their dog, and play with their kids and have their own little slice of heaven, if you will, and people describe Lakewood as that.” Meanwhile in Los Angeles, architects and planners gathered at an AIA/LA conference last week to discuss the affordable housing challenge in the region. Michael Lehrer, John Egan, Larry Scarpa and Angela Brooks share their thoughts on how to square yesterday’s dream with today’s reality in denser housing strategies that keep something of the flavor of Waldie’s “paradise of the ordinary.”
Farewell LA freeways, but what takes their place? San Gabriel communities have fought for years over a long-planned 6.3 mile extension to the 710 Freeway, connecting it to the 210. Last week the Metro Board killed it off for good and Mayor Eric Garcetti called it a sign of times, noting that “Los Angeles has moved on from freeways.” LA Metro Rapid Line 760 at Flower Street and Wilshire Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles. Photo by George Instead, miles of new mass transit is planned for the region, along with improved streets for pedestrians, cyclists and cars, all paid for by Southland voters most recently through Measure M. But it turns out Angelenos are not using the transit they have paid for. Ridership has dropped, especially on LA-area buses. We look at why, how the humble bus could deliver a better experience, and why freeways -- once part of an optimistic vision for the future -- have reached the end of the road.
Which Way, LA? The Question that Won't Go Away 23 years ago, the fires of the Rodney King riots were burning and the sirens wailing when KCRW first asked, WWLA? We've been through fires, floods, earthquakes and massive social, cultural and economic change. While this is the last program titled WWLA? the question still needs to be asked. We talk with a group of important and thoughtful people about what LA has become and about the challenges to be faced in the future…as we continue.
The “Crisis” of the Big Blue Bus Stops Santa Monica’s new Big Blue Bus stops are intended to provide comforts for riders and an iconic look for the transit agency. But the new stops have ignited complaints from many of its riders about minimal shade and uncomfortable seating. Were they designed too “defensively”? Are critics overlooking their benefits?
Do Angelinos Have a Bias against Mass Transit? Mass transit needs frequency, reliability and access to job centers. That's all it will take to transform drivers into riders of busses, streetcars and trains. That's the mantra behind high density development in LA and elsewhere. Turns out, that's wrong, according to a comprehensive study of the matter by the Neighborhood Travel and Activities Study at UC Irvine, where Steven Spears is an assistant project scientist.
Iconic Wilshire Boulevard: D.J. Waldie 0 0 1 32 184 UCLA 1 1 215 14.0 Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} For the past month on DnA we’ve been hearing stories about “Iconic Wilshire Boulevard.” This week poet and essayist DJ Waldie returns with a reminder that LA’s streets tell a different story when you cannot drive.
Wilshire Boulevard PSTP has sponsored another exploration of a defining Los Angeles boulevard, but it's one you'll be able to take in outside of the museum space, and not at the speed or kind of mobility it was built for. We are talking Wilshire Boulevard and on June 23, bikers and walkers are invited to join in CicLAvia: Modern Architecture on Wilshire Boulevard . Part of the project is an accompanying series of stories, about Wilshire's iconic buildings, produced by veteran radio producer and architecture writer Edward Lifson. We are airing some of them on DnA, starting today with "Tar Pit Death Trip," told by memoirist D.J. Waldie, set against original music by Steve Wight. Waldie takes us back to the primordial ooze of LACMA's tarpits , a reminder that despite Angelenos conviction to the contrary, death is not an option and we will be one day replaced by new generations who will have stories to tell about us.
Los Angeles: Eastside versus Westside Remember " Carmaggedon ?" That's when the 405 Freeway was shut down completely for entire weekends for replacement of the Mulholland Drive bridge. There were predictions that the entire Westside would be unavailable to the rest of the city. There now exists between people in Los Angeles a kind of rivalry — like the one between LA and San Francisco, or between New York and LA. To get a sense of how and why, we reached out on line, using the Public Insight Network and Facebook to contact our audience. We asked a series of questions. Which side do you prefer? Where's the boundary? Which is the "real LA?" We received hundreds of answers.
Less School for LAUSD; Student-based Teacher Evaluations The Los Angeles Unified School District and the teachers' union, UTLA , have agreed to shorten the next school year by five days, for a total of 18 days in the past four years. Another three weeks could be lost if Governor Brown's tax package doesn't pass in November. Combined with larger classes, less counseling and cuts in campus management, nobody disagrees that students will suffer. So what has been gained? We hear from educators and attorneys. Education isn't the only thing that's suffering from state budget cuts. Parks are closing, layoffs and court closures are making justice less accessible, and support for the bullet train is on the decline. D.J. Waldie, who's retired as Deputy City Manager for the City of Lakewood, is a prolific writer and commentator about Los Angeles who blogs for KCET .
Are the NFL and MLB Putting the Squeeze on LA City Hall? Mayor Villaraigosa and members of the Los Angeles City Council have been jumping through hoops to get the National Football League to field a team in downtown Los Angeles. They've made concessions to Phil Anschutz of AEG, the developer of Staples Center and LA Live. But Anschutz himself is driving a hard bargain with the NFL, and the much-ballyhooed $2.15 billion deal for the Dodgers — more than anybody has ever paid for a sports franchise -- could complicate matters still further.
Northrop Says Goodbye to Southern California Northrop Grumman is the last of the big-name aerospace companies headquartered in Southern California, and now it's going, too. Like others before it, Northrop will move its top executives closer to the action in Washington, DC. In this case, to Falls Church, Virginia. D.J. Waldie is a historian, poet and author of many books on many subjects. He'll have an essay in the forthcoming book, Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California.
Split Board Considers Changes to Supervisorial Districts A new, independent citizens committee is re-drawing boundaries for California's legislative and congressional districts to accommodate the 2010 census. LA County Supervisors still reapportion their own. In 1990, reapportionment created the majority Latino district won the next year by Gloria Molina . This year, the Board appointed a Boundary Review Committee , which recommended that districts stay pretty much as they are. But Molina and her colleague, Mark Ridley Thomas , say it's time for a second Latino-majority district. Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich like the Committee plan, and Zev Yaroslavsky is leaning that way. That's a 3-to-2 majority. But it takes four votes for a final decision. Author, historian and long-time Lakewood official D. J. Waldie is a senior authority on County politics and blogger for KCET .
Are Hotels in Downtown LA Getting Taxpayer Money for Free? The LA Times reports that two building inspectors have been arrested and a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas seeking personnel records of at least 11 current and former employees. David Zahniser co-wrote the story. He also wrote a Times' story about tax breaks for massive hotels in booming downtown Los Angeles. J.W. Marriot, which opened last year, is reportedly doing well enough to produce some much-needed city revenue in a cash-strapped city. But the Anshutz Entertainment Group, AEG, will be able to keep some $270 million in taxes through 2035. Combined with two other such deals, the city could end up giving away $640 million in the next 30 years. The Mayor and City Council approved the subsidies after analysis by PKF Consulting , which calls them "incentives" and says they're common where they will stimulate new business.
New Leadership for a Powerful Institution On his 75th birthday, Cardinal Roger Mahony retired yesterday as Archbishop of Los Angeles and turned America's largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese over to José Gomez , recently the Bishop of San Antonio. There were masses in both English and Spanish at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which overflowed with the faithful.
One Year Later: How Ojai Weathered the Thomas Fire Ventura County residents recall how the largest fire in state history, at the time, ignited and threatened to engulf the city of Ojai.
One Year Later: City of Ventura Faced the Thomas Fire When the Thomas Fire hit the city limits, residents fled for their lives. They recall midnight evacuations and near misses.
California Gets Back into Presidential Politics In 1972, California clinched the presidential nomination for Democrat George McGovern. Since then, the biggest state has become an ATM for candidates of both parties. But starting in 2020 all eyes will be on California as it moves its primary up to a month after the Iowa caucuses.