New apartment architecture SL11024, a 31-unit housing complex designed by Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects, located in Westwood on the border of UCLA's campus More than 7,000 apartments are under construction right now in downtown Los Angeles, and others are going up in Hollywood, Koreatown, Culver City, Santa Monica and elsewhere in the Southland. But architecture critic Michael Webb says not enough are great to live in. He’s traveled the world to see some of the best apartment buildings at every income level. And architect Lorcan O’Herlihy explains what makes for great apartment design, and how his work represents an "amplified urbanism."

A Taste of the Future at 'A New Sculpturalism' A New Sculpturalism will show models, sketches and photographs of buildings constructed by more than 30 of LA’s leading and lesser-known architects.  But, knowing that architecture is best experienced at human scale, MOCA also commissioned walk-in pavilions designed by young architects -- Elena Manferdini, Georgina Hujlich and Marcelo Spina of the firm Patterns, and Tom Wiscombe.  In addition they asked Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues of Ball-Nogues to create a custom gateway (as we air, their participation is still being negotiated.) DnA visited each of the designers in their studios to get a sense of what they are building, and got a taste of the digital design and materials research that might inform buildings of the future.

Olympics and Politics Seven years ago, the secretary general of the Beijing Olympic Bid Committee said this summer's games would "not only promote our economy but also enhance all social conditions, including education, health and human rights." But, just four days before the Games will get underway, China's accused of breaking its promises to clean the air, relax controls on political dissidents and open up to the western media. One sports historian says nobody should have believed China's promises in the first place. But are the Olympics a sure path from despotism to democracy? We look at what Beijing does not want us to see, as well as what's on display, including architecture that rivals the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.

Architecture in the Shadow of Stalin