'Never Built New York' Bridges filled with skyscrapers, a geodesic dome over a baseball stadium, a subway system made of above-ground pneumatic tubes, and other crazy schemes were almost built in New York. You will find these in Never Built New York , the new book by Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell, who previously created a book and exhibition about the sometimes visionary, sometimes cockamamie schemes that for whatever reason never made it past the drawing board in Los Angeles. Lubell and Goldin talk about New York's missed opportunities and reveal what Los Angeles could learn from them. Frank Lloyd Wright's plan for the decommissioned Ellis Island Image Courtesy of American Weekly, July 30, 1961

Can High-Speed Rail Connect Us? Columnist Joe Mathews recently visited Germany and experienced high-speed rail for the first time (on a 300-km-per-hour train from Frankfurt to Cologne), and was frightened. But he also marveled at how German high-speed rail stations combine so many different kinds of transportation and draw people. Architecture writer Sam Lubell asks whether the newly-built ARTIC rail station in Anaheim lives up to that standard. ARTIC Dreams, a video co-produced for KCRW by Sam Lubell, filmed and edited by Alex Hallajian, with support of KCRW’s Independent Producer Project

Culver City Braces for Closure of Community Ice Arena The beloved Culver Ice Arena is closing because it can’t afford a new market rent. Today’s show explores the fight to save the rink, and what its demise says about the changing character of Los Angeles as buildings, and land values, rise and rise. With Culver City councilmembers Micheál O’Leary and Andrew Weissman, Calarts Norman Klein, Shannon Takahashi of Culver Ice Arena, and supporters of the rink. Renee DeAngelis, owner of Planet Granite, responds. Also, the movie Her depicts an LA of towers and public transit. But is that the LA we want? With Chris Nichols, Norman Klein, Craig Hodgetts, Evan Kleiman and Sam Lubell.

A New Plan for Union Station L.A.'s growing public transit system includes new plans by Metro to develop 38 acres of land surrounding Union Station into a mix of commerce, housing, terminus for the regional connector and—potentially—the high speed rail. Metro has been searching for a master-planner to come up with a vision for the site and invited a group of six high-level teams , including Italy’s Renzo Piano and Britain’s Norman Foster, to compete for the project. Yesterday, Metro planning staff posted its recommendation for the master-planner, a choice that has to be approved by the board later this month. It’s the team of L.A.-based Gruen and British firm Grimshaw, designers of the Fulton Street Transit Center in New York. Sam Lubell, editor of the West Coast edition of The Architect's Newspaper, talks about why this challenge is being faced in cities around the world, and how the winning team is a good choice for Los Angeles.

Broad's Grand Plans A few weeks back, Eli Broad unveiled the design for his new contemporary art museum , to be built on Grand Avenue opposite MOCA and next door to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The design, by admired Manhattan architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro , looks like a piece of sculpture in itself and makes a dramatic feature out of its concrete "skin." Frances talks to architect Elizabeth Diller about the light-filled warehouse space for art, and gets the opinions of critic Sam Lubell on the design. But The Broad, as it's being called, is also hoping to transform this part of downtown into a destination. Councilwoman Jan Perry talks about the impact she thinks it will have on the area, and some local residents give their thoughts about what else Grand Avenue is missing. Site on which the Broad Museum will be built   The architects call the Broad's diaphanous concrete skin the "veil;" encased inside is the "vault"  Inside, visitors will board an escalator that takes them to a fourth floor gallery Art will be exhibited in a column-free, sunlit space that's over an acre in size This fly-through video shows the museum in relation to Grand Avenue's other landmarks

Renzo Piano's Resnick Pavilion On October 2, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Resnick Pavilion opens to the public. The 45,000 square foot gallery is the newest art space at LACMA and the latest building on the campus to be designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. Critics have already nicknamed the Resnick the "Baby Piano" since it indeed looks like the smaller sibling of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum , which opened in 2008. LACMA Director Michael Govan discusses how it fits into his art and architecture vision for the campus, and architecture writer Sam Lubell explains why Piano is the go-to architect for so many art museums.

BCAM Comes to Town BCAM east façade, Installation of Urban Light Chris Burden, December, 2007   BCAM detail of glass core, north façade January, 2008, © Weldon Brewster   BCAM southeast façade, BCAM Born scrim John Baldessari, January 2008   Installation of Urban Light Chris Burden, January, 2008 All images 2008 © Museum Associates, LACMA unless otherwise noted