Design and Architecture
Can the Southland Grow in an Age of Drought?
Can the Southland grow if drought is the new normal? Hadley Arnold says yes, with architecture that acts as a sponge. Plus, Dave Hickey, Maura Lucking and Gideon Brower.
By Frances Anderton • • 32m ListenThe state of California is severely short of water. And the dwindling supply is coinciding with yet another building boom. Can the Southland keep on expanding if drought is the new normal?
Hadley Arnold of Woodbury University's Arid Lands Institute explains that with an imaginative blend of conservation, recycling and reclamation, Los Angeles could grow and grow, in new architectural and urban forms. Also on the show, art and culture critic Dave Hickey returns to LA with a new book of critical essays. Maura Lucking tries to find out if he’s a nostalgic curmudgeon or a sage.
And Gideon Brower examines another kind of nostalgia: an effort to preserve an entire neighborhood. He finds that community efforts to make Carthay Square into a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) bump up against the uglier history of pretty homes, and budget cuts that stall years of work and do not stop development.
