LA Architecture Then and Tomorrow: Greene & Greene Houses; SCI-Arc Visions

If ever there was a weekend to remind oneself, yet again, of the originality and inventiveness of Los Angeles architecture, then, now and tomorrow, this is it. Today thesis students…

SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) present their final projects, to the scrutiny of a battalion of invited critics including Neil Denari, Winka Dubbledam, Thom Mayne and Jeff Kipnis. Their work, which is guaranteed to be both fanciful and interesting, will be on show through May 6, with a public reception tonight (Saturday, April 21) at 5pm. Get all the details, here.

Then, in a trip back to the roots of what Reyner Banham called LA’s “environmentally ingenious” and “aesthetically original” residential design, tomorrow (Sunday, April 22) you can take a rare opportunity to visit five Greene & Greene interiors and a garden in Pasadena’s Arroyo Seco. The tour, of designs by the brothers that remain largely unknown, is a benefit for the Gamble House and includes, say the organizers, the “incomparable Duncan-Irwin house (1906-08), the Mary Ranney house (1907), F. W. Hawks house (1906), Van-Rossem Neil house (1903-06), S. Hazard Halsted house (1905-15), plus the beautiful garden of the James Culbertson house (1902-14).” Get all details here.