Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic To Hire Architect To Design His House! Whom Will Christopher Hawthorne Hire?

At the Grand Avenue Zocalo event Tuesday night at MOCA, moderator Dana Cuff of UCLA introduced Los Angeles Times architecture critic, Christopher Hawthorne, and indiscreetly mentioned Hawthorne was about to build his own house in Eagle Rock (and I think she said Eagle Rock, but it was some community in Northeast Los Angeles).

After the panel discussion, I then equally indiscreetly asked Christopher which of the many superb residential architects of Los Angeles he had hired, and it turned out - he had yet to make that decision.

So we then had a brief discussion about his predicament; if Christopher Hawthorne hires an LA architect to design his own home – could he ever again write about that architect's work?

We both agreed that could be somewhat… problematic.

His options thus seemed to be two fold. Either hire a non-LA architect he would be unlikley to review– which we each agreed would be a tragedy. Or, let any architect he hires know he would likely never be able to review his/her work in the future.

But the more I think about it, while Hawthorne would have to be careful about writing about this architect, should there be some compelling reason why that architect should be covered in the LA Times, that might still be possible with a disclaimer.

So all you architects out there; who's feeling lucky? Who wants to gamble on a commission that might guarantee you will never be written about in LA Times? Applications are now being accepted below.....