Philippe Vergnhe of the Dia Foundation New Director of MOCA

Below is the full release from MOCA. 

Full comments later but my first impression is the MOCA's board main criteria appears to have been curatorial talent rather than a proven record of fund raising.  And that is very good news.  It demonstrates the new Board understands it is their responsibility to raise the money and the Director's job to supply the curatorial vision.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
 
MEDIA CONTACTS
LYN WINTER, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Tel 213 633 5390, lwinter@moca.org
NANCY LEE, PR COORDINATOR
Tel 213 621 1788, nlee@moca.org

MOCA BOARD OF TRUSTEES NAMES
PHILIPPE VERGNE AS MUSEUM DIRECTOR

Los Angeles, Calif., - Following a worldwide search led by a 14-member committee, The Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) announced today that it has voted unanimously to appoint Philippe Vergne as the museum’s director. Vergne succeeds Jeffrey Deitch, who resigned from MOCA on September 1, 2013.

MOCA is the only independent, artist-founded museum in Los Angeles dedicated solely to collecting and exhibiting contemporary art and has one of the most important collections of contemporary art in the world now comprising more than 6800 objects, a history of diverse, ground-breaking and scholarly exhibitions, many of which have travelled internationally, three Los Angeles locations of architectural renown, and a stronger financial base than ever before in its history.

Vergne who most recently served for five years as director of the Dia Art Foundation, New York has built an international reputation as a successful and committed museum leader with a deep knowledge of contemporary art, a respected curatorial vision, close relationships with artists and the international contemporary art community and strong fundraising skills. Prior to leading the Dia Foundation, Vergne held leadership roles as Deputy Director and Chief Curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where he worked for over a decade organizing more than 25 international exhibitions as well as artist residencies and the Herzog & de Meuron facility expansion; as Director of the Francois Pinault Foundation in Paris; and as Director of the Musée d’art Contemporain (MAC) in Marseille, France.

Vergne’s recent institutional accomplishments include the rebuilding and transformation of the Dia Art Foundation, achieved by successfully stewarding and developing its board, fundraising for operations and capital projects, instituting long-range planning and cultivating close relationships with artist and donor communities. Since 1992 Vergne has organized and curated monographic, group and thematic exhibitions at major institutions around the world including, among others for Carl André, Yves Klein, Thomas Hirschhorn, Huang Yong Ping and Kara Walker and in 2006, Vergne co-curated the Whitney Biennial with Chrissie Iles. Vergne has edited and contributed essays to numerous books and catalogues, and has written for major art magazines. He is also a frequent lecturer. In 1988, Vergne received a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Paris II, Assas and in 1989, he received a BA in archeology and the history of modern art from the University of Paris IV, Sorbonne, where he continued his art history studies, earning an MA (1991) and a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies (first doctoral diploma) (1992).

Vergne’s appointment follows a careful and wide-reaching international search which began in July this year spearheaded by a 14-member search committee led by MOCA Board Chairs Emeriti Maria Arena Bell and David G. Johnson, MOCA Board President Fred Sands, former MOCA Trustee and President of the Andy Warhol Foundation Joel Wachs, newly elected Board Co-Chairs Lilly Tartikoff Karatz and Maurice Marciano, MOCA Board Vice President Eugenio Lopez, MOCA Life Trustee Blake Byrne, Interim Director Maria Seferian and artists who formerly served on the MOCA board John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Catherine Opie, and Ed Ruscha, among others.

“Philippe Vergne is a world class museum leader and we are so thrilled to welcome him to Los Angeles. Philippe brings a strong international perspective and curatorial record to MOCA, which is vital to us continuing as one of the most important contemporary art museums today. We are celebrating his decision to join us,” said MOCA Board Co-Chair Lilly Tartikoff Karatz.

Added MOCA Board Co-Chair Maurice Marciano, "I am very excited that Philippe will join MOCA as its Director.  I love his passion for contemporary art and he has a great vision for the future. Also, he is loved by all the artists he has worked with. With the successful completion of MOCA's endowment campaign and Philippe as its Director, we are embarking on a new, great chapter for MOCA as the leading, international museum of contemporary art."

"I am honored to be joining MOCA. I have admired its collection and programs throughout my career and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead this great institution into its next phase and to return to Los Angeles with my family to my wife's native city. From Michael Heizer to Mike Kelley, MOCA has changed the way I perceive and understand art. I am extremely grateful for the experiences and support that Dia has provided me with, and with pride I will look forward to its great successes," said MOCA Director Philippe Vergne.

“Philippe Vergne’s reputation in the contemporary art world and strong curatorial background make him uniquely positioned to lead MOCA at this time of great excitement behind our mission and our future,” said David G. Johnson, Chair Emeritus of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board of Directors and Co-Chair of the Director Search Committee. “Philippe's scholarship, proven record of museum leadership and the mutual respect he has developed among the world’s leading artists will allow him to cultivate our legacy through MOCA’s world-class collection of contemporary art and ongoing innovative, creative programming.”

“With such a renowned group of candidates interested in this role, we needed to look beyond the resume to find a leader who would influence our program while also enmeshing themselves in MOCA’s unique cultural fabric,” said Maria Arena Bell, Chair Emeritus of the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board of Directors and Co-Chair of the Director Search Committee. “In addition to our world-class collection of art, we possess an appetite for cutting-edge programming and Philippe Vergne is the ideal person to continue MOCA’s journey forward.”

MOCA Board President Fred Sands who serves as a member of the Search Committee stated, “We’re thrilled with the quality and quantity of qualified applicants from all over the world who indicated an interest in the position which speaks well of MOCA’s reputation in the arts community. Now that we will have a $100M endowment, MOCA is the place to be in the museum world.”

“I am 100% excited that Philippe Vergne will be the new director of MOCA.  MOCA is very fortunate.  I think it’s a perfect marriage,” said John Baldessari.

“Philippe Vergne has the intelligence, vision, and ambition to lead MOCA forward. He has a deep appreciation of MOCA’s rigor, bravery, and unmatched program of contemporary exhibitions. His deep understanding of artists and the art they make brilliantly matches the collection of objects and ideas, the compelling timeline of powerful visuality, that is MOCA,” said Barbara Kruger.

“I am personally thrilled as an artist that our next director of MOCA will be Philippe Vergne. I first met Philippe while working on the Ice House series for a Walker residency and was taken by his ability for working with artists and his breadth of knowledge in contemporary art. In working with the search committee on finalizing him as our candidate for the next director of MOCA, our discussions continued to lead back to the enthusiasm and the vision for MOCA’s future, that Philippe brought to the table in the interview process. The future of MOCA has not only been financially met by the board during this time, but by the leadership and interest that Philippe will provide, and MOCA will certainly secure a brilliant future as the only independent museum of contemporary art in Los Angeles. In my opinion the museum we call “The Artists’ Museum” here in Los Angeles will thrive with all that has been accomplished in the past six months,” said Catherine Opie.

“After a very spirited search, Philippe Vergne is our highly qualified selection for director of MOCA. We believe him to be the most artist friendly and at the same time the most community friendly choice to steer our ship,” said Ed Ruscha.

Search Committee Co-Chair Joel Wachs lauded the participation of the four distinguished artists throughout the search process. “First and foremost,” Wachs said, “MOCA has always been the artists’ museum, and the presence, intellect and keen insight of John Baldessari, Barbara Kruger, Cathy Opie and Ed Ruscha have made sure it will continue to be so in the future.”

Last week the MOCA Board of Trustees announced the successful completion of its $100,000,000 endowment campaign, quadrupling its endowment and setting a next goal of raising its endowment to $150,000,000 preserving the museum’s heritage and protecting its place among the most important contemporary art museums in the world. The museum continues to have no debt on its balance sheet and is financially stronger than ever.

Interim Director Maria Seferian who was integral to the campaign’s success continues to lead the museum through the transition period prior to Vergne assuming his role as director.

EXPLORE Historic Downtown Los Angeles as Described in the January GQ MAGAZINE This & Next Saturday!

The Last Bookstore (and a  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30 START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours  of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  FEATURED In GQ MAGAZINE and Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday January 18th  (and Saturday JANUARY 27th with a start time of 10:30 AM and an ending time of 12:30 PM. 

And on every Sunday, with reservations totaling at least 4 or more people  made by 5 PM Saturday - Sunday Tours can  also be given starting at 11 PM - or later depending -  on the first person's reservations.  And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

Great Story on Downtown Los Angeles in GQ Magazine

I was one of the many people Brett Martin interviewed for his GQ article on Downtown LA and of all the many writers I have spoken with, he has gotten the best grasp on what is new - and unique - about the path Downtown LA has taken.

America's Next Great City Is Inside L.A.

For decades, Downtown has been the dark center of L.A.: a wasteland of half-empty office buildings and fully empty streets. But amid the glittering towers and crumbly Art Deco facades, a new generation of adventurous chefs, bartenders, loft dwellers, artists, and developers are creating a neighborhood as electrifying and gritty as New York in the '70s. Brett Martin navigates his way through the coolest new downtown in America

by Brett Martin

Photographs by Peden + Munk

January 2014

"Frontiers!"
Brady Westwater stands on the corner of Spring Street and Fifth Street, Downtown Los Angeles, arms akimbo. He wears a crumpled black cowboy hat pinned up on one side and a hooded sweatshirt of the Elida (Ohio) High School wrestling team. The squad on the sweatshirt changes daily, but this is essentially his uniform.
“This was the Wild West before there was a Wild West,” he says, all but wading into traffic and gesturing to the buildings around him. “In fact, many people went east from here to make the Wild West. This was wilder than any cow town in Texas.” The buildings on all four corners, he says, were built by a confederate of Wyatt Earp, who spent some time as an Angeleno in the early 1900s.
“The whole history of this neighborhood is a series of frontiers!”
With his hat, wiry arms, and scruffy mustache, 65-year-old Westwater bears some resemblance to a gold-panning frontier sidekick himself. He remembers when Fifth Street, “the Nickel,” had the distinction of being one of the busiest drug markets in the world, when the only places to get something to eat were the gas station on Olympic and the twenty-four-hour Original Pantry Cafe on Figueroa, where you can still get home fries with an archaeological mantle of crust. Back then, you could hang around and eventually see all the Downtown pioneers—artists, filmmakers, assorted bohemians—as they climbed out of their lofts and warehouses in search of sustenance.
Westwater, as he tells it, abandoned Downtown for a while, like most everybody else. He lived in Malibu and traveled the world as a mixed-martial-arts fighter. Then, in 1997, he came back, possessed of a vision of a revitalized urban community occupying Downtown. “I pushed flyers under every door I could find that showed a sign of life,” he says of his mission to match empty spaces with sometimes reluctant new tenants. He wasn't alone. Developers—names like Tom Gilmore and Cedd Moses—were set to begin taking advantage of a new law that loosened regulations on how Downtown's vacant buildings could be developed. Now, charging up the street to Broadway, Westwater points to building after building that has come back to teeming life: This one is lofts. This one houses one of the city's best restaurants. This one is a bar with a pop-up restaurant in the back and a performance space on top of that. Every structure seems to house artists, musicians, designers, tech developers, chefs—the whole Who are the people in your neighborhood of the creative class. After decades of being all but forgotten, Downtown has approached a critical mass of cool that even the most hard-core resident of Venice or Santa Monica or West Hollywood or Silver Lake would find impossible to deny.
“And we're still at the tip of the iceberg,” says Moses, whose Downtown bars have done as much as anything to spur on the development. “Right now, Downtown is like Brooklyn, but that's going to change. This is going to be Manhattan. And all the outlying areas, the rest of Los Angeles, that's going to be the boroughs. I don't have a doubt in my mind.”
Westwater, who both leads tours of Downtown and pops up in meetings with developers and politicians, is somehow in the center of this frenzy of activity—something between a fixer, a booster, a town historian, and the local eccentric, part Boss Tweed, part Joe Gould. In other words, the kind of great character produced by great cities. And that, of all things, is what Downtown L.A. is trying to become: a Great City in the heart of the City That Destroyed Cities.

There is much, much more in the article - including some greaT quotes from Cedd Moses.  And, at the end, Martin sums up what he has discovered about Downtown LA.

Downtown is still very much a series of frontiers—shifting, not fully formed, at times dangerous and self-defeating. What's left of Skid Row is still a shocking tent city reminiscent of The Wire's “Hamsterdam.” The homeless and mentally ill population that fan out from it daily are a major part of street life and a problem that won't be solved by being pushed into a smaller area or different part of the city. New entrepreneurs complain that all the hype has spurred landlords to get ahead of themselves, jacking up rents and scuttling some development before it even gets started.
None of this, says Moses, changes the inevitability of Downtown L.A., its inexorable rise.
"The fact is," he says, leaning forward and making eye contact for the first time, "Downtown is the only solution to the problem of L.A."
And that, truth be told, is when the last of my skepticism begins to dissipate, the moment I finally grasp the vision so many people have so excitedly tried to communicate: that Downtown isn't a bet on hipsterism, not on dumplings or cocktails or cool shops or food trucks. It's a bet on urbanism itself, a conviction that the past fifty years of outward, sprawling cul-de-sac development was just that: a dead end. That this is how we want to live, amidst the spark and jangle of humans pressed up against humans. Even in L.A.
There was a time, Brady Westwater says, when the ten square blocks around Spring and Fifth housed everybody you needed to know—the pioneers of moviemaking, aerospace, agriculture, the oil business, all the industries that built modern Southern California. What was past is now future, he says. “Picture a place where you can walk from MoMA to the Main Library to SoHo to Madison Square Garden to the best restaurants and bars in the world. Every single urban amenity, within walking distance. Where you walk outside and can't help but run into everybody. This is the only city that can offer that. And that's why L.A.—not Dubai or Singapore or anyplace else—that's why L.A. is going to change the world!”

University Researchers Miss the Mark on 'Myth' of Valley Girl Speak in the Valley

'Clueless' courtesy of Paramount Pictures via New York Times blog post

By confusing the Valley Girl Speak phenomenon in Encino (and adjacent parts of the San Fernando Valley) with the larger phenomenon of 'uptalk', researchers from the University of San Diego - none of whom, I assume, were there when it happened  - have misunderstood what made Valley Girl Speak unique - or why it was quickly picked up by the film and TV industries.  Here is the New York Times post on the subject:

Are you still making fun of young women for talking like Valley Girls?

Do you assume that because their statements end in a hesitant, rising quaver (“My name is Brittany?”) they are shallow, scattered or uncertain? Even that they sound — how to say this politely? is there any way? — intellectually your inferior?

For years, sociologists and linguists have studied that lilt, referring to it as “uptalk” or “high-rising intonation.” They found its presence in large pockets throughout the English-speaking world — Australia? England? New Zealand? Some date it to the 1950s, others say it is centuries old.Seriously?

In America, it became popularized during the 1980s as Valley Girl Speak, presumably inspired by Frank Zappa’s hit 1982 song “Valley Girl,” a derisive reference to the young white women of California’s San Fernando Valley who spoke it as their own dialect. Films like “Heathers” and “Clueless” perpetuated and parodied the stereotype of the speech and its purported lifestyle.

But scholars have found that the rising inflection can suggest a range of nuanced meanings in different geographical areas and conversational contexts. Another myth busted: its use is not exclusive to young women.

Here is the response I made on Kate Coe's facebook post on the subject.

These researchers totally missed the real 'cause' of Valley Girl Speak. Uptalk may have been part of it, but when I first noticed it, it was clearly a combination of surfer lingo with the nasal accents of Long Island (and other Bridge and Tunnel accents of transplanted New Yorkers), particularly in the South of the Boulevard San Fernando Valley communities of Encino and Sherman Oaks, both of which had large Jewish communities of ex-New Yorkers who also happened to be in the entertainment industry. And that explains why the film and TV industries picked up on the trend so fast.

Discover the Secrets of Historic Downtown LA on This Saturday's 2 Hour Walking Tour Starting at 10:30 at The Last Bookstore at 5th & Spring

The Last Bookstore (and a  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30 START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours  of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday December 21st  (and Saturday Dec. 28th) with a start time of 10:30 AM and an ending time of 12:30 PM. 

THEN - for the rest of the month - with so many people off work due to the holidays - I will be offering special custom designed tours on almost any day for four or more people for any mutually agreed upon hours

And on every Sunday, with reservations totaling at least 4 or more people  made by 5 PM Saturday - Sunday Tours can  also be given all December starting at 11 PM - or later depending -  on the first person's reservations.  And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

LA Times Coverage of Frank Gehry Redesign of Grand Avenue Project

photo courtesy of Related & LA Times

In this morning's LA Times Christopher Hawthorne has full coverage of the revised plans for the second phase of the Grand Avenue project - just re-designed by re-hired architect Frank Gehry - as reported here first last week.   And Hawthorne does a superb job of evaluating the politics and the design of the project.

Architect Frank Gehry's design for Grand Avenue retail, hotel & residential complex across from Walt Disney Concert Hall to be submitted Monday.
By Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times Architecture Critic

Frank Gehry and Related Cos. have kissed and made up. Now we'll see if city and county officials bless the reconciliation.

After soliciting plans from other architects in recent months, Related has put Gehry back in charge of the design team for a $650-million retail, hotel and residential complex on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. On Monday the New York-based developer will submit a new proposal by Gehry's firm to the committee overseeing the project. Gehry's design is significantly more exuberant and suggestive of L.A. culture than designs for the site by the firms Gensler and Robert A.M. Stern Architects, which Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, chair of the committee, blasted in September as bland and uninspired. It calls for a stacked collection of shops and restaurants forming a U-shaped plaza directly across from Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The development will be crowned by a pair of towers, one holding a 300-room SLS Hotel and the other filled with condominiums and rental apartments. A series of terraces, restaurant patios and pool decks, many of them generously landscaped, cascades down along Grand facing the concert hall. Related now hopes to build the project in a single phase rather than constructing the residential tower first. Construction is pegged to begin in 2015 and finish by 2019.

What Hawthorne does not mention is the SLS Hotel will be built and run by Westside hospitality and hotel kind - Sam Nazarian.

The new version is simpler and more efficient than Gehry's original scheme for the site, which first surfaced in 2006. Boxy towers step up from a jumble of forms at ground level, replacing the wavier, more fluid forms of the earlier design. The residential building, the taller of the two towers, includes an open-air garden serving as a sky lobby for the condos on its top floors.

Gehry's willingness to rethink his original design to meet the financial reality of the LA real estate market is what made his return to Grand Avenue possible.  No developer can build a project without financing and no bank will finance a project that can not cover its costs.

Though the towers remain works in progress, the proposal is better developed at street level than in any of the previous designs. The plaza facing Disney Hall is more open and confidently resolved in its design than before.
A generous connection through the project down to Olive Street — a crucial element in the project's links to the base of Bunker Hill and the rest of a revived downtown — would allow pedestrians along Olive to look up through the complex, as if through a picture window, and see Disney Hall.

Gehry's buildings since Disney Hall have progressively gotten better and better at meeting the ground and relating to the environment around them.  He acknowledges this by proposing to redesign the streetscape on both sides of Grand and by also re-imagining Disney Hall's lobby and ground floor spaces to make them more welcoming to pedestrians.

Gehry has toyed with the idea of a narrow pedestrian bridge leading from the apartment tower, near 2nd Street and Grand, across to Disney Hall's upper-level garden.In addition, he is in the early stages of work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic to redesign the concert hall's lobby and ground-level spaces along Grand Avenue.

The result may be to move the Disney Hall gift shop inside the hall and bring its cafe, now buried deep inside the building, out to Grand.In a new twist, Gehry says he hopes to redesign the paving pattern of Grand Avenue itself between 1st and 2nd streets and string lights above the street between the concert hall and the new complex.

The extra attention to the Grand Avenue streetscape in the new plan is welcome but also carries a few risks. The last thing pedestrians on Grand or concertgoers coming out of Disney Hall want is a sense that the street design itself is funneling them straight into an open-air shopping mall.

This last point is my only real disagreement with Hawthorne's review.   Right now, Grand Avenue's biggest problem is none of the current projects reach out and invite the public inside them.   Even more confusingly, what he calls an 'open-air shopping mall', looks to be one of the great public spaces in Downtown Los Angeles. That plaza/shopping mall is also project's  - and Grand Avenue's - connection with Olive Street and last phase of the Grand Avenue Project between Olive and Hill  - and it will one day become Bunker Hill's long needed connection to all of  Historic Downtown.

In general, however, the new design is more open to Bunker Hill and downtown than earlier versions. It relates more subtly not just to Disney Hall but also to Eli Broad's forthcoming art museum, the Broad, at 2nd and Grand.

To a fascinating degree it is precisely Gehry's energetic and unfussy aesthetic, which can appear chaotic at first glance, that makes these new urban connections possible. The jumble of patios, restaurant terraces and pool decks along Grand pivots slightly but strategically at each level, allowing some portions of the development to face the Broad while others offer direct views of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion or Disney Hall itself.

And you can read the rest of the article (which has a lot more information) - here.

Frank Gehry Back as Architect for Grand Avenue Project!

I  haven't blogged about Frank Gehry being rehired by Related to design the Grand Avenue project after LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina rejected the vision presented to the Grand Avenue Authority for one reason.

Since 'everyone' already knew that - I assumed the story had already been reported.  But - since it appears that story has not  yet been reported, I will report that a much revised plan has been designed by Gehry and it will be filed with the City of Los Angeles on Monday.

I can also report, after seeing  a presentation of the plans and the model, the new conceptual plan is a major improvement over the last site plan.  The biggest - and best - change is how the project addresses Grand Avenue. Rather than having the entrance to the public courtyard being two narrow passageways on either side of the apartment building,  the entire public plaza now sweeps out to the street - and the sidewalk - it all but physically pulls pedestrians off the sidewalk and into the space.

As for all the other changes, I'll address them when the renderings are made public next week

Other elements added to the project include a  street/sidewalk landscaping plan for both sides of Grand designed to visually connect the two sides of street and an overhead lighting element which is being considered to also help connect the two sides of the street.

As for the other goods news, beyond Gehry being back,  a hotel is in the final stage of negotiations to anchor the project.  And after they formally sign-on (and they are already involved in the design) their participation will enable the entire block to be designed and built at the same time.

That then still leaves the two big questions.

Can Related afford to build a Frank Gehry design in today's financial climate - and will the design be any good if they can afford to build it?  Based on what I saw and heard, I'd say yes to both questions.  The design is both striking and simple at the same time.  It looks like nothing ever built in LA and yet still feels very much like an LA building.  And what the Gehry Partners architectural team has designed, Gehry Technologies will be able to ensure can be built within a set budget.

And that is - finally - the best news of all.

This is finally a project which can not only be built - but it is also a project that should be built.

DISCOVER Historic Downtown Los Angeles's Secret Histories on This Saturday Nov. 23rd - and Next 3 Saturday 2 Hour Walking Tour Starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring in the Spring Arts Tower

The Last Bookstore (and a  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30 START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday November 23rd with a start time of 10:30 AM and an ending time of 12:30 PM and then following Saturday's  we will also start at 10:30 AM for Saturday November 30th, Saturday December 7th and Saturday December 14th.

And with reservations totaling at least 4 or more people  made by 5 PM Saturday - Sunday Tours can  also be given this or next Sunday starting at 11 PM - or later depending -  on the first person's reservations.  And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

DISCOVER Historic Downtown Los Angeles's Secret Histories on This Saturday Nov. 16th - and Next 3 Saturday 2 Hour Walking Tour Starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring in the Spring Arts Tower

The Last Bookstore (and a  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30 START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday November 16th with a start time of 10:30 AM and an ending time of 12:30 PM and then following two Saturday's  we will also start at 10:30 AM for Saturday November 23rd  and Saturday November 30th. 

And with reservations totaling at least 4 or more people  made by 5 PM Saturday - Sunday Tours can  also be given this or next Sunday starting at 11 PM - or later depending -  on the first person's reservations.  And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

EXPLORE Historic Downtown Los Angeles' Secret Histories on The Next 3 Saturday 2 Hour Walking Tour Starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring in the Spring Arts Tower

The Last Bookstore (and a  2nd floor with 50,000 books at ONE DOLLAR each!)  Presents  a 10:30 START TIME FOR 2 hour walking tours of the The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles -  Endorsed By - LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE!

There will be a HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour this Saturday November 16th with a start time of 10:30 AM and an ending time of 12:30 PM and then following two Saturday's  we will also start at of 10:30 AM for Saturday November 23rd  and Saturday November 30th. 

And with reservations totaling at least 4 or more people  made by 5 PM Saturday - Sunday Tours can  also be given this or next Sunday starting at 11 PM - or later depending -  on the first person's reservations.  And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.