Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash
It is a series profiling interesting urban projects, reading lists, initiatives, and places for urbanists to get the gist of what is happening in a city at a glance. Email me if you, or someone you know, wants to introduce about your city!
Things to do, places/project to check out
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Downtown Los Angeles's Art Walk
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A public program that lets people to build a community parklet easily: People St program
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A 10-year economic development and revitalization initiative to get an identity back to the city. Bringing Back Broadway
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An interesting project that brought the nature back to the former-industrial, challenged area. Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park
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Famous art spaces like HAUSER & WIRTH and Art Share L.A. are also worth visiting.
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18 places in LA where black architects left their mark — this is a ultimate list and mapping.
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A world-renowned independent architecture schools, and it often has exhibition that is open to the public. GALLERIES AT SCI-ARC
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A famous architecture designed by Frank Lloyd Wright — Hollyhock House
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A residential dwelling design by Frank Lloyd Wright — Ennis House
Read
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I found this beautiful book at a book store in Art Share L.A.:Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles written by David L. Ulin — it is his journey of trying to 'make sense' of the city. His another book of L.A. looks equaly interesting too: Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology
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Get to know the overall picture of what is happening in LA
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Very helpful resources to understand urban design principals in LA
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I spent hours to check out Curbed's all mapping projects — it's a great way to get to know LA from various perspective. Especially these urban-renewal related mapping projects are helpful to check a slew of new developments that's is coming/happening to some neighborhood.
- Mapping the changes on Westlake’s horizon
- Changes underway in Chinatown, mapped
- Mapping the Arts District's never-ending parade of development
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Watch Chinatown (1974) and read this interesting article about the movie, arguing about white supremacy and gentrification in L.A.
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Activist and journalist Alissa Walker's blog is a great introduction to the city and it makes wanna walk L.A.
Organization
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Skid Row Housing Trust is a great initiative that provides permanent supportive housing for people who need supports. For those who are not familiar with Skid Row area, watch this short documentary.
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Do ArT Foundation, a non-profit social enterprise created to produce publicArt programs, projects and exhibitions.
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L.A. Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is an independent nonprofit organization and organizes public programming, exhibitions, and publications. I went to one of their event "TRANSFORMING THE CITY FROM INSIDE OUT // L.A. & TAIPEI CITY" and it was quite interesting.