area newsletter MAY 2019 • LOS ANGELES
20 19
Community News LACMA redesign approved by county officials
New mixed-use project under construction near Barnsdall Developers have broken ground on a new mixed-use project in East Hollywood, near Barnsdall Art Park. The development, at 4900 Hollywood Blvd., will stand 5 stories tall and contain 150 apartments and 13,000 square feet of ground-level retail space. Barnsdall Art Park is situated on a hilltop near the trendy shopping and dining area on Vermont Ave. and is home to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recently approved a $117.5 million disbursement to fund an expansive redesign of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Plans for the project call for the construction of a 387,500 square-foot building that will consist of seven pavilions connected above grade by a curved deck spanning across Wilshire Blvd. Designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, the project has gone through a few iterations in recent years, moving the structure away from the La Brea tar pits and changing the exterior color from black to sand. Completion of the project will require the demolition of four existing LACMA structures, the Ahmanson, Hammer, Bing, and Art of the Americas buildings, but the museum will remain open throughout the construction process. Response to the project has been heated at times, with critics comparing the design to a modernist coffee table, and with celebrities such as Diane Keaton and Brad Pitt appearing at Board of Supervisors meetings to voice their support. Some have questioned whether the new building will be large enough to house LACMA’s permanent collection, but officials point to the museum’s expansion into satellite locations to justify a relatively smaller central museum.
City council raises fines on handicapped parking misuse
The Los Angeles City Council recently passed an ordinance that would punish drivers who misuse handicapped parking placards with fines that are the maximum allowed by state law. If caught, people who use misappropriated or expired placards when parking in a handicapped space would be fined $1,100, a steep increase from the state-minimum $250 fine that was previously in place. Although it is not clear how often handicapped parking permits are abused, a recent report by the California Department of Motor Vehicles indicated that 15% of the cars parked in handicapped spaces at the Los Angeles County Fair were misusing handicapped placards.
Community News Old firehouse becomes hotel in Arts District
A 90-year-old firehouse located at Seventh St. and Santa Fe Ave. has found a new purpose, reopening as a new boutique hotel. The Arts District Firehouse Hotel retains much of the building’s original design, including its wood and concrete floors, trussed ceilings and pressed-tin panels. The hotel has eight guest rooms, each named after a color, featuring vintage furniture and a kitchenette. The ground floor of the hotel offers a restaurant and bar, a coffee shop and a retail storefront. The original firehouse was built in 1927 and decommissioned in 1980.
Hospital expands in Downtown LA
California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles has begun construction on a new 150,000 square foot expansion. Located at 1401 S. Grand Ave., the project calls for the construction of a new four-story medical building and a six-story parking structure. The expansion will be utilized by the emergency, trauma and maternity departments of the organization, which has the busiest private trauma center in Los Angeles. Hospital construction has been on the upswing in recent years as hospitals have sought to become compliant with the strict seismic retrofitting requirements that were imposed on hospitals following the Northridge earthquake. The CHMC expansion is expected to be completed by 2020 and open for service in 2021.
Restaurant
Spotlight
Rossoblu
Cosa Buona
Kismet
1124 San Julian Street Downtown Los Angeles
2100 W. Sunset Boulevard Echo Park
4648 Hollywood Boulevard Los Feliz
This fancy Italian restaurant in the Fashion District tells the story of the two places chef Steve Samson considers home: Los Angeles and Bologna. The menu here features handmade pastas, market fresh produce, and an extensive in-house butchery and salumi program. Try starting your meal with the tuna crudo, which is served with beans and mustard seeds. For dinner, try their free-range veal chop alla bolognese. If you want pasta, consider the Maltagliati, flat-andwhite noodle served with porcini and sage. To drink, take a look at their Pan-Italian list of wines, or enjoy a craft cocktail.
This tiny spot located on a corner in Echo Park comes complete with pizza, antipastos, salads, and more. Alimento’s Zach Pollack took over the space previously known as Pizza Buona and gave it an upgrade. Here you can order a sausage or margherita pie, enjoy appetizers like the spicy potatoes diavola and the garlic bread, or even order meatballs, shrimp scampi, and chicken wings. To drink, the casual, walk-in neighborhood pizzeria has a few Italian wines and beers to choose from. If you have room after your order, make sure to try their cookie semifreddo.
This bright, inviting restaurant in Los Feliz has a Middle Eastern-inspired menu. All food here is meant to be eaten family style--so bring company and come hungry. The restaurant cares about forging personal relationships with local farmers and producers, so they try to source as much as possible from small, responsible growers. The all-day casual restaurant features dishes like the squid on the plancha, lamb belly, magic myrna potatoes, and heirloom beans.
SIGHTS & SOUNDS in LOS ANGELES
LACMA
Petersen Automotive Museum
5905 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036
6060 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90036
J. Paul Getty Museum 1200 Getty Center Drive Los Angeles, CA 90049
CURRENT EXHIBITION:
CURRENT EXHIBITION:
CURRENT EXHIBITION:
Charles White: A Retrospective February 17 – June 9, 2019
Auto-Didactic: The Juxtapoz School September 29, 2018 - June 2019
Eighteenth-Century Pastel Portraits August 28, 2018 – October 13, 2019
Charles White was an artist whose work depicted African American people in a dignified and heroic light, mirroring his activism on behalf of civil rights during the mid-20th century. A noted teacher at what was then the Otis Institute of Art, White influenced later generations of African American artists such as Alonzo Davis, David Hammons, and Kerry James Marshall. This exhibit was organized in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art and includes 100 drawings, prints and paintings.
Juxtapoz Magazine, known for featuring “lowbrow” and pop surrealist artists that would otherwise be considered as outside of the mainstream art world, has teamed with the Petersen Auto Museum to create a group show of artists whose work is often inspired by hot rod culture. The exhibit features many car-centric paintings and sculptures, as well as a number of vehicles that converted into moving works of work. The exhibit includes work by Robert Crumb, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth and Robert Williams.
Celebrating a medium that is often overlooked in other time periods, this exhibit delves into the favored form of portraiture in late 18th century Europe. Pastels allowed the artist to create classically beautiful works without the arduous process that oil painting often requires. This flexibility coincided with the growing class of people who patronized portrait artists, creating a unique body of work that represented both an evolving craft and an evolving society.
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