Photo by colros via Flickr Since the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, architect Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House at Barnsdall Art Park in Hollywood has been damaged closed and has been awaiting repairs and retrofitting over the last 14 years (however, it is still open for tours). Some of the work has been done, thanks to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds that went towards the first phase of seismic retrofitting, repairs, and restoration, but the......

In addition to providing you with an excellent cardio and lower-body workout, the Hollywoodland Staircases Walk also has amazing views of the city, the landscape, and two major landmarks (the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory). Throw some local history (concrete staircases joining hilly residential streets installed in 1923 as part of the Hollywoodland real estate development) and a wide variety of architecture and you have more for your eyes to drink in than you bargained......

Capitol Records was hoping the plan for a 16-story condo building next door to their iconic Hollywood & Vine tower would not go through. They're worried that construction of an underground 242-space parking lot and vibrations from traffic will cause damage. It "will interfere with and potentially ruin the operation of the unique echo chambers and sound studios at the Capitol Records tower next door," the record company said in a statement. On Tuesday at......

The richest treasures are sometimes the simplest. Whether in need of a basic get away home or backyard reading room, Modern Cabana has done it with a great design of stunning minimalism. Part of the Dwell On Design Conference, the structure is one of the many offerings this weekend at the LA Convention Center (It's $50, but you can get in free). See also: Escape in Style with Hom......

At the Dwell on Design Exhibition this weekend (you can get free, check this post on how), various builders, designers and eco-friendly businesses are displaying their works of pride and joy. Within the LA Convention center room is a 1000 square foot home called the Hom Escape in Style. It's one steel building, manufactured in Los Angeles and thought up by a group of locally based designers from the KAA Design Group. With it's rusty......

Photo by _ROXANNE_ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr The former manager of a WeHo marijuana dispensary was sentenced today to 5 years probation for "maintaining drug-related premises" on North La Brea known as the Yellow House. Tonya Mae Schaefer of Alhambra also received her sentence today; the 43-year-old will now serve 25 to life for the murder and abandonment of her newborn baby in 2006. It's a not guilty plea for......

As part of LA Art Weekend, which runs through Sunday, the Storefront for Art & Architecture of New York City opened their first of many worldwide temporary pop-up stores in Los Angeles last night. What are these pop-up stores? Well, they are becoming quite ubiquitous, albeit in spurts, around the city. Trendwatching.com rhetorically answers: "If new products can come and go, why can't the stores that display them do the same?" The show at Paperchase......

A couple events tonight focus on the city of LA. / Photo by Tyler S. Andrews via LAist's featured photo pool. TEEVEE It’s as if the Paley Fest never ended. The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills hosts the cast and crew of the Disney Family’s Kyle XY tonight. Scheduled to appear are: Eric Tuchman, executive producer; David Himeltarb, executive producer; Julie Plec, supervising producer; Matt Dallas, "Kyle"; April Matson, "Lori Trager"; Chris......

The architecture of certain California homes reflect the golden optimism of the area's Edenic-period of growth and heightened romanticism. Sky-high ceilings take your breath away, while omnipresent beams of warm sunlight bathe tiled floors and stuccoed walls. Twenty homes in Southern California are photographed and honored in a coffee table book assembled and created by legendary actress Diane Keaton. California Romantica was released late last year from Rizzoli; the weighty tome features the photographs of......

Drinks with Digital LA tonight at Bodega Bar in Santa Monica (and yes, this is not the Bodega bar) / Photo by C-Monster via LAist's photo pool. FILM I am so scaaared. Writer/director Eli Roth (Hostel) continues his reign at the New Beverly in “The Greats of Roth” series. Tonight, he’s screening the double-feature of The Blair Witch Project (1999) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980), an earlier film that deals with a missing documentary film......

Foxy's carne asada chilaquiles run you $12 but you'll stay fed for days | All photos by Andy Sternberg for LAist In spite of the greasy mess plate of hungover love pictured above, Foxy's in Glendale is far from your last resort, still-drunk brekkie-plate of mornings soon to be forgotten. No, no, no. Last Sunday when we rolled up the Brand Boulevard of Cars and took a left onto Colorado and another into Foxy's......

Andrew Hurvitz, who many know from Here in Van Nuys, snaps this shot of the behemoth Rice Bowl image at Wilshire and Vermont and submitted it the LAist Featured Photos Pool. Some love the architecture and art: Even though I find this neither simple nor minimalistic, I like it a lot!" Some hate it: "That is an ugly, architecturally inept building." The LA Times doesn't like it either. Photo by Here in Van Nuys......

Saturday morning was the first community meeting to discuss the Hollywood Freeway Central Park. Meeting in an elementary school auditorium, like they do in the Simpsons, those that attended saw Assemblyman Mike Feuer, LA City Council President Eric Garcetti and others speak about this park and the story behind it. In part I, I wrote about the failures of design in Los Angeles and a need to use architecture to embrace our 36 freeways.......

From the outside, it might look like putting on my ray bans and blasting Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall is a matter of taste, but in reality it’s a calculated effort for droning out the miles of billboards, concrete, and cars I drive through everyday. Amateur graffiti art and occasional, adjacent shrubbery are hardly enough to make up for what we have to sit through during daily commutes. This year, I’ve become well......

Could you imagine Los Angeles without the Getty Museum? If that serene white chunk of Italian marble nestled above the 405 suddenly removed its bulk to some other parts, would you notice? Would you care? An article in yesterday morning's LA Times reconsiders the Richard Meier-designed edifice in the light of its 10th anniversary, and in doing so, asks some important questions about the nature and integrity of architecture in Los Angeles. "there is......

...so we rebuilt our city as a living, breathing, self-sustaining, self-protecting environment. Studying architecture, it's essential to take numerous refreshing breaks throughout our day in studio. A couple times a week we'll find ourselves spending breaks gathered around a laptop watching a movie, an episode of arrested development, or a video like this by Imaginary Forces- A presentation on the future of our city, in the year 2106. If you've never heard of L.A. based......

In honor of what would be Jimi Hendrix's 65th birthday today, I am posting my impressions of The Experience Music Project in Seattle. Last November I visited the Experience Music Project. Many of my Seattle friends are boycotting EMP because of its founder, Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft. He pissed off a lot of people by building Qwest Field with taxpayer dollars after it had been voted down twice. The building is another strange......

If you’ve driven through downtown LA you’ve definitely seen the Bonaventure Hotel. Next time you’re stuck in traffic on the 110, look to the side for four cylinder glass towers. Designed by developer and architect John Portman in 1977, the Bonaventure on south Figueroa stands out in the LA skyline as one of the few buildings worth looking at twice. I’d been hoping to visit it since seeing it from the roof of The......

Last night I was casually checking out what various travel websites had to say about the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Most of the summaries in Frommers sounded like this: Silver Lake, a residential neighborhood just north of Downtown and adjacent to Los Feliz (home to the Los Angeles Zoo and Griffith Park), just to the west, has arty areas with unique cafes, theaters, graffiti, and art galleries -- all in equally plentiful proportions. The......

I first saw this house in 1986. Whenever I'm in the area, I take a quick detour down a side alley to check it out. It has gradually evolved, with a new mosaic or glass feature appearing each time I drive by. I saw a guy working up on the roof about six months ago, and he seemed too young to have been working on the house for 20 years. Maybe it is a......

Sam Watters, author of Houses of Los Angeles,1885-1935, will be discussing the homes of Eva Fényes tonight @ 7:30pm. Her homes are just two of 75 historic, famous, and outlandish homes Watters explores in his new set of books. A watercolorist and an insatiable traveler, Fényes built and lived in two well-known Pasadena houses. How well known are they? One is the first Moorish style house in Pasadena and the other one is now part......

Architecture In Helsinki harness a preternatural exuberance that no other band carries. Perhaps it's due, in large part, to the fact that they're headquartered in the land down under. I'd like to think so. Whichever the case may be, their band bio sums their presence up best: "Like a giant Voltron robot uniting at the sunset." I arrived at the Troubadour on Wednesday just in time for Nike "Dunk"-laden AIH to take stage. They were......

The Hives - "Tick Tick Boom" The Hives @ The Avalon The Hold Steady, Art Brut @ Henry Fonda Architecture in Helsinki, Glass Candy @ Troubadour The Thrills, Small Sins, Rock and Roll @ Spaceland Julio Iglesias @ Gibson Dos @ Alex's Bar Tunng @ Amoeba Hannah Montana @ Staples Cue the Moon @ Silverlake Lounge HoneyHoney, Whispertown2000, Buddy @ Hotel Cafe She Wants Revenge, Kenna, The Start @ Grove of Anaheim Freezepop, Solvent,......

What can I say? We're huge fans of Aussie collective Architecture In Helsinki. Mr. Sternberg gave you 5 reasons to go see them back in June and for good reason. AIH's funk-infused, pop jams make you feel downright good. Their latest album Places Like This is an addictive romp that draws comparisons to Talking Heads and Muppets On Crack. I don't care what Pitchfork has to say. Their music is adorable and inspires lighthearted shimmying.......

Jay-Z w/ Rihanna - "Umbrella" Jay-Z @ House of Blues Hanson @ Avalon Backstreet Boys @ Jimmy Kimmel (out back) Stars of Track and Field @ The Roxy Architecture in Helsinki, Glass Candy, Panther @ The Troubadour Teaneck, On Blast, Pop Noir @ Key Club Tunng, Big Search, Karin Tatoyan @ The Echo......

Travel + Leisure's November 2007 issue features a fun little ditty called America's Favorite Cities. They've asked people from all over the country to rate 25 well-known cities on everything from culture and nightlife to public transportation and weather. We're not quite sure who these 60,000 respondents think they are, but they don't have anything nice to say about our fair city. Oh, except for the fact that we have nice shops. Los Angeles......

The Pogues @ The Wiltern - Tonight ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, Dethklok @ UCLA - Tonight Redd Kross @ Echoplex - Tomorrow The Polyphonic Spree, Rooney @ Henry Fonda - Tomorrow Yo La Tengo @ The Ivar - Tomorrow Low Versus Diamond @ Viper Room - Tomorrow The Bronx, The Mercy Killers @ Safari Sam's - Tomorrow Rodrigo Y Gabriela @ Henry Fonda, 11/3 Yo La Tengo......

We couldn't do a proper tribute to Late Night Eats in Los Angeles without a visit to the original Late Night Eats establishment, the one that started it all, the restaurant that embodies the very essence of car-hopping, car-worshiping SoCal burger culture: Bob's Big Boy. The Big Boy Burger was born in Glendale in 1936, the brainchild of Bob Wian (I know, the alliteration is getting a bit much for me too); the Burbank branch......

The Original Rock God's name was J.S. Bach. Wait, I take that back, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina may have been the first Rock n' Roll god back in the Renaissance period, but then you might say LAist is getting a little weird on you. So Bach it is. Today marks the official opening of the 74th Annual Los Angeles Bach Festival, taking place in the Gothic sanctuaries of the First Congregational Church of Los......

Yesterday our friends at Curbed LA told everyone that the Fox Hills Mall was going to be renovated all Westfield-like, and because they rule, they had lots of nice pictures after the jump. The very last image was the incredibly creepy food court of the future. In the artists' rendition not only wasn't there much food, but where are the types of people who actually frequent the Culver City landmark? Sure ain't those yuppies......