After the Flood - Building on Higher Ground, a part of the International symposium series Sustainable Dialogues, is the first in a series of exhibitions held at theA+D Museum that showcases eco-friendly and innovative international architectural proposals for replacement housing and the redevelopment of New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which drew from an international competition organized by Architectural Record and Tulane University's School of Architecture. The exhibition is made up of......

Photo by Arlette via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr 19-year-old alleged gang member Pedro Espinoza entered a not guilty plea today for the murder of Jamiel Shaw. Shaw, the 17-year-old high schooler, was gunned down near his home early last month. Mayor Tony's former lady friend and ousted tv reporter Mirthala Salinas opens up about her affair in an upcoming Los Angeles mag interview. She calls the relationship a "learning experience" and......

Thanks to $100 million in money from a royal family of Dubai, the Frank Gehry residential and retail project along Grand Avenue is finally getting its go-ahead, months after delay due to worries of the economy, downtown's real estate market, project details and plan approvals. The first phase of the plan takes place directly across the street from Disney Hall where starting next month, crews will begin to dismantle the parking garage and lot, making......

Welcome to October! Metroblogging wants to know how you and your neighborhood will celebrate the run up to All Hallow's Eve. Kobe "I can't live with you, I can't live without you" Bryant was in a jolly mood today as the Lakers greeted the media at its El Segundo practice facility. Construction on a proposed child-care facility, once touted as the centerpiece to Panorama City redevelopment, is hampered by political and building delays. I......

Who knew that for nearly a decade, newly appointed Poet Laureate Charles Simic’s work has been on display in the unlikeliest of places in Downtown Los Angeles? At 7+FIG to be more precise. Yep. You read that right. On the plaza above the bustling food court and the retail stores stands “Portals to Poetry” (1989), a collaborative effort between Simic and artist George Herms. The piece is one of eight works commissioned for a......

NoHo Arts is a burgeoning East Valley area that occupies one very eclectic, historic, and active square mile within the limits of North Hollywood proper. The past couple of years have seen a dramatic increase in multi-use condo construction and the arrival of chain retail and food purveyors thanks in part to the neighborhood's role as major transit hub (NoHo Arts hosts the termini of both the Red and the Orange Lines) and the......

Maybe it’s because of its residents' blogginess, but these days everyone seems to know that downtown LA is booming. However, flying way below the radar is Koreatown. Yes, you already know it’s the place to go for your late night barbecue and karaoke needs, but the boozin’, beef-eatin’ hood (best known to those outside LA as one of the places ravaged by the 1992 riots) has quietly been getting a $1 billion makeover that......

It's a challenge to find healthy, cheap, quick, and tasty food. So when I heard that The Juices Fountain in Hollywood is back in action after a short hiatus, it totallly made my day. After months battling redevelopment plans in Hollywood, this family-owned stand is juicing away again from a new location in the neighborhood near the El Capitan Theater. They assure us they still make the same fine, fresh juices, smoothies, sandwiches, salads......

Mayor Villaraigosa, joined by Councilmember Herb Wesson and South Korean Consul General Choi, will celebrate the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the partnership between the City of Los Angeles and the Republic of Korea for the Superblock project. The Superblock, bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, Vermont and New Hampshire Avenues, and 6th Street, would be the focal point in Koreatown in promoting international trade and culture with South Korea. The joint development......

I’m all for the Hollywood revival, but this time the powers that be have taken it one step too far. Tonight, low and behold, is the last night for Daddy’s. For those of us that have spent many a night, many a birthday party and drank many a cocktail at this Hollywood bar, it is a true loss. Daddy’s is a popular bar, but a place where the bartenders, especially Brandon, actually cared about......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......

A news tidbit last week spotlighted the shocking revelation that Surfas, the globally revered restaurant and cook's supply mecca in Culver City, is being forced to closed down after over sixty years of operation. Foodies, fans, and even some foes of the longstanding retailer hashed out the known details peppered with speculation on the net, springboarded by a news piece on the Surfas website that has since been pulled. It seems that Culver City......

78 years ago today the St. Francis Dam burst, sending 12 billion gallons of water into a small town near Saugus. The flood was so powerful and so swift that the number killed has always been approximate — around 450 people died. The dam's collapse was blamed on the LADWP's head, the brilliant William Mulholland; he's the one in the black hat surveying the dam's wreckage in the photo above. Franklin Avenue is keeping......

The Los Altos was built in the 1920s by William Randolph Hearst for his mistress, actress Marion Davies, who of course got the penthouse apartment. Once glamorous, it is rumored to also have been home to starlets Clara Bow, Judy Garland and Bette Davis. But the Los Altos, like so many other grand buildings on Wilshire Blvd, fell on hard times. Some sources say it started to go to seed during the Depression (although......

Frank Gehry has been given the opportunity to intensify his (sort of) Hometown Hero status in Downtown Los Angeles instead of recent Pritzker Prize-winner Thom Mayne of Morphosis. Related Companies, the developer chosen by committee to handle the Grand Avenue Project, has selected Gehry to be the lead architect of a high rise and initially oversee design for several other buildings -- all part of the $1.8 billion complex adjacent to his insta-landmark Disney......

Ed Note: We postponed publication of Monday's LAist Interview until today in honor of the Independence Day holiday. Craig Havens, a graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, is a fine art photographer whose commercial assignments have appeared in magazines such as Rolling Stone, JANE, Los Angeles Magazine, WYWS, and Detour. In 2004 he became the first American photographer to be honored with a solo exhibition at the Grand Hall Artists Union......

Animators are a breed apart. Their refusal to accept limitations in space, time and conventional wisdom constantly amaze us. But we don't mind because the imaginations of these playful geniuses often first inform our dreams as children and reawaken our playful sides when we are adults. Charles Zembillas is the consummate animator, creative entrepreneur and visual developer: he's funny, fiesty and energetic. He not only works on his own projects but also runs an......

History often proves unkind to ideas and plans once touted as the wave of the future. Take much of Downtown LA, such as the elevated walkways and segregated vehicular/pedestrian zones. And then there’s the Civic Center Mall. LAist found ourselves strolling through this partially subterranean development located northeast of City Hall that contains a subterranean parking, restaurants, mix of retail operations, miscellaneous amenities (e.g. shoe shine booth), and City operations (DOT). Plus lots of......

Well, just as one door opens and another door closes for fans of old Southern California movie palaces. Just as the Fox Fullerton finds a white knight that saves it from eradication, the Fox Theater in Riverside loses a last minute reprieve from a forced sale by the Riverside City Council. "The Riverside City Council voted Tuesday to seize the Fox Theater, saying the current owner had failed to restore the historic vaudeville stage......

The Soto Street Bridge at Mission Road and Huntington has been deemed functionally obsolete (PDF). The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks plans to remove it and replace it with "green space" and a sculpture by Los Angeles artist Stephen Glassman. Judging from Glassman's work in West Hollywood, we bet the piece will include poles made of natural material indigenous to the area and be very, very tall. We just hope......

The oft-lamented, much eulogized Red Car trolley may be about to emerge from gauzy nostalgia and faded memories to roll down the streets of the central city once more. Los Angeles Downtown News reports that the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA/LA) is funding a study to examine the viability of a trolley loop that would circle downtown with stops near the Staples Center, Disney Hall, and other business district attractions. The proposed 5-mile route would......