The Brief

Native plants are being placed on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Tuesday, marking another milestone for what officials say will be the largest bridge of its kind in the world.

Over the next few months, about 5,000 more plants are expected to be installed along the bridge — which stretches over all 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills — to help create a nearly one-acre wildlife habitat.

Once complete, the crossing is expected to reconnect areas traversed by Southern California mountain lions, bobcats, deer, bats, birds and other animals — big and small.

Beth Pratt, California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, said during a planting ceremony atop the bridge that it’s emotional to see the soul of the project take shape.

“This was an impossible dream that started decades ago,” said Pratt, who is also leader of the Save LA Cougars campaign. “This is reconnecting the Santa Monica Mountains to the rest of the world — for all wildlife."

The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is now in its final construction stage and is on track to be finished by the end of next year.

Annenberg wildlife crossing

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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About the plants

The native plants, which include dozens of species sourced from within a 5-mile radius of the crossing in the Santa Monica Mountains, come from a nursery that was created specifically for the project. Officials said a nursery team spent the last four years collecting more than 1.1 million hyper-local seeds by hand to support the soon-to-be habitat.

They include narrowleaf milkweed, which is critical for the monarch butterfly population, purple sage, which attracts hummingbirds, and California aster, which provides pollen and nectar to bees.

The ceremony started with an Indigenous blessing and prayer led by Alan Salazar — also known as Puchuk Ya'ia'c or Fast Runner — an elder in the Fernandeño Tataviam and Ventureño Chumash tribes. He left an offering of tobacco and sage along the ground where the plants would be placed.

“We haven’t been too kind and gentle to Mother Earth, and we need to make up for some of those mistakes,” Salazar said as he scattered the offering. “Today, we’re making up for some of them.”

The first three plants were installed in honor of long-time project supporters who couldn’t be at the ceremony — actor Leonardo Dicaprio, Gov. Gavin Newsom and philantropist Wallis Annenberg, who died in July.

Pratt said there wouldn’t be a wildlife crossing without Annenberg’s help.

A stuffed mountain lion plush in front of where the first native plants were placed.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Beth Pratt (right), leader of the Save LA Cougars campaign, placing a native plant with a member of the nursery team.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Project partners, including members of the plant nursery team, posing for a picture with installed native plants on the wildlife crossing.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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The native plants that are being placed on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing include dozens of distinct species sourced from within a five-mile radius of the structure in the Santa Monica Mountains.

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Courtesy of the #SaveLACougars campaign

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Beth Pratt, wearing a pink high-visibility vest, leads the first handfuls of soil dropped on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing construction on Monday, March 31.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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The view from near the top of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing on Monday, March 31.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Some of the soil that will layer the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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The other plants were installed by officials with Caltrans, the city of Agoura Hills, the Wallis Annenberg Legacy Foundation and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, among other organizations. Pratt noted that the National Park Service researchers who worked on the crossing couldn’t be there to celebrate the milestone because of the ongoing government shutdown, which she said was “shameful.”

The plants will spring from specially engineered soil that was installed along the bridge in March and April. Officials said the roughly 6,000 cubic yards of soil — which is partly compost, branches and leaf litter — is comparable to what makes up the green sloping hills on either side of the busy freeway.

Scientists, biologists, engineers and mycologists designed the material to make sure it’s appropriate for native plants, animals and the crossing itself, officials previously told LAist.

“We're designing all the way from those microbial components all the way up to the apex predator,” said Robert Rock, president of Rock Design Associates, the landscape architecture company overseeing the project.

What’s next

Crews are making progress on a second structure that will add onto the current reach over the freeway. It’ll stretch over two lanes of the smaller Agoura Road, but it’ll be as wide as the one built over the freeway.

The second structure will stretch over two lanes of Agoura Road.

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Courtesy of Rock Design Associates and National Wildlife Federation

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The second structure has required a “monumental” effort from multiple agencies, according to project officials, including burying high-voltage power lines underground, relocating several telecommunication lines and rerouting a regional waterline.

Pratt described it as the “most complicated” part of the project. 

“We don’t want Calabasas and Agoura to lose electricity or their main water source, so we kind of have to go a little slow on that,” she said, adding that the crews expect to start constructing that structure early next year.

The entire crossing is expected to be completed by the end of 2026. In addition to helping animals cross safely over the freeway, it’s expected to restore an ecosystem damaged by human development, according to the Annenberg Foundation.

You can check-in on the project’s progress through livestream cameras here.

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One of Hollywood’s recent celebrities wasn’t a person, but a feline. LAist Correspondent Jill Replogle looks into P-22’s stardom, people’s obsession with him, and what his story says about our ability to coexist with wildlife in a rapidly changing, increasingly urban world.

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One of Hollywood’s recent celebrities wasn’t a person, but a feline. LAist Correspondent Jill Replogle looks into P-22’s stardom, people’s obsession with him, and what his story says about our ability to coexist with wildlife in a rapidly changing, increasingly urban world.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced several significant rule changes for the 99th Oscars, including AI protections for actors and writers as well as expanded eligibility for international films.

In a statement to NPR, the Academy on Saturday said the changes are in response to listening to the global filmmaking community and addressing barriers to entry in its eligibility process.

The Academy added that its rules and eligibility standards have always evolved alongside technologies such as sound, color, and CGI, and that AI is no different. Awards rules and guidelines are reviewed and refined each year.

A blow for Tilly Norwood 

Among the most noteworthy changes, the Academy now explicitly states that only roles, "demonstrably performed by humans with their consent" are eligible for Acting awards. In other words, AI creations like the much-hyped Tilly Norwood cannot hope to win a Best Actress Oscar anytime soon.

Particle6, the production company behind Norwood, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment on Saturday about its creations' ban from consideration. In March, Norwood commented, "Can't wait to go to the Oscars!" in an Instagram post announcing its newly released music video.

The Academy also requires screenplays to be "human-authored" and said it reserved the right to investigate the use of generative AI in any submission.

Meanwhile, qualifying flesh-and-blood human actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances get enough votes to land in the top five. So, someone like Anne Hathaway, who has five major movies scheduled for release in 2026, could now theoretically sweep the nominations – though that outcome seems extremely unlikely.

"If an actor has an extremely prolific year, might we even see someone swallow up three of the five nominations?," wrote Deadline's awards columnist and chief film critic Pete Hammond about the changes. "Probably won't happen, but it's now possible."

Under previous rules, an actor could only receive one nomination per category. If they had two high-ranking performances in Best Actor, for example, only the one with the most votes would move forward.

International films prioritizes filmmakers over countries

While international films can still be the official selection of their countries, now they can qualify by winning the top prize at a major international festival such as the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice, or the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.

Historically, countries "owned" the nomination, and only one film per country was allowed. The new rules allow multiple films from the same country to compete if they are critically acclaimed, and it shifts the honor from a geopolitical entity to the filmmakers themselves.

Largely positive response

The changes have prompted a largely positive reaction from the film community on social media, such as on the popular The Shade Room entertainment and celebrity-focused Instagram feed, where commenters widely praised the "human-only" move to protect creative jobs.

The Academy's Awards Committee oversees the rules in tandem with branch executive committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee.

The rules are scheduled to go into effect next year, covering films released in 2026.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Los Angeles changes fast, and oftentimes that means some of the architectural relics of our shared past get swept up and paved over in all the "progress." (RIP Garden of Allah.)

But there are still places where you can find ruins that tell a tale, like a long-forgotten speakeasy reputedly for old Hollywood near La Crescenta.

The ruins are still there 

On a recent afternoon, author and local historian Mike Lawler led me just beyond the boundary of Crescenta Valley Park. Joggers like me might have seen an old, towering stone arch shrouded by bushes there — and wondered what lies beyond.

Turns out there was once a place called the Verdugo Lodge back there and Lawler has spent years excavating its history.

A car speeds away from the lodge onto New York Avenue. The stone archway that still stands can be seen in the background.

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Kadletz Family Archives)

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“It was a very high-end speakeasy for a time,” Lawler, who also helps run the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, said. “An amazing thing. And all the ruins are still here, just like this arch.”

Lawler said we don’t know exactly when the lodge was built, but we do have some of the picture starting in the late 1920s. The place was set up kind of like a timeshare where people bought 10 x 10 foot ‘tent lots’ that gave them access to on-site amenities. There was a golf course, stables, trout stream, a swimming pool — and a lodge with gambling and alcohol.

“The Crescenta Valley in the teens and '20s was a hotbed of moonshine, prostitution, all that stuff," Lawler said. "It was a quiet little community. But in all these canyons up here, stuff was going on. Illegal stuff!”

We don’t have a full guest list, but Lawler said it’s likely at least a few Hollywood types had gone up to the lodge to circumvent Prohibition era laws.

In some ways, it was kind of like the original glamping. Lawler said patrons probably weren’t doing much sleeping, though.

“They might have been unconscious!” he said with a chuckle.

Lawler led me to a road that swooped around a meadow. We passed by a massive swimming pool nestled into the hillside.

Once known as the “Crystal Pool,” it’s now empty and fenced off, with pitch black locker rooms below.

The exterior of the locker rooms for the old Crystal Pool.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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We continued our journey up the hill and eventually arrived at a cascading stone stairway.

And at the top, the big show: overgrown with orange monkey flowers and goliath agaves lies the foundation of the old Verdugo Lodge, with lofty stone fireplaces the only guardians keeping the surrounding oak trees at bay.

Lawler takes out a floorplan that one of the former owners drew up for him.

“This is what it was laid out like on the inside. So a dancehall, and band stand on that side... And then upstairs was the gambling,” Lawler said.

Lawler had in hand a copy of a Los Angeles Times article from 1933 he found. The headline reads: “Revelers Flee in Lodge Raid.”

“The police that raided it were here at 3 o'clock in the morning. And there were still 500 people here. And they said it was the classiest joint they had ever raided... Anyway, people were diving out of windows and everything,” Lawler explained.

In a ruin like this, covered with moss and overgrowth, the imagination can run wild, too.

The archway that still stands outside of what's now known as Mountain Oaks.

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Robert Garrova / LAist

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Lawler pointed out a questionable door jam below the old dancefloor that’s been cemented over.

“That is a door. So what is behind there? So there’s a room in there that got walled in for some reason,” he said.

What we do know is that, sometime after the raid, the tawdry Verdugo Lodge and the surrounding land were purchased and then renamed Mountain Oaks by the Kadletzes — an entrepreneurial family who had run everything from a Turkish bath to a mini golf course. Over the next few decades, the family would rent the place out to local groups for recreational retreats.

The future of Mountain Oaks 

After they sold it in the ‘60s, Lawler said Mountain Oaks faced a “nightmare” of development threats. Over the years, some of the subdivided "tent lots" had been combined and sold off, Lawler said. A dozen private homes now stand on these pieces of land, next to the ruins of the Verdugo Lodge.

A map showing the Mountain Oaks public property acquired by The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA).

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Courtesy MRCA

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Last year, with help from the City of Glendale, a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant among other funding sources, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) put up $6.1 million to acquire 33-acres of the land — not including the private lots where the homes stand — so the public can continue to roam the meadow and ruins.

Paul Edelman, MRCA's director of natural resources and planning, said his group will continue to manage the land, doing things like brush clearance, trash pickup and sign maintenance. And he said there are no current plans to remove the ruins or make any major changes to the property.

“If somebody comes up with a grand idea where they can find some funding for us to do something to enhance it, we’re always open to it,” Edelman said.

The purchase was good news for local preservationist Joanna Linkchorst.

“I grew up directly up the hill. But I always saw the sign that said ‘private property’ and didn’t really think about it until several years ago when I finally asked Mike. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, we got a resort speakeasy down the street,’” Linkchorst said standing among the oaks and overgrowth.

Linkchorst, who founded the group Friends of Rockhaven to preserve another nearby historic site, said it’s been amazing to see all of the decaying structures that were still hiding out at Mountain Oaks.

“There’s almost like these little ghosts in your head as you imagine what it was like when there was a beautiful wood floor and there was a second floor that people came jumping out of,” Linkchorst said.

Now, let’s check in to the Overlook Hotel.

That’s the fictional place Stanley Kubrick brought to life in his 1980 film The Shining, loosely based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name.

A local architect who hails from South Pasadena meticulously crafted a 3D model of the iconic space so Shining fans everywhere never have to check out.

‘I just couldn’t stop’ 

At his day job, architect Anthony Chieh mainly works on residential and boutique commercial spaces. But over the course of five months, he spent his nights meticulously recreating a virtual replica of the Overlook Hotel from the film that first scared him when he was 12.

Of course he started with the deeply haunted Room 237. That’s where Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, has a terrifying encounter with a ghostly woman.

Chieh's 3D rendering of Room 237

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Anthony Chieh

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“But once I started, I just couldn’t stop,” Chieh told LAist.

“I ended up modeling the Colorado Lounge, and then after that I was thinking maybe I should make the lobby and then arriving to the Gold Room, and then Grady’s bathroom.”

“It’s like a rabbit hole,” he said.

Users who download Chieh’s free 3D model can fly through all of those spaces, immersed in atmospheric sounds and music from the film.

“It’s interesting to dive into these kind of fictional environments and try to make sense of it,” Chieh said. “And the hope is people will get a different perspective once they’re in there.”

Kubrick’s take on the Overlook was famously inspired by real hotels like the Timberline Lodge in Oregon and the Ahwahnee in Yosemite. But the interiors you see in the film were created on sound stages in England.

“Real architecture, physical buildings, are built for people to live. And for movies, these are more meant to express the emotional aspect of things. It’s a psychological construct,” Chieh said.

In a recently published video essay on YouTube, Chieh dives deep into those psychological constructs and how, as he puts it, “Kubrick designed the Overlook Hotel not as a backdrop, but as the film's true villain.”

How spaces scare 

Chieh said during the monthslong process he was reminded of the power of architecture and design in the real world too – whether it’s an uncomfortably repetitive carpet design or a claustrophobic hallway.

“A physical construct can affect your emotion,” Chieh said.

“You can use it in a way to make people feel comfortable and you can also use it in a way to create fear.”

Chieh's 3D rendering of the Torrance's apartment in 'The Shining'

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Anthony Chieh

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What’s next for this architect moonlighting as a 3D modeler?

Chieh says he’s thinking about giving the spaceship from “2001: A Space Odyssey" the virtual treatment next. Or maybe turning to a local non-fictional space, like the Stahl House.

That is, of course, if he can ever escape the Overlook.