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Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles

Jan 25, ’12 6:00 AM

By Scott M B Gustafson

Welcome to Los Angeles.
Supercity of the Future.
Metropolis of Southern California.

Architectural critic Reyner Banham explores Los Angeles in this 1972 BBC documentary. This film is a great compliment to his book “Los Angeles : The Architecture of Four Ecologies.” From Watts to Beverly Hills, Hollywood to the Pacific Palisades, Venice, Olvera Street, Century Boulevard, the 405, Santa Monica, Pasadena and beyond, Banham covers it all. In the film it is very interesting to see Los Angeles as it existed in the years before I was born. It seems wilder, freer and perhaps more ready to accept diverse interpretations and developments than it does today.

I am re-reading Banham’s famous treatise, and I will probably revisit Kevin Lynch’s chapter on LA in “The Image of the City“. In a city with great geographic width and (seemingly) little historical depth, I appreciate the views of those writers who came to the city with fresh eyes, unburdened or biased and took a grand survey of what was really happening here. Kevin Lynch’s notion of Mental Maps for understanding the city has certainly been amplified through the advent of technologies like GPS, Yelp, and augmented reality. Los Angeles remains a great social experiment and in my opinion, the cultural capital of the United States.

Reyner Banham - Los Angeles : The Architecture of Four Ecologies

The man himself and his glorious ode to the metropolis. Image source: KCET

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Temple of sport.

Imagined images of the urban situation. Image source Jason Skibo.

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Restoring the Balance

Jan 20, ’12 4:00 PM

MAISON-ORION_2012_TERRAPASS

By Scott M B Gustafson

Los Angeles is famously a car city, and driving all around the place is a reality of my life here. I do take the bus and the subway from time to time, but its current routes do not always lead to the destinations I am heading to. In order to feel less guilty about the driving I do traveling across the metropolis, I have decided to purchase Carbon Offsets from Terrapass for 2012. A the offset concept is simple. Excess (unbalanced) carbon dioxide emissions are the principal cause of global warming. For each metric ton of carbon dioxide emitted by a my car during the year, Terrapass will fund a clean energy project that effectively reduces carbon emissions by the same amount. I drive about 12,000 miles per year, so according to Terrapass’ formula, I require 8 metric tons of carbon offsets. If I manage to drive less than that, then I will be “in the black” carbon wise since my pollution will be less than the reduction I’m supporting. The money that is to Terrapass is invested in clean energy and other projects that reduce greenhouse gases. A few examples of the kinds of projects Terrapass funds are:

Clean energy
When a wind farm generates power, it displaces electricity generated by conventional sources such as coal and natural gas. Those conventional sources produce carbon dioxide emissions because they burn fossil fuels to spin their turbines, whereas wind farms don’t use fossil fuels at all. They’re virtually carbon-free!

Farm power
Your money helps farmers capture and destroy the methane, a powerful global warming gas which forms when managing animal waste. It supports the installation and operation of anaerobic digesters, lagoon covers, and electricity generators.

Landfill gas capture
The trash we bury in landfills decomposes slowly, producing methane which escapes into the atmosphere. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas – about 21 times as powerful as carbon dioxide – so projects which capture and destroy that gas are of great benefit to the climate. These projects capture the methane from landfills using wells, pipes, caps, blowers and other technology; and destroy the gas by burning it in a flare.

Source: Terrapass

Click here to see a full listing of the projects funded by Terrpass.

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Restore the Balance

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AFH:LA – January Chapter Meeting

Jan 13, ’12 3:00 PM
AFH-LA_12-0124_BILLBOARD_FOR_WEB

Colorful tents of LA's homeless dot an empty street in Skid Row

This is our first public meeting for 2012. Everyone is welcome. Architects, non-architects, designers, artists, business majors, social activists and specification writers!

We will be meeting at the West Side Tavern located on the ground floor of the Westside Pavilion Shopping Center. Look for people in black clothing with edgy haircuts and designer eyeglasses.

Westside Tavern
10850 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90064

Click here for a Google Map

This is meant to be more of a social event than a business meeting, but please bring your ideas for they kinds of projects and other activities you would like to see the chapter take on in 2012.

Click here to download a printable PDF flyer for this event.

Stay in touch with the organization by signing up for the AFH:LA Mailing List.

http://losangeles.architectureforhumanity.org/

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