Look Familiar?

Preservationists in Germany are seeking Historic World Heritage Site-status for six 1920s-era, modern-living housing projects (like the project in Berlin shown above). This story in Der Spiegal points to the “cream of the crop” of European Architects and builders who sought to provide a “utopia in bricks and mortar” – decent, comfortable, functional social housing for ordinary people.

Even today, 80 years later, these complexes continue to provide convenient places for working class people to live comfortably, amidst green lawns and groups of apartment blocks, near transportation and shopping and jobs. Sound familiar?

From the article:
"The settlements are something really special, not just in Germany or even in Europe," says Annemarie Jaeggi, director of Berlin's Bauhaus Archive museum, "The quality of the building is so high and the architecture has spread right across the world -- it was really one of Germany's contributions to the 20th century."

Take Your Medicine (part 1)

Let's make this clear - we really like Park LaBrea so far; the experiment is going well, BUT life inside is not all the leasing office cracks it up to be. I let out a little snicker each time I drive down Hauser Ave. (the public street that cuts through PLB) past the lamp post banner advertisements for the various amenities offered inside the gates of Park LaBrea. This post will be the first in a series "Take Your Medicine" where we post the truth behind what the banners say and what they really mean.




"5 miles of running trails" & "bike trail" -- The Park LaBrea management company issues a small map to all new residents on their orientation day. The map is of the streets inside the complex which includes dotted lines showing 1-mile, 3-mile and 5-mile round about and doubled-back routes through the sidewalks and streets. In other words, there are no separate tracks dedicated for jogging or biking, it's just a planned out route through the place. Good news is, Pan Pacific Park is across the street – it does have a jogging, walking & biking path . If you circle enough times, I’m sure it adds up to 5 miles.

INSPECT MEEEEE !

Elevators in Park Labrea are slow, rickety, often broken (thank God each lobby has two) and now, apparently, late for inspection. I normally don’t approve of tagging, but I would like to thank to this observant tagger for their well-meaning graffiti; hopefully the maintenance staff doesn’t just spray off this note with cleaning fluid (as has been done before to a similar note). This keen tagger has noticed that A) the elevator is to be inspected once a year and B) the last time the elevator was inspected was in 2006. This means the elevator is past its inspection date. There's even another note below where some other elevator rider "agrees." On the other hand, it’d be great if someone actually reported this maintenance issue to management. Note to tagger – next time use a non-washable Sharpie pen. And thanks for your continued support for safe elevators in the Park LaBrea towers !!

Towers on top of tar, on top of fault lines

This article by William Fox puts it in perspective -
read it here

Christmas in the PLB

Hundreds of Santa Clauses invaded 3rd street Saturday, attracting cops and news choppers overhead – it’s all part of a loosely knit, online group called SantaCon. Read and see more about this roving band of Kris Kringles here and here.

In dense block housing . . . (part 1)

Both Chip and I have lived in dense housing out of the country; him in college in Vienna in dormitory housing, me in graduate school in Paris in a residential tower. We keep telling each other that, aside from the fact that we’re in the center of L.A., with it’s legendary lack of center and reputation for sprawl, the experience of living in our tower at Park LaBrea echoes some of our experiences in the European block housing set-up (which is losing it’s stigma and catching-on as an appealing form of housing in the US , as it has been in other country besides the US for over fifty years.) This means a few things:

1) In dense block housing you interact with your neighbors.
This isn’t always a good thing. I live next to a big fat man who eats Dominoe’s pizza for every single meal and blares his schlock action films every night. There’s a pack of noisy kids too on my floor (at the other end of the hall, thank God), and if someone’s cooking greasy fish or cabbage, you’re gonna whiff it too. On the other hand, the idea of actually living in close proximity to other people – which is arguably the definition of “city” – is a completely refreshing lifestyle change after living in Los Angeles for most of our adult lives.

2) In dense block housing you must be much more aware of your trash.
Trash builds up quick in the dumpsters in the basement; and by the end of the weekend it can be fairly pungent in the depths of the towers. That’s a fact of life in dense living. Ask a New Yorker. Here’s the solution: use smaller trash bags and take the trash out more frequently; use the trash chutes on your floor of the tower so that you don’t have to venture down into the smelly dark rooms with the dumpsters in the basement. I learned that one in gay Par-ee.


3) In dense block housing you are close to groceries, gym, parks & other commercial establishments.
We walk to get all of our groceries, we walk to breakfast at Farmer’s Market on Sundays, we walk to movies at the Grove, I ride my bike to my job, I run in Pan Pacific Park, etc., etc. I buy less gasoline too. And I’m losing weight. Heee!


4) In dense block housing you do more walking.
From your car, to the front gate, down the hall, up the stairs, back to the car. This is a good thing in my book. See the losing weight part above.

odds & ends

Sofa success!! (don’t ask how we got it in the place) We're done moving in. Boxes everywhere. But I think Chip is going to hurt someone if he has to go back to Ikea one more time.
While we catch up with more posts to the blog, here are some odds & ends . . .

Take a look at Park LaBrea’s all watching eye

and one more factoid:
In PLB the median household income is $53,000 and the median age is 36.
Here’s a snap of our neighborhood watering hole: farmer’s market.