FIVE PLACES L.A. - SoundSage

Show notes and Barbara’s Five Places:

1. Port of Los Angeles and Terminal Island (see also: Tuna St. buildings on Terminal Island, which are in danger of demolition pending action to designate them as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments; and a book on the History of Terminal Island: Terminal Island - Lost Communities on America's Edge

2.Wayfarer’s Chapel by Lloyd Wright, and a June 4, 2025 LA Times article by (Episode 3 guest!) Sam Lubell on the chapel’s rescue from its unstable site: Lloyd Wright’s Wayfarers Chapel: Inside the rescue of a national landmark

3. Mattachine Steps in Silverlake and the Mattachine Society

4. Musso + Franks (and a sidebar about the Schindler house in the background of a Buster Keaton movie)

5. The Blue Ribbon Garden at Disney Hall, designed by Melinda Taylor, more here, and a story about the secret edible garden.

Who would you choose to ask about their Five Places? Artist Lauren Halsey

Interview Date: 02-28-24

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode (PLEASE VISIT fiveplaces.la FOR FULL SHOW NOTES)

Bestor Architecture website, Instagram, and news

LA Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and truck electrification

Frank Gehry obituaries in the New York Times (by Nicolai Ouroussof) and the Guardian (by Charles Jencks and Oliver Wainwright)

History of trolley lines in Silverlake by Eric Brightwell. See also: Secret Stairs A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, by Charles Fleming

Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake, by Barbara Bestor

Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics, by Daniel Hurewitz

The Black Cat on Sunset: The 1967 Black Cat Demonstration marks one of the earliest moments in US history that the LGBTQ community organized and gathered publicly to peacefully protest the harassment, brutality, and persecution they were suffering for being queer.

Mike Davis, beloved writer, activist, and theorist, profiled here in The New Yorker by Hua Hsu, and remembered here by (Episode 14 guest!) Mike Sonksen, aka Mike The Poet, and other key voices.

Robert Moses and the Power Broker book. Also, a new podcast series on Moses and The Power Broker, by 99% Invisible.

The American Bar in Vienna by Adolf Loos (wiki, American Bar home page)

Los Angeles Plays Itself by Thom Andersen

Theme building at LAX – and Bestor Architecture’s winning proposal to redesign the LAWA train wrap!

Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. food critic Jonathan Gold, and his article The Year I Ate Pico Boulevard

The Quilts of Gee’s bend

Grand Central Market and California Plaza by Arthus Erickson

Moneo Cathedral in DTLA and Coop Himmelblau High School

Sunshine & smog: Barbara Bestor at TEDxOlympicBlvdWomen

Lauren Halsey’s Summaeverythang community Center website

Summaeverythang Community Center in the Art Newspaper and In the LA Times.

(PLEASE VISIT fiveplaces.la FOR FULL SHOW NOTES)

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on unceded Chumash and Tongva land.

www.laforum.org

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Learn more about J. Yolande Daniels' work at MIT, StudioSumo, and The Black City. Follow The Black City on instagram here.

Show notes and Yolande’s Five Places:

1. Biddy Mason Place (in today’s Downtown LA): more on Biddy Mason here.

2. Brick Block (in today’s Downtown LA)

3. Los Angeles Street (formerly Calle de Los Negros, near today’s Union Station)

4. Azusa Street Mission (in today’s Little Tokyo)

5. Bronzeville (in today’s Little Tokyo): How 'Little Tokyo' Of Los Angeles Changed Into 'Bronzeville' And Back Again (NPR); and Azusa Street to Bronzeville: The Black History of Little Tokyo (PBS SoCal)

Honorable Mention: El Prieto Canyon—named after Robert Owens

Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? Amy Murphy, Akira Mizuta Lippit

Interview Date: 02-24-21

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

J. Yolande Daniels, Black City: the Los Angeles Edition, The Museum of Modern Art (2020).

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, The Museum of Modern Art (2020),

Totem House by studioSUMO + Histories of Negation by J. Yolande Daniels, Architecture at Home, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
MIT Center for Art Media and Technology

Crystal Bridges Museum debuts five house prototypes that take on Northwest Arkansas’s housing crisis (The Architect’s Newspaper)

The Open Hand: A Conversation with the Descendants of Biddy Mason

What’s in a street name? LA’s forgotten Calle de los Negros (KCRW) – refers to the 1871 anti-Chinese massacre in downtown Los Angeles and the forthcoming memorial designed by Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong and Judy Chui-Hua Chung.

How Can We Create Communities of Care? Projects by architect Sekou Cooke and designer J. Yolande Daniels explore how architecture can nurture people and communities.

A Glimpse of the Kingdom of Heaven: the Azusa Street Revival (PBS)

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Monica Lamela, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on unceded Chumash and Tongva land.

www.laforum.org

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Discover more of Mike’s work via his instagram, and Linktree, and find other relevant links in the show notes for his original interview with art critic Shana Nys Dambrot (E14). For Shana’s bio and her Five Places L.A. interview, check out Episode 12, here. “Los Angeles A to Z” is a poem included in Mike Sonksen’s beautiful tribute to Los Angeles, “Letters to My City”, the second edition of which was just published by Writ Large Press in 2023. “The poems and essays in Letters to My City combine two decades of field experience, research, personal observations, and stories told to the author, Mike Sonksen, a third-generation Los Angeles native, by his grandfather and other family members, to interrogate all sides of Los Angeles, its streets, its people, its neighborhoods, as a means to examine the postmodern metropolis.”

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Discover more of Mike’s work via his instagram, and Linktree, and find other relevant links below in the notes.

This is our first “plus-two” interview! In each episode, we ask our interviewees to name someone whom they in turn would choose to ask about the five places that define Los Angeles for them. Artist Laurie Lipton, our episode 8 guest, chose art critic Shana Nys Dambrot as her plus one. To watch or listen to Laurie interview Shana about her five places, check out her interview and episode here. Shana then chose Mike, making this our first plus-two. Stay tuned for Mike’s extraordinary interviewee, who will be our first plus-three.

Show notes and Mike’s Five Places:

Cascades park in Monterey park.
Beyond Baroque, Venice. Mike also mentions: the LA-founded punk band X, the extraordinary Wanda Coleman, aka “the L.A. Blueswoman”, Scott Wannburg, S.A. Griffin, Tom Waits, Allan Ginsberg, Michael C. Ford, and Jim Morrison.
Judy Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles, about which Mike has recorded this video: “Whose Story Do We Tell?” Also mentioned: Stefano Block, the graffiti artist formerly known as CISCO, and the bell hooks book All About Love.
Los Angeles City Hall. Also mentioned, Phillipe’s restaurant, since 1908!
Rissho Kosei-kai Buddhist Temple in Boyle Heights. East First street. Brooklyn Avenue. Nisei week festival in Little Tokyo.

Honorable mentions:

Leimert Park Village

Suehiro restaurant in Little Tokyo and Robert Vargas mural

Cerritos Library

Spoon House Japanese Italian restaurant in Gardena – whether you like Japanese Italian-food or not, this Jonathan Gold review is a joy to read.

Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? The great Lynell George.

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

Mike Sonksen’s prose poem: “For Mike Davis”

Joan Didion

Robert Arenevar – muralist

The Roots’ Illadelph Halflife album for sunset drives.

“Seven Books to Help Understand Judith Baca’s Great Wall of Los Angeles and L.A. Itself”, by Mike Sonksen

Memorial to the Victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre

Glenn Kaino’s show, Aki’s Market, at the Japanese American Museum

The Hood Historian

Huell Howser, as Mike says “respected human dignity. He let others shine.”

bell hooks’ book All About Love

Marugame Monzo Japanese fusion restaurant

Page Against the Machine bookstore

D. J. Waldie

Julia Cameron and The Artist’s Way

Natalie Goldberg

Lynell George

Ruben Martinez

Brian Cross

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.

www.laforum.org

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Show notes and Ingalill’s Five Places:

1.10,000ft above LA (preferably in a small aircraft, but also in a commercial plane)

2. Grand Park, designed by Deborah Sussman / SussmanPrejza

3. Angel City Football Club games at Gensler-designed BMO stadium, and the walk from Metro, through Exposition Park with the Rose Garden, the CAAM, the upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Coliseum.

4. The back yard, in general, Ingalill’s family’s back yard in particular, and the view from her deck which includes the DWP Building, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles City Hall, and Dodger Stadium.

5. Community colleges in general, ELAC in particular, whose campus includes the Vincent Price Art Museum by Arquitectonica, EYRC student center building. HGA, house & Robertson. Los Angeles Mission renovation by W-ROAD.Downtown Library Art (Docent Tours).

Honorable Mentions: The Downtown Public Library, The Whiskey a Gogo, Busch gardens, Hollywood Blvd.

Whom would you choose to ask about their Five Places? Ingalill’s students, and also: Barbara Bestor, Doris Sung, Carmen Suero, Demar Matthews.

Interview Date: 08-08-23

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

Lawrence Weschler, “L.A. Glows,” The New Yorker, February 15, 1998.

Rebecca Ellis, Julia Wick, “Downtown L.A.’s Grand Park to be renamed in honor of longtime Supervisor Gloria Molina,” The Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2023.

Alissa Walker, “The Designer Who Helped Give LA its Look,” The New York Times’ T Magazine, December 17, 2013

Christopher Hawthorne, “Deborah Sussman Loves L.A. (and She Always Has),” Metropolis, March 12, 2014.

Ingalill Wahlroos-Ritter, “DEBORAH SUSSMAN (1931–2014),” ARTFORUM, October 15, 2014

Oliver Wainwright, “More is More: The Gaudy Genius of the Late Deborah Sussman,” The Guardian, August 27, 2014.

Diana Budds, “The Woman Who Made The 1984 Olympics A Masterpiece Of Design,” Fast Company, May 18, 2016.

The Los Angeles Olympics project overview, Sussman Prejza.

Emma Kemp, “Meet Angel City FC, the women’s team owned by Natalie Portman and a host of stars,” The Sydney Morning Herald, August 5, 2023.

HBO special on Angel City Football https://www.hbo.com/angel-city

Jen Carlson, “Photos: The Charming Mid-Century Dingbats Of Los Angeles,” LAist, Sep 7, 2015.

DINGBAT 2.0: THE ICONIC LOS ANGELES AS A PROJECTION OF METROPOLIS, a Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design publication

M. Nolan Gray, “The UCLA Students Who Live in Their Cars,” The Atlantic, August 3, 2023.

Liam Dillon, “‘Gimme Shelter’: California’s housing crisis forces college students into homelessness,” The Los Angeles Times, Nov 17, 2022.

Visual Intelligence by Amy Sherman, with a Deborah Sussman graphic design on the cover

KCRW Sounds LA

Credits:

Ingalill’s headshot photo: Monica Nouwens (graphic treatment by Anali Gharakhani)

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Quynh Nguyen

Creator, Executive Producer, and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.

www.laforum.org

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This is our third “plus-one” interview. In each episode, we ask our interviewees to name someone whom they in turn would choose to ask about the five places that define Los Angeles for them. Artist Laurie Lipton, our Episode 08 guest, chose art critic Shana Nys Dambrot as her plus one, and this is their wonderful conversation.

Show notes and Shana’s five places:

Chateau Marmont (in the 80s and 90s).
Self Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine (Palisades).
Downtown Library Art (Docent Tours).
Getty Villa (and Getty Center).
L.A. Flower Mart, and Shana recommends the Poppy and Rose cafe next door.

Honorable Mention: Tales of the American (documentary on the American Hotel).

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode:

William Douglas Lee, architect of the Chateau Marmont

Art and Architecture of the Downtown Central Library and Maguire Gardens

Landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and his wife, famed choreographer Anna Halprin

The Mark Taper Forum at the Downtown Central Library

Fountain Design at the Downtown Central Library

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Creator and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash and Tongva land.

www.laforum.org

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Watch this episode on YouTube

Show notes and Gary ’s five places

Canter’s Deli
Fairfax district: Pan Pacific auditorium, Pan Pacific movie theatre, and bowling alley. Gilmore drive in, Kiddieland, Tail o’ the Pup, Original Farmer’s Market, CBS Studios. Many of the buildings Gary remembers no longer exist. This neighborhood guide and this post by The Hundreds dig into the history.
La Brea Tar Pits
The Witch’s House aka the Spadena House (though Gary nearly chose “his hill” in Griffith Park)
Musso + Frank

Related Links / Also Mentioned in this episode

Discover more of Gary’s work on his website and instagram

Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”: The New Yorker’s view of Los Angeles

Remembering Beverly Park and Kiddieland

Beverly Park and Ponyland: The 'Kiddieland' that Inspired Walt Disney

The Carol Burnett show, and The Price is Right.

The Formosa Café

Genghis Cohen

Chateau Marmont

The Griffith Observatory

The Mamas & The Papas

Jim Heimann and his many books on California

History and photos of the Pan Pacific Auditorium (1935, architects Wurdeman & Becket) and Pan Pacific Movie Theatre (opened 1942, architect William L. Pereira).

A Pan Pacific history from the perspective of Scotty Moore, studio and touring guitarist for Elvis Presley between 1954 and 1968.

Annie Hall driving scene in which the Gilmore drive-in appears at timestamp 1:06

CBS television City (1952, architects Pereira & Luckman)

The tastes that define LA for Gary Baseman: The martini at Musso &Frank; the potato knish with gravy, or the chocolate rugelach at Canter's, the enchiladas Howard at El Coyote.

Credits:

All photos © Gary Baseman 2023 unless otherwise noted

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Creator and Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

www.laforum.org

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Show notes and Julie’s five places:

This interview was recorded on March 30, 2023

Beach (ex: Santa Monica beach)
Topography of hills and plains (as you might see from the Griffith Observatory): a mythical place with elusive edges
Distinctive and walkable neighborhoods (Santa Monica, Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, Arts District, Atwater Village, mid-Wilshire, pockets of the Valley, Sierra Madre, West Ventura) Cuernavaca café on Ventura avenue.
Strip malls, with their ephemeral signage, and Park’s barbecue in particular
Homeless encampments

Also mentioned in this episode/related links:

KoningEizenberg on instagram

KoningEizenberg firm overview video

LA Times neighborhood mapping project - most of the distinctive and walkable neighborhoods mentioned by Julie are included in this project.

Disney Concert Hall

Eames House (Case Study House No.8)

Reyner Banham and Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies

Jonathan Gold

Joan Didion on Driving as Secular Worship and Self-Transcendence (The Marginalian)

Julie Eizenberg interviewed in Madame Architect

The Right Touch, article on KoningEizenberg by Christopher Hawthorne in Metropolis Magazine

Five Places L.A. LISTENER SURVEY!

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

www.laforum.org

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Show notes and Ron ’s five places

Grand Central Market
Griffith Park, with its archery range, zoo, and Autry Museum
Huntington Library and Gardens
Silverlake and Sunset Junction, Tabasco’s, Cliff’s Edge (closed but maybe reopening), Catch one, Pacific Dining Car

Also mentioned in this episode/ related links

Five Places L.A. LISTENER SURVEY!

The Grapes of Wrath

Hemet and Pomona

Mark Steger

John Rechy

James Ellroy

Guardian article on the 2028 Olympics by Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin: Los Angeles has already ceded too much power to the Olympic machine

Versailles Cuban chicken

The unincorporated community ofZzyzx, California.

Rita D’Albert

Christopher Knight’s LA Times review of Athey’s 2012 show “Queer Communion: Ron Athey” at ICA LA: Review: ‘Queer Communion’ and the engrossing, squirm-inducing world of Ron Athey

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Show notes and Laurie’s five places:

This interview was recorded on December 22, 2022

The Getty Museum
LACMA
Pacific Coast Highway aka California State Route 1 and 3b. Hummingbirds
The Pacific Ocean, the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. And that famous L.A. light quality, as described by Patt Morrison in the L.A. Times: You’ve noticed it, right? There’s just something about L.A.’s light
Trader Joe’s (and fresh produce in general, especially avocados!)

Also mentioned in this episode:

The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck

Art for art’s sake

“Happy”, the painting behind Laurie during the interview

Shayna Nys Dambrot

Related Links

Love Bite: Laurie Lipton and Her Disturbing Black & White Drawings, a documentary film by James Scott

Newest Book: LAURIE LIPTON drawing

Website: www.laurielipton.com

On instagram: @laurieliptondrawings

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Monica Lamela for her extraordinary video editing skills

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

www.laforum.org

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Show notes and Frances’ five places:

This interview was recorded on December 29, 2022

The Sixth street replacement viaduct
Santa Monica Pier
Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation
Schindler House
Outdoor dining in Los Angeles

Also mentioned in this episode:

April Greiman

Deborah Sussman

To The Point hosted by Warren Olney on KCRW

Which Way L.A. hosted by Warren Olney on KCRW

Michael Sorkin, the architecture critic who was originally assigned to the project that brought Frances to L.A., and who died of the coronavirus in 2020.

From the L.A. Times: 6th Street bridge: A civic wonder that reflects L.A.'s promise and its simmering problems

From the L.A. Times: More than a bridge: Michael Maltzan’s 6th Street Viaduct addresses mistakes of L.A.'s past

From the New York Times: Los Angeles Enjoys Its New Bridge a Little Too Much

Patti Smith at the Santa Monica Pier (one of many appearances).

“‘Rewilding’ the land brings back birds, bees, butterflies” by Frances Anderton on KCRW.com

An L.A. Times piece on the surge in outdoor dining brought on by the pandemic: The year of the party tent: What the age of COVID taught us about architecture in 2021

Related links:

Read: Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles, Frances’ redefinition of "home" in the Southland.

Watch: 40 Years of Building Community, a short film Frances co-produced about Community Corp of Santa Monica.

Listen: Audio tour of buildings in Common Ground, with KCRW's Steve Chiotakis; Q + A with KPCC's Larry Mantle about Common Ground and why he loved apartment living in L.A..

Credits:

This podcast is produced by a small team of volunteers at the LA Forum. To keep us going and growing, we’d greatly appreciate your support! Please subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen, and share with friends and colleagues. Or, make a donation at www.fiveplaces.la. Thank you for listening.

All images of “Common Ground: Multi-family Housing in Los Angeles © Angel City Press 2022

Opening video © Emmanuelle Bourlier 2023

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadoopabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

www.laforum.org

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Carribean Fragoza is a fiction writer and journalist from South El Monte, CA. Her collection of stories Eat the Mouth That Feeds You was published in 2021 by City Lights and was a finalist for a 2022 PEN Award. Her co-edited compilation of essays, East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte was published by Rutgers University Press and her forthcoming collection of essays Writing Home: New Terrains of California will be published by Angel City Press in 2023. She has published in Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, Zyzzyva, Alta, BOMB, Huizache, KCET, the Los Angeles Review of Books, ArtNews, and Aperture Magazine. She is the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine and Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Editor at Boom California, a journal of UC Press. Fragoza is the founder and co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse, an interdisciplinary arts collective. She lives in the San Gabriel Valley in Greater Los Angeles.

Carribean’s five places

The Starlite swap meet (reached via Rush Street in El Monte)
Legg lake in Whittier Narrows Park. A hike and a fishing guide.
Los Callejones and Santee Alley
Car wash taco eateries. We were unable to find links to the El Monte place referenced by Carribean, but here are Deliciosas Pupusas in El Sereno, and other car wash tacos are discussed by L.A. Taco (Macho’s tacos), and LA eater.
The warehouse district, now known as the (ahem) Arts District. More here, by the L.A. conservancy.

Also Mentioned in this episode

Designer Miguel Barragan

Carolina Miranda’s LA Times piece on Rafa Esparsa’s callejones performance

Carribean’s books:

Eat the Mouth That Feeds You

East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte

Credits:

Opening video © Emmanuelle Bourlier 2022

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadupabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Nina Briggs, Anne Predock

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Kizh, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

www.laforum.org

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Lisa ’s five places

Adams district and the Golden State Life Insurance Building by Paul R. Williams, who was also featured in Episode 01 with Carolina Miranda.
Laurel Canyon and its music history.
Venice and the Venice Canals.
Baldwin Hills with its scenic overlook and steps and Kenneth Hahn State Park, adjacent to the Crenshaw District and Leimert Park.
Downtown LA, with Chinatown, Union Station, The Flower Market, and adjacent Silverlake/Echo Park.

Also Mentioned in this episode

Canter’s Deli on Fairfax

Gorky’s – now closed

Hank’s bar – now closed

Musso and Frank’s – still open!

The Frolic Room – temporarily closed

Books mentioned in this episode:

available through Eso Won bookstore: Instagram @esowonbooks / Email to place orders: esowonbooks@yahoo.com

City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, by Mike Davis

After/Image: Los Angeles Outside the Frame, by Lynell George

Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the sixties, by Mike Davis and Jon Weiner

Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era, by Alison Rose Jefferson

Glow in the Dark, by Lisa Teasley

Dive, by Lisa Teasley

Heat Signature, by Lisa Teasley

Related links:

A Place at the Table in Echo Park, Alta Journal, September 29, 2022. Author and artist Lisa Teasley looks at Natalia Molina’s A Place at the Nayarit, through her own experience of Echo Park over the years.

Glossolalia, by Lisa Teasley, Kweli Journal, August 30, 2022.

The Only Black Person in the Room, by Lisa Teasley, Parabola Journal, July 28, 2022.

The Castle in the Trees, August 2020, for the L.A. Forum’s Every.Thing.Changes exhibition.

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadupabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Nina Briggs, Anne Predock

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Kizh, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

www.laforum.org

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A short message from Five Places host Emmanuelle Bourlier, including an even shorter clip from Episode Three with Sam Lubell, executive editor of Metropolis magazine.

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Natasha ’s five places

L.A. Birria, West Adams
Bluffs Park in Malibu
Musso and Frank
Dodger Stadium
The Cornfield Park

Also Mentioned in this episode

D.J. Waldie on the history of the term Angeleno

Lobster rolls at Broad Street Oyster Co. in Malibu

Dodgers Stadium becomes a site for mass vaccinations

Highland Park Brewery

Common Space Brewery

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Sam ’s five places

Bahooka and Rufus the fish. Bahooka closing, and video tour. Rufus the Pacu fish eating a carrot.
Carousel restaurant and Sam’s New York Times piece about amazing food in strip malls.
Elysian Park, Griffith Park, and the LA Police Academy Garden
The Bonaventure Hotel
The Magic Castle

Also Mentioned in this episode

“Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

Watts Towers

Farnam House Santa Monica

Slab City and Salvation Mountain near Salton Sea

Hollywood vibe restaurants: Musso & Frank, Clifton’s, The Dresden

Los Angeles City Hall

The Broad Museum

Also see: “Elizabeth Diller’s designs on the Broad draw from architect’s avant-garde eye” by Episode One guest, LA Times Art & Architecture writer Carolina Miranda

Walt Disney Concert Hall and Frank Gehry on the Architecture of LA's Disney Concert Hall

Guggenheim Bilbao

Centre Pompidou, and the Kandisky Library

Sixth Street Viaduct

Sam Lubell’s LA Times piece about SoFi stadium. Episode One guest Carolina Miranda wrote about SoFi Stadium’s 5 best places and also about the stadium’s lack of representation of Black artists.

The LACMA debate covered by the LA Times

Books authored by Sam Lubell

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Lizzie Armanto’s Five Places:

The Cove skatepark: Official website / IG page, with announcements about girls sessions
Galco’s soda pop stop. If you know about the “atom” drink that was Lizzie’s favorite, please reach out to us!
The bridges over the LA river and the tunnels, in particular the 2nd street tunnel where many movies were filmed. Note that this episode was recorded before the 6th street viaduct opened on July 09, 2022. Thenew viaduct was designed by architect Michael Maltzan and engineer Deborah Weintraub to be not only functional and beautiful, but become a public space in its own right. From the Metropolis article: “ When the City of Los Angeles officially opened the new 6th Street Viaduct on July 9, a crowd of Angelenos swarmed the bridge deck, much the way New Yorkers had celebrated John A. Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge in 1883. It’s rare for a piece of civic infrastructure to get such a welcome. But the original 1932 6th Street Bridge was the most revered of the fourteen historic bridges crossing the Los Angeles River, and the new bridge, called the “Ribbon of Light” by its architect Michael Maltzan, came to embody a feeling of communal pride during the years of waiting for the span to reappear. “
The original Farmer’s Market, with its annual Mardi Gras celebration.
El Coyote Café, built in 1931.

Other links:

Lizzie on instagram

You may notice a pair of crutches behind Lizzie in the podcast video. Two months before, in October 2020, she had broken her femur during a devastating slam. She kept it quiet during her recovery and spoke about it in an exclusive on the Hawk v. Wolf podcast:Lizzie Armanto on her Devastating Slam, the Path to Recovery, & Overcoming Adversity

Thrasher magazine “cold call” video: “Lizzie’s got a green thumb and a deep bag of moves on her backyard ramp. Check the session with Burman, Ronnie, Axel and Allysha joining the jam.”

We very briefly touched on the complex issue of the unhoused. A few LA-based information and action resources: the Skid Row Housing Trust, which “provides permanent supportive housing so that people who have experienced homelessness, prolonged extreme poverty, poor health, disabilities, mental illness and/or addiction can lead safe, stable lives in wellness.” And The UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, which “advances radical democracy in an unequal world through research, critical thought, and alliances with social movements and racial justice activism”, and provides research and resources on housing justice.

Skateboarding and Precalculus: An Unlikely Pairing Made Possible by Olympian Lizzie Armanto

Vanguards | Style, Creativity and Skateboarding Their Own Way (VANS): Featuring Vans skateboarders Lizzie Armanto, Yndiara Asp, Mami Tezuka and Brighton Zeuner

Lizzie Armanto is the first female skater to complete Tony Hawk’s 360 loop. More on the loop and the events of that day here.

Dogtown, the birthplace of skating

Rip city skate shop: Santa Monica’s classic skate shop since 1978

Show credits

Videos of Lizzie skating (all videos except our intro video): courtesy of @LizzieArmanto

Special thanks to Brian Adams and Rick Boisdeau for making the Cove skatepark such an amazing place, and for putting us in touch with Lizzie.

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com/)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadupabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen, Jayna Zweiman

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Nina Briggs, Anne Predock

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Kizh, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

View Details

Show notes and Carolina’s five places:

Carolina’s article on the “Low Rise: Housing Ideas for Los Angeles” competition, referencing Panorama City.

1. The Psychic Center of LA.* Its proximity to the freeway, and LA’s freeways in general. Carolina references Reyner Banham, whose book “Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies” and the accompanying documentary “Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles” are referenced in her article “Drive-throughs and drive-ins were fading. Coronavirus made them a lifeline*”.

Also mentioned are Lisa Anne Auerbach’s photos of psychic establishments, in particular this one of the Psychic Center abutting the freeway.

2. La Brea Tar Pits, and the mammoths. (Also, Carry that Weight by the Beatles is mentioned.)

3. LAX theme building (and the now-defunctNude Nudes). Sam First jazz bar is also mentioned.

4. Improvised drive throughs and snack-shacks (and a less improvised drive-in church.) Special mentions:

Chano’s Mexican drive through in Lincoln heights, where the machaca con huevo burrito is Carolina’s favorite in Los Angeles.

Christ Cathedral complex, and related places: Neutra’s Garden Grove community church, Isamu Noguchi gardens, the Hour of Power opening sequence on YouTube and Taco Maria.

5. The Stahl House by Pierre Koenig. Carolina Miranda’s piece on Paul Revere Williams, and on his archive being acquired by the Getty. The Golden State life insurance building.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Carolina’s piece on Chilean architecture.

Avila adobe house on Olvera street

Piece by Alexandra Lange on declaring this the summer of play

East of East collection

Caribbean Fragoza

Outtake: The work of Carolina Miranda’s husband, painter El Celso is discussed. Instagram: @elcels0

Credits:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com/)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadupabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen, Jayna Zweiman

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Nina Briggs, Anne Predock

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Kizh, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

View Details

Interviewees featured in the trailer, in order of appearance:

CAROLINA A. MIRANDA, journalist, LA Times | instagram twitter

FRANCES ANDERTON, journalist, author, radio host | instagram twitter

ANTONIO X. PACHECO, writer, editor, historian | instagram twitter

SOURIS HONG, author, co-founder Creative Cabal | instagram twitter

LIZZIE ARMANTO, professional skateboarder | instagram

NATASHA CASE, founder and CEO, Coolhaus | instagram

LISA TEASLEY, artist, author | instagram twitter

RON ATHEY, performance artist | instagram twitter

J. YOLANDE DANIELS, architect, historian | instagram

JAYNA ZWEIMAN, artist, activist, Pussyhat, Welcome Blanket | instagram twitter

LAUREN DANDRIDGE GAINES, educator, co-founder Chromatic | instagram

CREDITS:

Logo design: still room (www.still-room.com/)

Animated logo: Bee Murphy (@supadupabee on Instagram)

Music: Guido Parisi, www.pond5.com

Produced by: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design

Production team: Emmanuelle Bourlier, Anali Gharakhani, Quynh Nguyen, Jayna Zweiman

Host: Emmanuelle Bourlier

Special thanks to: Nina Briggs, Anne Predock

This podcast was recorded on Chumash, Kizh, Tongva and Micqanaqa’n land.

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Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, Emmanuelle Bourlier