Los Angeles Design Festival > June 14 through June 30

It's that time of year again! To help combat that pesky June gloom, the Los Angeles Design Festival lights up the city this month, with events, parties, tours, panels, and general design goodness taking over the town from June 14 to June 30. This year de LaB is once again thrilled to be a partner, and we're happily pointing the way to several festival events which feature de LaB friends and collaborators. Click the links for more information, or check the Los Angeles Design Festival website for the full schedule. Happy festivaling!

Dwell on Design Eastside Home Tour
June 16, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
As part of Dwell on Design, this home tour takes you inside five different homes on our side of town (including a few featured on our home tour if you missed it!).

Paper Gone Wild

June 20 and June 27, 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Head to Ilan Dei Studio in Venice Beach for these crafty workshops showcasing the possibilities of paper, taught by architect and designer Aaron Neubert.

American Cement Building Studio Tour

June 21, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Step inside the iconic Westlake building for a peek inside the studios of eight architecture firms, sponsored by our friends at The Architect's Newspaper.

AIA LA Design Conference

June 22 and 23, 9:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Now in its sixth year, this two-day conference focuses on financial value to the built environment and enhancing well-being through the power of design.

Dwell on Design

June 22, 23 and 24

The West Coast's premiere design event includes a massive trade show at the LA Convention Center, plus panels, parties and workshops.

Cake Off at Materials & Applications
June 23, 2:00 to 8:00 p.m.
The 10th anniversary gala for one of our favorite Silver Lake institutions features an architectural bike ride followed by a raffle of cakes made by famous local architects.

Big Parade Mashup Walk
June 24, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Follow Big Parade leader Dan Koeppel on this 12-mile walk through ramps, freeways, tunnels and a few Victorians. Plenty of mini-loops for those who don't want to do the whole walk.

Andrew Byrom In Conversation
June 29, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Remember our awesome tour of the Eames Words exhibition at the A+D Museum? Meet the co-curator, typographer and experience designer behind this and many other projects.

Chinatown Design Night
June 30, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The festival closes with a celebration in Chinatown featuring many of the studios, galleries and stores we've visited on our Design-n-Dim Sum tours over the years.

June Recap > Design-n-Dim Sum Bike Ride

For the fourth (?) year in a row, de LaBbers took to the streets for our annual Design-n-Dim Sum bike ride. With nearly 75 (!) riders this year, we were led through Highland Park by the inimitable DJ Chicken Leather and our friends from Flying Pigeon Bike Shop.

First stop on the tour was Caine's Arcade - the immensely popular DIY cardboard arcade built by nine-year old Caine Monroy in his father's used auto parts store. After a couple rounds of Foursquare with Caine and a few fun passes purchased, we hopped back on our bikes to head towards Chinatown for the second and third stops on our tour.

After locking up 75 or so bikes we walked to Alexis Readinger's studio at architecture firm Preen.  While you may not have heard of Preen, you have probably eaten in a restaurant designed by the firm, including Hatfield's, Akasha, and the upcoming Umami Burger in Thousand Oaks.

And if you live in Silver Lake, you may remember the saga of Alexis' African grey parrot Lola, who flew the coop and was covered in the LA Times.

The next stop on our tour was a visit to artist Zoe Crosher's studio in Mandarin Plaza. Taking up two storefronts, Zoe's space houses her photography studio and office. Zoe talked about some of her earlier, LA-related series, including Out the Window (LAX), a collection of photos of planes landing at LAX from every hotel on Century Blvd, and LA-LIKE: Transgressing the Pacific, a series of haunting photographs of locations where famous Angelenos (both real and fictional) disappeared off the coast.

Our final stop before heading back to Flying Pigeon was dim sum at Golden Dragon, a much deserved lunch after a few hours of riding.

Thanks to all the riders who came out on a sunny Sunday! And thanks especially to Josef at Flying Pigeon, Nirvan at Caine's Arcade, Caine and his dad, Alexis at Preen and Zoe! And thanks to the staff at Golden Dragon for getting us some dumplings post haste. See you all next year!