de LaB: LA Forum

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

November 8 > Grand Park Night Tour > Downtown LA

Since its grand opening on this month, Grand Park has made quite a splash in LA quickly becoming our city's official backyard. If you missed the block party and dancers, here's your chance to explore LA's newest urban oasis. Join us for a special tour in collaboration with LA Forum as part of their Supercession series. We can't promise choreographed dancers, but Tony Paradowski of Rios Clementi Hale Studios will be on hand to give us the guided tour and the inside story on how this amazing park came to be.

One of the biggest parks in all of Los Angeles, the 12-acre Grand Park stretches from The Music Center on the west to City Hall on the east. Under the direction of the county, Grand Park was developed by Related Companies with an award-winning creative team, including landscape architect, Rios Clementi Hale Studios; general contractor, Charles Pankow Builders; environmental graphic design firm, Sussman/Prejza; and fountain design consultants, Fluidity. Grand Park was also recently awarded The Building Team of the Year award by AIA Los Angeles.

Meet in front of the fountain. It will be dark so bring headlamps or flashlights. We'll provide glow sticks.

Tickets: General admission $10, buy tickets HERE to reserve a spot on the tour. LA Forum Members are FREE and Students admission is $5 but you will have to register on-site.
When: Thursday, November 8th 7pm to 8:30pm
Where: 210 N. Grand Avenue, LA, CA 90012 (Metro: Civic Center). More info on getting there, HERE.

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Photo via LA Times, Los Angeles Grand Avenue Authority

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

What To Do In April > Three Great Design Events

If you can't make it to our de LaB outings to the Tile House April 9th or to the Julius Shulman book signing on April 15th, be sure to check out these other great events this weekend!

Silent Disco: Friday night, join de LaB board member Barbara Bestor at the opening of her show at SCI-Arc, Silent Disco. The gallery space has been transformed into a place where architecture students can slip away from the rigor of academia and experience a legitimate disco experience, featuring everything from a simulated mirror ball and lasers (yes, lasers!), to a downloadable soundtrack. That starts at 7:00pm on Friday, April 1.

Heartbeat Japan: A fundraising event to benefit Architecture for Humanity, Japan. Stop by Saturday afternoon to see Sasaki transform the human heartbeat into futuristic fine art. Get your very own heartbeat drawing or have your ticker added to a larger canvas. 100% of donations go directly to disaster relief. Hosted by Materials & Applications (1619 Silver Lake Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026). Check out a video of Sasaki in action here.

LA ForumFest: Hosted at the St. Thomas the Apostle school recently completed by Griffin Enright Architects, this annual fundraiser will include tours of the building with the architects, a silent book auction, and the exciting announcement of a new annual event in honor of former LA Forum board member and great friend of de LaB, the late John Chase. de LaB, in collaboration with KCRW's DnA: Design and Architecture, will be hosting an architectural walking tour of John Chase's West Hollywood on May 21st, John's birthday, with a group of his friends, family, and collaborators. We're looking still looking for more stories about John and the buildings he helped enable. If you know of a structure or a project that should be included on the tour, let us know at hello[at]designeastoflabrea.org. Come out to ForumFest Saturday night to show your support for John's legacy. Purchase tickets here.

About de LaB

(that’s: design east of La Brea)
part design lab, part social experiment

de LaB (dee-lab) is a Los Angeles-based 501(c)3 nonprofit that celebrates and supports local creatives in their efforts to enlighten, improve and engage the city. Through monthly events that are educational and inspirational, de LaB unites an enthusiastic community of local residents who are invested in the future of L.A.

We firmly believe that the east side of Los Angeles is home to the most exciting creative community in the world. We hope to bring exposure to its artists, designers and architects—both legendary and emerging—through events, workshops and public engagement projects that focus on building a better L.A. Through these events, we explore the changing urban environment, discover new projects and ideas, and learn more about the city in which we live, helping us to become more passionate, invested Angelenos.

Want to know more about what we do? Here's a list of the events we hosted in 2012, a list of the events we hosted in 2011 and a list of the events we hosted in 2010.

Join us on Facebook, won’t you?

Follow us on Twitter.

We're now on Instagram!

Or say hello [at] designeastoflabrea.org.

If you're coming to an event, tag your photos wherever you post them with #delab so we can include them in our newsletter.

And please add them to our Flickr pool.

About Your Hosts

ALISSA WALKER//Alissa writes about design, architecture, cities and transportation for publications like Fast Company, GOOD, Dwell, Sunset, and is the associate producer for the public radio show "DnA: Design and Architecture," hosted by Frances Anderton. She is a frequent collaborator with GOOD, most recently as curator of a series of events called GOOD Design, where designers solve city problems proposed by urban leaders. Alissa lives in a royal blue house in Silver Lake where she throws ice cream socials, tends to a drought-tolerant garden, writes infrequently but obsessively on her blog, Gelatobaby, and relishes life in LA without a car. Follow her at @gelatobaby

HAILY ZAKI//A creative at heart, Haily Zaki satisfies her love for modern design by promoting great companies doing interesting things. She launched Secret Agent PR in 2008 with the specific mission of infiltrating the media in the name of good design. She is also a co-founder of the Los Angeles Design Festival and an erstwhile contributor to Inhabitat and The Architect's Newspaper. In her spare time, she blogs about her adventures on the Intel Report and is the proud mom of a ridiculously precocious little boy and a 90-lb. pitbull. Follow her at @SecretAgentPR

MARISSA GLUCK//As co-founder and managing partner at media consultancy, Radar Research, Marissa Gluck is a writer, speaker and consultant covering the marketing and media industries. Marissa became interested in Los Angeles' architecture as she was completing her master's thesis for The London School of Economics and USC. Thus began a love affair with LA's buildings, sushi and sun. In her spare time, Marissa writes about LA real estate, architecture and urban planning for the LA Times, The Atlantic Cities, and LA mag, volunteers as a docent for the Schindler House in West Hollywood, and chases after late night taco trucks. Follow her at @marissagluck

ERIN CULLERTON//Erin is the founder of Design Agency Co., a boutique pr firm specializing in communications, strategy and cultural engagement for the design industry. A newfound lover of Los Angeles' rolling hills, Erin is the former Assistant Director of AIA San Francisco and creator of the popular Architecture and the City festival. A consummate advocate for good design, Erin serves on advisory committees for The Architect's Newspaper, A+D Museum, and Southern California Architecture and Design Consortium; is an honorary AIA SF member; and an occasional curator, writer and crafter. Follow her at @designagencyco

de Lab logo by Keith Scharwath