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An Evening of Urbanism with Frances Anderton & Josh Stephens
July 27, 2023 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Helms Design Center – 8745 Washington Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
An Evening of Urbanism:
Frances Anderton & Josh Stephens
Thursday, July 27th, 2023
Helms Design Center
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm PDT
RSVP Required!
Members Register Here
Nonmembers Register Here
Los Angeles was built imperfectly, at an imperfect time. Now it is trying to reinvent itself. Into what?
That’s Topic A for authors Frances Anderton (Common Ground: Multifamily Housing in Los Angeles) and Josh Stephens (The Urban Mystique) when they sit down to talk about Los Angeles, community and urbanity today – from the house to the megalopolis.
As “home” moves from the suburbs to thoroughfares and backyards, Frances considers how to sustain the region’s vaunted easy living – by adapting LA’s legacy of innovative, bucolic and socially centered multifamily housing. Meanwhile, Josh tries to make sense of the cultural, political and real estate interests that make “shoehorning a new city into the old” so frustrating, and so fascinating.
They will take on the struggles over housing, the clash of scales that shape LA’s cityscape, the arterial development that offers the chance for enlivened streets, and the “zoning, floor-to-air ratios, density, NIMBY-ism, YIMBY-ism and all manner of arcane, acronym-laden planning ideas” that, in Josh’s words, shape our idiosyncratic Southland.
Please join the Westside Urban Forum on the evening of Thursday, July 27, for a discussion between Josh and Frances to explore the ways that design, planning, policy, and culture intersect — and reveal ways Los Angeles can learn from its past.
The event will open with refreshments and viewing of Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip Hop Architecture, an exhibition co-presented by Helms Bakery District, SoCal NOMA and A+D Museum.
Registration Fees
$10 WUF Members
$15 Non-Members
Pre-registration closes on Wednesday, July 26, at 4:00 PM. Onsite registration will be available at the cost of an additional $10. No refunds or credits will be provided after this day.