“Failed public space… a zone of repulsion… where retail goes to die.”

Such is the perceived wisdom about the Los Angeles Mall, an underappreciated and underutilized shopping, dining and public plaza development which is in the cross-hairs of the same City Council-driven redevelopment plan that calls for the demolition of Welton Becketâ€s Parker Center.

Join us for an afternoon exploring the history, integrated artwork and possibilities of a cultural landscape that is worth reconsidering – before itâ€s too late! This Sunday Salon and walking tour will be hosted by Richard Schave & Nathan Marsak with contributions from Joseph Youngâ€s daughters, Cecily & Leslie Young.

The entire Los Angeles Civic Center, which includes the Los Angeles Mall, is being re-imagined, and the Civic Center Master Plan (PDF link) has just been approved. The Master Plan calls for the the Department of Cultural Affairs to produce a report on the public art in the Los Angeles Mall (The Public Art District Plan) which is sensitive to its history and comprehensive in scope. We believe this document should set a new bar for how DCA is to take the lead on advocating for and preserving public art throughout Los Angeles.

The goal of this Sunday Salon is identify and to advocate for the public art and landscape of the Los Angeles Mall, and for Joseph Youngâ€s “Theme Mural of Los Angeles” (1955), slated for removal, restoration and relocation, in the adjacent, soon-to-be-demolished Parker Center.

The Los Angeles Mall was constructed between 1973 and 1975 and occupies 1.5 square blocks on the east side of City Hall, from Main to Los Angeles Street, running north to Aliso. Stanton & Stockwell were the architects, and the landscape architects were Cornell, Bridgers, Troller and Hazlett. The two plazas which make up the mall are surrounded by civic buildings. At Temple Street, a stunning 120†cantilevered pedestrian bridge by the Mallâ€s landscape architect Howard Troller and artist Tom Van Sant connects the plazas.

The South Plaza, dominated by the Brutalist City Hall East, includes the Eleanor Chambers Memorial Fountain (also known as Dan-de-lion for its effect when running) designed by Howard Troller and Hanns Scharff. A sunken palm court features Jan Peter Sternâ€s stainless steel Cubed Square and arcing paths which lead off to retail and food court options in the subterranean North and South Malls. There are four levels of below-ground parking.

The North Plaza, called Fletcher Bowron Square after the reformer mayor (served 1938-53), is defined by Joseph Youngâ€s neglected 60-foot-tall Triforium (1975) a free-standing computerized sound and light sculpture comprised of 1,500 blown-glass prisms synchronized to an electronic glass bell carillon. The adjacent sunken plaza has a food court, a collection of mature palms, and the Robert J. Stevenson Fountain, which consists of a carved and painted obelisk set in a tiled pool of centrifugal jets.

Doug Dunn is a specialist in legacy, enterprise, and proprietary computers. In practice, this really just means anything that is not a server, desktop, laptop, or phone – in other words, “weird computers”. Starting as an e-waste reseller in college, he turned a fascination with computing history into a career path. After an unsatisfying stint with a tech “start up”, he decided to start his own business focusing on support for the IBM AS/400 and z/System product lines. Legacy computing consultation is a very niche field, so he hopes to get some high-profile exposure from his first major project, the Triforium restoration. During the initial review, he found the original paper software tapes, and believe that the system can be made to appear functionally identical to its intended design.

Come explore a true time capsule of Imperial California and get to know this endangered landscape and its integrated artwork, fixtures and vistas while you still can.

The LAVA Sunday Salon is delighted to welcome back the esteemed poet and educator Suzanne Lummis as she curates a third series of Poem Noir readings.

Starting in the basement of Grand Central Market, Suzanne will describe the defining characteristics of this poetry, whose dark themes, atmosphere, and voice of cool detachment are inspired by the low budget black-and-white crime movies of the 1940s and 1950s. Then weâ€ll move across the street to the Bradbury Building for the Poem Noir readings, presented by a star-studded lineup of poets.

ABOUT THE SALON: On the last Sunday of the month starting at 2pm, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles for the Sunday Salon, featuring a presentation by a LAVA Visionary and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. Immediately after the Salon, a walking tour expands on the Salon theme. If youâ€re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community.

Presenters

D. W. JACOBS is a playwright, director, actor and poet. He wrote R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE, a play based on the life, work and writings of Buckminster Fuller. This play has had over 1,000 performances in Southern California, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, Seattle, Santa Fe, Boston/Cambridge, Washington, D.C., Asheville, N.C., Atlanta, Montreal and Poland. Jacobs has twice lectured on Fuller at the Wrocław University of Technology in Poland. He lives in Highland Park, Los Angeles, where he co-founded TEATRO ARROYO // Theater Stream (a performance division of the Arroyo Arts Collective.) He also co-founded San Diego Repertory Theatre, where he served as Artistic Director for 20 years.

BETH RUSCIO is part of a large working class family of artists, actors, writers and vaudevillians. Sheâ€s a poet, an accomplished award-winning actress (upcoming in the romantic comedy feature film The Unicorn) and a one-time playwright, co-writing 1961 Eldorado with husband Leon Martell. In 2016, her manuscript Hollywood Forever Cemetery won both Honorable Mention for The Two Sylvias Prize, and was a finalist for the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize (Tupelo Press). Her work has appeared in California Journal of Poetics, Tupelo Quarterly, Cultural Weekly, The Malpais Review, In Posse Review, Spillway, Speechless the Magazine, and is anthologized in Beyond The Lyric Moment; Poetâ€s Calendar; Conducting A Life: Maria Irene Fornes and upcoming in 1001 Nights. She will read from her newest manuscript on KPFKâ€s broadcast of Why Poetry on February 18 at 4:30PM.

SUZANNE LUMMIS (organizer) has for many years been one of the best-known poets associated with California and the Los Angeles region, and is among those poets exploring the “poem noir.” She created and teaches a class “poem noir.” She created and teaches a class for the UCLA Extension Writers Program, “Poetry Goes to the Movies: Writing the Poem Noir,” and her essays “The Poem Noir: Too Dark to be Depressed,” and “Never Out of the Past: Noir and the Poetry of Lynda Hull” were published by Malpais Review and The Los Angeles Review of Books respectively. They Write by Night, her video series produced by www.Poetry.LA, will debut in February. Lummis’ most recent poetry collection, Open 24 Hours, received the Blue Lynx Poetry Prize.

Fanny Daubigny is a writer, critic and translator. She is the author of numerous articles on Marcel Proust, J.M.G LeClézio and Marthe Bibesco and her articles have appeared in numerous literary reviews such as, Los Angeles Review of Books, French Forum, Bulletin des Amis de Marcel Proust. Her genre-bending essay ‘Proust in Black’ (Notes on LA noir) will be published in the Fall by SDSU Press. She is currently working on the translation of the poetry of Suzanne Lummis. She lives in Los Angeles.

RESERVATIONS: The LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour are free, but reservations are required. There are no “plus ones,” so tell your friends to sign up individually. Please donâ€t reserve unless you plan to attend. To reserve your spot for this free event, click on the “Buy Tickets” button above.

For the first LAVA Sunday Salon of 2018, architectural historian Nathan Marsak (LAVAâ€s 2015 Visionary of the Year) will give an illustrated talk tracing how shifting aesthetic dicta from the chieftains of Good Taste morphed the way in which the lost Victorian neighborhood of Bunker Hill appeared and functioned. He will show that while the hillâ€s fabled descent into decrepitude and demolition is often touted as borne of social engineering and political transgressions, much of its history relates to how the arbiters of mores abandoned it as “lowbrow” after its construction.

Weâ€ll explore architectural styles including Eastlake and Queen Anne, Mansard and Mission, as they found and fell out of favor with the likes of Edward Bok and Elsie de Wolfe; investigate how Edith Wharton and The Munsters shaped and reflected the cultural milieu; and review the manner in which the Los Angeles Times mocked the hillâ€s architecture through the 1950s, prefiguring redevelopment by the CRA.

At the conclusion of the talk, weâ€ll take a walking tour of the immediate neighborhood, looking at extant buildings and visiting locations of lost ones featured in the presentation.

Photo: Martz Flats, Southeast Corner 7th & Hope in 1939. Built by Henry Martz. Julius V. Krause, architect, 1898.

ABOUT THE SALON: On the last Sunday of the month starting at 2pm, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles for the Sunday Salon, featuring a presentation by a LAVA Visionary and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. Immediately after the Salon, a walking tour expands on the Salon theme. If youâ€re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community.

RESERVATIONS: The LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour are free, but reservations are required. There are no “plus ones,” so tell your friends to sign up individually. Please donâ€t reserve unless you plan to attend. To reserve your spot for this free event, click on the “Buy Tickets” button above.

Join us as C.C. de Vere, creator of the Frenchtown Confidential blog, shines a light on the long-forgotten Gallic roots of the city of Los Angeles.

Did you know that French and French-Canadian newcomers outnumbered all other immigrants in 1850s Los Angeles… that the cityâ€s second-oldest hospital was called The French Hospital for over 125 years… that until the 1890s, French was the second most commonly spoken language (after Spanish)? At this month’s LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour, Frenchtown Confidential lives again.

C.C.’s short illustrated lecture begins at 2pm, and highlights some of the more famous locations and incidents covered in her blog. After the lecture, we will pack our gear and walk to the Plaza, to visit a number of significant Franco-Angeleno sites. Attendees should arrive on time and immediately check in at the LAVA table, and be prepared to make a walk of a little over a mile.

At the end of C.C.’s talk, and just before we leave for the Plaza, Fanny Daubigny, a French-born, Los Angeles–based writer, will read an excerpt of her forthcoming book ‘Proust in Black’. She teaches at CSUF and is the author of numerous articles on Marcel Proust. Fanny is also currently working on a translation of Suzanne Lummis†poems.

Register by following the “buy tickets” link above. Each attendee must be registered with their own name and unique email address.

UPDATE: We are pleased to announce that Dion Neutra will be joining us at the LAVA Sunday Salon on the mid-century Public Art of the Civic Center. Clare Haggerty, deputy Director of Collections for the LA County Arts Commission will co-host the event with LAVA’s Richard Schave. Dion Neutra will speak to his father Richard Neutra’s architectural legacy at the Hall of Records (1958). The Hall of Records is also where Joseph Young’s “Topographic Map” is installed. The artist’s daughters Leslie & Cecily Young will be talking about their father’s work, and conservator Donna Williams will discuss her current restoration of “Topographic Map.”

Please join us as LAVA welcomes Clare Haggarty, the Deputy Director of Collections for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and Richard Schave, for a tour of civic art in the Civic Center. Special guests: Cecily & Leslie Young, the daughters of artist Joseph Young, whose iconic mid-century artwork is featured on the tour, and conservator Donna Williams, who is presently restoring Youngâ€s “Topographic Map” at the Hall of Records.

Richard will begin the afternoon with an illustrated lecture focusing on the rich architectural legacy of Downtown L.A.‘s civic center, including the Hall of Administration (1958), Mosk Courthouse (1958) and Hall of Records (1962).

Then weâ€ll walk over to the civic center to visit a number of historic and more recent civic artworks, including Alison Saarâ€s “Embodied” (Hall of Justice), Frank Ackermanâ€s “Vietnam Veteranâ€s Memorial” (Grand Park), Joseph Youngâ€s “Topographic Map” (Hall of Records) and Malcolm Lelandâ€s ceramic screen (Hall of Records).
On the walk, Clare Haggarty will discuss specific works, and the County’s stewardship of its growing collection. Cecily & Leslie Young will tell us about their father Joseph Young’s artistic legacy, and the challenges they face while seeking to preserve and interpret his artwork, which is widely held in both private and public hands. And conservator Donna Williams will share how she has approached the restoration of Youngâ€s “Topographic Map” at the Hall of Records.

Register by following the “buy tickets” link above. Each attendee must be registered with their own name and unique email address.

The Cranky Preservationist in Search of Lost Art Deco Landmarks

Join us as Nathan Marsak, AKA The Cranky Preservationist, talks about the Richfield Building, the most amazing Art Deco building the world has ever known.

Erected in 1928 at the prominent Bunker Hill intersection of Sixth and Flower Streets by the Los Angeles-based Richfield Oil Company, the Stiles O. Clements-designed tower was distinguished by Gladding, McBeanâ€s black and gold terra cotta decoration including sublime angel figures, and an outlandish erupting neon oil gusher roof sign.

In 1966, Richfield merged with Atlantic, and the following year, the newly branded ARCO made the fateful decision to demolish the most important Art Deco heroic setback skyscraper in the world because it simply wasnâ€t big enough. A.C. Martin was hired to design the 52-story twin glass ARCO Plaza towers, which are the West Coast’s response to the Seagram Building (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; Philip Johnson, 1958).

Following Nathanâ€s presentation, we will walk to the site of the former Richfield Building and current ARCO Plaza (now City National Plaza). Weâ€ll visit the public art installation created from the Richfieldâ€s Art Deco elevator doors, and discuss the importance of preserving this exemplar of Meisian Corporate International style, as the current owners contemplate significant “re-imagining” of the towers, something that already has the Cranky Preservationist hopping mad.

Register by following the “buy tickets” link above. Each attendee must be registered with their own name and unique email address.

As part of Esotouricâ€s tenth anniversary celebrations, we invite you to join 40-year Times veteran Darrell Kunitomi for a free lunchtime tour of the historic Los Angeles Times Globe Lobby in the newspaperâ€s historic headquarters. Darrellâ€s tour will include insights from his thirty-plus years working at the Times and his deep study of its history. With the recent sale of the building, the future of this iconic space is uncertain.  Highlights of the 1935 Globe Lobby are murals by Hugo Ballin, and The Times Eagle, by Gutzon Borglum.

Space is limited for this free tour, so please only sign up if you can attend. No “plus ones” – tell your friends to sign up directly.

The historic Los Angeles Times Building, located at 1st and Spring streets in downtown Los Angeles, opened in 1935 and at the time was the largest building in the western U.S. designed and occupied entirely as a daily newspaper publishing operation.

Gordon B. Kaufmann designed the Times Building, which won a gold medal at the 1937 Paris Exposition for its Moderne architectural style. Kaufmannâ€s other works include Hoover Dam on the Arizona- Nevada border and, locally, Santa Anita Park in Arcadia and the Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The Globe Lobby is one of the aesthetic highlights of the Times Building. Its 10-foot-high murals were painted in 1934 by Hugo Ballin, who also painted the Griffith Observatory rotunda, and represent some of the finest murals produced in Los Angeles during the 1930s. The lobby also includes an historical exhibit showcasing the first 100 years of The Times.

Come take a time travel trip to old Los Angeles as Gordon Pattison presents an illustrated talk about the development of the lost downtown neighborhoods of Bunker Hill and Crown Hill, with a focus on the short-lived Second Street Cable Car, which ran from Spring Street to Diamond (now Beverly) from 1885-89. Then we’ll take a walk along the start of the old Cable Car route and up to Bunker Hill to talk about things that aren’t there any more, and some that are, including Angels Flight Railway, currently being renovated for a Labor Day reopening.

Gordon Pattison is a native son of Bunker Hill. His family owned the Salt Box and the Castle, the last two homes standing after the neighborhood was cleared for redevelopment. To learn more, see Gordon’s LAVA Sunday Salon presentation Old Bunker Hill: One Family’s Perspective. Gordon can also be found blogging about the old neighborhood on On Bunker Hill, talking about Angels Flight Railway on Off-Ramp, visiting the few remaining pieces of his family’s houses at Heritage Square Museum, on KCET’s Lost L.A. series Lost Hills episode, and remembering novelist John Fante at his square dedication and atop Bunker Hill. He can also be found on Esotouric’s The Lowdown on Downtown tours, sharing memories of lost Bunker Hill.

IMPORTANT: Space is extremely limited and each attendee must be registered with their own name and unique email address. There are absolutely no “plus ones” and any attempts at making multiple reservations using the same email address will result in cancellation. We will maintain a waiting list in the event of cancellations.

This edition of the LAVA Sunday Salon and Broadway on My Wind walking tour focuses on the holy grail of Los Angeles mass transit history: the sealed-off streetcar station and tunnel located beneath the Subway Terminal Building (Schultze and Weaver, 1925).

The program begins in the basement of Grand Central Market, with a short history of the Subway Terminal Building and Los Angeles streetcar service. We’ll then walk down Hill Street and underground for a rare visit to the this fascinating time capsule, the decommissioned streetcar station and its tunnel.

IMPORTANT: Space is extremely limited and each attendee must be registered with their own name and unique email address. There are absolutely no “plus ones” and any attempts at making multiple reservations using the same email address will result in cancellation. We will maintain a waiting list in the event of cancellations.

This edition of the LAVA Sunday Salon and Broadway on My Wind walking tour focuses on Charles Bukowski, as seen through the eyes of Los Angeles poet S.A. Griffin.

The program begins with a talk in the lower level of Grand Central Market, where S.A. Griffin will talk about his journey discovering Los Angeles writer and King of Poets Charles Bukowski, and the man’s global influence on modern verse.

S.A. will trace his personal pilgrimage route from his time on Grand View Street in MacArthur Park (1980-82), when he heard about Bukowski at a party in Long Beach, to finally finding Red Stodolsky at Baroque Bookstore on Las Palmas in Hollywood, where Red mentored him as a bookman in Bukowski and the Beats. S.A. would later create a plaque in Red’s honor and place it at the bookshop’s old location.

S.A. will also read from Bukowski’s first novel, Post Office, at the former Terminal Annex sorting facility, the novel’s setting, which Sunday Salon attendees will walk to from Grand Central Market, as part of our own pilgrimage.

S.A. Griffin is the co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Between 1989-2009 S.A. toured the U.S., Canada and the worldwide web with performance poets the Carma Bums. During April-June 2010 he toured the U.S. with Elsie The Poetry Bomb, a Vietnam era practice bomb converted into an art piece and filled with poems from around the world. S.A.’s most recent titles are Dreams Gone Mad With Hope (Punk Hostage Press, 2014), “The Hideous Bible” (Rose of Sharon Press, 2016) with The Lost Bums and Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman (Spartan Press, 2017) with John Dorsey and Scott Wannberg.

ABOUT THE SALON: On the last Sunday of the month starting at 2pm, LAVA welcomes interested individuals to gather in downtown Los Angeles for the Sunday Salon, featuring a presentation by a LAVA Visionary and opportunities to meet and connect with one another. Immediately after the Salon, a walking tour expands on the Salon theme. If youâ€re interested in joining LAVA as a creative contributor or an attendee, we recommend Salon attendance as an introduction to this growing community.

RESERVATIONS: The LAVA Sunday Salon and walking tour are free, but reservations are required. There are no “plus ones,” so tell your friends to sign up individually. Please donâ€t reserve unless you plan to attend. To reserve your spot for this free event, click on the “Buy Tickets” button above.

Photos of S.A. Griffin by Aaron Farley