WEST HOLLYWOOD - A reader with a keen eye for observation and a shitty cell phone camera writes in to alert us to a familiar-looking blight: "What do Los Feliz and West Hollywood have in common? Apparently taste for awful architects/designers. I was driving past the Gelson’s off King’s Road in WeHo when I saw this checkered pattern and felt I had seen it somewhere before. It took me a second before I remembered the drama that played out about the new BofA on Hillhurst in Los Feliz. It’s hard to tell in the picture (sorry about the crappy cell phone pic), but it’s exactly the same. A fake window with an ugly checkered pattern. Wonder if they share the same architect/designer, or if it’s just a coincidence?" [CurbedWire Inbox]
LOS ANGELES - Online brokerage Redfin expands its blog, Sweet Digs, to Los Angeles after already covering SF and Seattle. The blog is launching with 5 bloggers covering about a dozen LA hoods. Welcome, neighbor. Also launching: Orange County and SD. [CurbedWire Inbox]
HOLLYWOOD - LAist alerts us to the sale of Charles Bukowski's former apartment complex. The building, located at 5124 De Longpre Ave, is up for sale (asking price $1.3 million) and is being advertised as a tear-down. While we typically get our panties in a bunch for preservation issues (See: Theater, Rialto), we're having a hard time summoning up the outrage LAist editor Tony Pierce feels. Seriously, that place is a dump (pictured below). And we're having a hard time with the hyperbole: "Arguably the finest writer Los Angeles has ever known." Really, Bukowski? Hero to hipsters and/or misogynists everywhere? We're not jumping on this bandwagon just yet. [LAist]
[Image courtesy of LAist]