[Images via Skirball Cultural Center]
The Skirball Cultural Center's miniature urban planning project home sweet home closed last weekend. So just how much was it like the real LA?
Neighborhoods: Kate Klapper, a rep for the Skirball, tells us the beach and Hollywood were popular, and "While Watts Towers have been decorated, no one is moving into the neighborhood."
Architecture and Infrastructure: There were 316 structures in all, including "some restrained but tasteful California modernism," according to Klapper. Director of Public Programs Jordan Peimer writes that participants built "a bridge with big spandrels, a freeway (that kept moving - no one wanted it in their neighborhood!), bike lanes," and "the Koop Himmelblau-inspired 'I am feeling a bit high' walking structure a house which was on stilts."
Places to Go, Things to Do: There were movie theaters, pools, and gyms galore, it being LA, plus coffee houses, a brew pub, organic farms, an art gallery, a record store, a cheese shop, three marijuana dispensaries, an organic sex shop, a cat park, and a dog park.
Controversies: Klapper writes "Someone has built a leaking BP oil well and there is a petition to remove it, as well as petitions to restore Monday mail delivery and another over zoning issues. But the most substantial civic controversy has been inspired by a fish shop that sells whale meat. In addition to a petition to shut it down, there was a protest march against it on Sunday, from Disney Hall to the beach, and the drive-in is screening Free Willy." Peimer adds: "One of the high school students, a tagger, managed to leave 8 tags (including one on a shiny pink Mylar balloon), and motivated residents to create 4 street murals to cover his handiwork. A further tag was covered by a garden."
Sound about right? A full photo set is here.
· Take Two: Home Sweet Home a Chance to Develop LA From Scratch [Curbed LA]
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