Subway-to-the... VA Hospital?

According to Metro's latest round of community update meetings, the so-called Subway-to-the-Sea rail extension to Santa Monica is simply "out of the realm of funding feasibility," as is the spur joining Hollywood and Highland to the Wilshire route via Santa Monica Blvd. We knew Villaraigosa's 30-10 initiative was too good to be true. But look at the bright side, thanks to Measure R spending, construction on the subway line could begin as soon as the end of 2011.

Initially, construction of the first phase would terminate at a station in Westwood near Wilshire Blvd. But after suggestions by locals, project planners found that a 1-stop extension beyond the 405 to the Veterans Administration campus would indeed return higher ridership and decrease traffic congestion under the freeway. Beyond the VA however, ridership estimates decrease with every successive station, meaning dwindled fiscal feasibility. While Subway-to-the-Sea certainly has a nice ring to it, there simply isn't enough demand in the Santa Monica area to warrant an expensive underground rail construction, especially considering that the Expo phase 2 light rail extension to Santa Monica is already approved and will be completed far sooner than any phase on the Wilshire route. The UCLA area is home to the city's second largest job center outside of Downtown and will benefit enormously from the traffic relief and increased mobility brought by a more expedient subway extension.

As for the Santa Monica Blvd spur, the connection between Hollywood and Beverly Hills will make sense in the future, but right now that stretch also doesn't support the critical building density that would make a subway line pencil out. But as long as the City of West Hollywood continues its hungry, authoritarian concessions to big name developers, the Santa Monica Blvd corridor may well get its subway.

Best of Dwell on Design

Interior designers, interior decorators, architects, buyers, set designers and home remodelling freaks descended on the LA Convention Center this weekend for Dwell on Design, the west coast's largest design convention. That the event was held here rather than Dwell Magazine's home base of San Francisco is a testament to LA's growing weight in the design industry (if not the fact that there are more decor shops per capita here than you would think financially sustainable). In addition to a handful of seminars ranging from the LA River to local microbreweries, there were of course the multitudes of designer stands, hawking goods and pushing new ideas. The word of the day was green, but the irrational exuberance of yesteryear was present as well. Conspicuously absent from the displays was any aggresive pursuit of technology. But there were still some pretty cool products. Here are my faves:

5. REFLECT Showerhead - Its non-condensing reflective metal face lets you guys get a close shave without risking any Psycho-esque shower cuts.

4. Vapur Anti Bottle - The foldable, rollable, reusable, washable water bottle is the bottled water replacement for those on-the-go types.

3. Dyson Air Multiplier - This sleek, bladeless room fan mimics the hyper-efficient design of Dyson's vacuum cleaners, while seaking to replace the wasteful air conditioner.

2. Woollypocket - The felt-like bags are made from recycled water bottles and can be hung alone as indoor decoration or strung together en masse to form grand outdoor living walls.

1. Nook Pebble crib mattress - Made from organic eucalyptus fibers, the hypoallergenic, water-repellant infant mattress uses pebble-like bumps to optimize nighttime air flow.

The Art of Advertising

Last week the MAK Center for Art and Architecture celebrated the conclusion of its seminal public arts project, “How Many Billboards? Art In Stead.” In an attempt to infuse art into an urban context where it is least expected, and draw attention to the conspicuousness of outdoor advertising in Los Angeles, the Center commissioned 21 artists to create large works that would occupy billboards across the city. From Silver Lake to West LA, drivers were greeted with surprising, sometimes subversive visual messages in place of the banal movie posters to which they were so accustomed. Supplementing the short-lived outdoor exhibition were a number of panel discussions organized by the Center around the often conflicting roles of public art and outdoor advertising. Unfortunately the session I attended seemed to be more of a town hall protest against the greedy lawlessness of the media companies rather than an academic discussion of art and commerce in the city. I have long believed that, with its year-round sunshine, car-obsessed sprawl, and of course its playing host to the film industry, LA is a city suited perfectly to—and in part developed from—a culture of spectacle. Our greatest landmark originated as an advertisement for a housing development, and the two biggest additions to our skyline in recent memory (LA Live and the Hollywood W) have paid painstaking attention to the inclusion of paid signage and outdoor media. The city’s main excuse for opposing big new outdoor advertisements is the fact that, unlike observers in Times Square or Tokyo’s Shibuya, LA’s eyes remain defiantly behind steel and glass cages hurtling by at speeds not suited to even temporary distraction. We are a city obsessed with and defined by our visual culture. This is a reality that makes a temporary citywide art show just as interesting as the capitalist establishment it seeks to question.

Click here to see photos and descriptions of the billboards.