Map: A Castle in Every State in the USA
The United States of America is not typically thought of as a land of castles, and with good reason—the uniting of the American states coincided, not coincidentally, with the beginning of the end of the era in which kings and queens ruled over everything, holing up in huge fortified houses so that the peasants and/or invading barbarians couldn't kill them.
But in a way, that's too bad, because the USA is a land of excess, and there's nothing more excessive than a castle. And there are somecastles in this country—maybe more than you'd expect—which range from (mostly) vanity projects, to mini golf courses, to even a few places that originally served some military purpose. In fact, we found a castle in every state in the USA.
Take a Lovely Video Journey Into Joshua Tree in Darkest Night
California artist Eric Merrell has spent years trekking into Southern California deserts to paint landscapes by the moonlight for his Nocturnes series. Merrell finds his inspiration when dusk begins to take hold of the desert—he says that "When night falls in the desert it becomes almost an entirely different world. It's hard to tell where the facts end and the fiction begins." A new documentary short by Alec Ernest (in the Los Angeles Review of Books) allows viewers to tag along on one of these painting expeditions as he give us an insight into the moonlit world of Joshua Tree National Park. The result is a stunning glimpse of the park's natural beauty, in a setting not often filmed.
Trendy LA Neuehouse Coworking Hub Opens in Former CBS HQ
Photos by Emily Andrews, courtesy of NeueHouse LA
The glamour of the entertainment industry and the tidy forms of Modernist architecture converged at the 1938 CBS headquarters on Los Angeles's Sunset Boulevard, designed by architect William Lescaze. The Swiss-born Lescaze, commissioned to create a new kind of workplace typology—the broadcast facility—applied the hallmarks of the International Style to the building's graphic exterior: right angles, pilotis, and an all-white paint job. On the inside, though, he applied the softer touches of Streamline Moderne, the stylistic compromise between his Old World austerity and Hollywood's obsession with Art Deco—whimsical porthole windows and glass bricks; sinuous curves instead of sharp corners; grooves on the horizontal surfaces.
How Droughty is Los Angeles Still After Last Week's Big Rains?
Last week's monster rains flooded streets and drowned carsthroughout Los Angeles, but this week's higher temperatures and sunny skies serve as a reminder that one watery week doesn't erase the years of hardcore drought that have dragged on in SoCal and all of California. The record-breaking rains are a reason to be excited, certainly, but "Although this is a favorable start to the year, there are still 3-4 more critical months that will determine how much rain/snow will fall and accumulate during the wet season," David Miskus, a meteorologist with the Climate Prediction Center and Drought Specialist, tells the state's Office of Emergency Services.
What Will Carson Do With Its Reject NFL Stadium Site?
All this land is cleared and ready to develop
Just like at the Super Bowl, when two cities are battling it out for a football franchise, one ends up the victor and the other comes up empty-handed. Except that in the case of the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, which has just lost out to Inglewood and the Rams on the opportunity to bring an NFL franchise back to Los Angeles, they do have one thing to show for their shattered dreams: 157 acres of prime, freeway-adjacent real estate that was all ready to house a world class football stadium. Carson City Manager Ken Farfsing calls the now-former stadium site "one of the last swaths of land for development in the Los Angeles area and very lucrative property." According to the LA Times, Carson may have lost the battle, but ultimately won the war, walking away with a pricey piece of newly cleaned up land to develop at will.
John Legend and Chrissy Teigen Bought Rihanna's Allegedly Leaky Old House
Expectant parents/Twitter personalities John Legend and Chrissy Teigen have a brand new house in Los Angeles's Beverly Crest 'hood, and it was once owned and hated by Rihanna. "Rihanna lived in and hated this house" is the newest, hottest status symbol. Ri paid $6.9 million for the then-new mansion in 2009; in 2011, she filed a lawsuitclaiming the place flooded in a "moderate rainstorm," then put it up for sale in a listing that angrily declared "There is EXTENSIVE damage from moisture AND water intrusion." (The photos were dire too.) She sold it in early 2012 for just $5.03 million to someone who immediately flipped it back onto the market, asking $9.95 million. Unsurprisingly, no one bit, the house lingered on the market, and prices were chopped until it finally sold again in 2014 for $7.645 million, according to Redfin. That buyer gave the place a fancy, expensive reno and flipped it once again onto the market last January, for $16.895 million. And now it's John and Chrissy's, Variety reports.
The Los Angeles Rams Will Almost Definitely Play at the LA Memorial Coliseum For a While
A rendering of USC's renovation plans
On Tuesday, the NFL voted to send the St. Louis Rams back to Los Angeles, which means Inglewood will be getting a very glossy and elaborate and billboardy new stadium complex come 2019. But the Rams will begin playing in LA this fall, which means they'll need a temporary home somewhere in the region. The Rose Bowl and the StubHub Center have already turned the NFL down flat, which leaves only the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it is thirrrrrrrsty for pro football. The historic venue is run today by USC, which plays its football games there, has many Rams connections, and, most importantly, is hoping to give the old place a $270-million renovation. And the NFL will have to pay the school "unspecified monies" in rent, according to the LA Times.
You're Going to Have to Pay For Your Landlord to Make Your Building Earthquake Safe in LA
Who benefits when an apartment building is retrofitted to be safer in an earthquake? The landlord of course makes all the money that comes out of the building, and they'll dodge any lawsuits that might've resulted from an un-retrofitted structure. Tenants, on the other hand, are less likely to do in the next huge earthquake? And yet Los Angeles is going to make the two groups split the costs of implementing its unprecedentedly huge retrofitting mandate, passed last fall, which will require updates for about 15,000 buildings across the city (mostly older concrete buildings and dingbat-type buildings with partial first stories). After a year of debate, the LA City Council voted today to allow landlords to pass on half of the cost of retrofits, plus half the cost of seismic evaluations and half the cost of interest on any loans taken out to pay for the work, reports the LA Times.
What $1,200 a Month Rents You in Los Angeles Right Now
Welcome to Curbed Comparisons, where we explore what you can rent or buy for a certain dollar amount in various LA 'hoods. Is one man's studio another man's townhouse? Let's find out! Our friends at Zumper have helped us out with five listings within $100 of today's price: $1,200.
↑ Shiny hardwood floors plus decently-sized windows make for a nice bright living space in this Mid-Wilshire studio apartment near The Grove. Your houseplants will rejoice. In addition to having lots of storage space, the apartment has a private entrance, but no laundry in the unit; the complex does have on-site facilities though. Rent is $1,175.
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See St. Louis Rams Fans Go Through the Five Stages of Grief Over Losing Their Team to LA
Los Angeles, September 2016: "Should we try going to a Rams game?" "Idk, is it gluten free?"
— Kathryn Yeager (@kayeager24) January 13, 2016
Well, it's finally official. The NFL is headed back to Los Angeles. The Rams are leaving St. Louis for the City of Angels (well, the city of Inglewood), and while that may be good news for LA sports fans, St. Louis Rams diehards are left to pick up the pieces from this devastating loss. A quick geosearch of tweets from the St. Louis area in the hours since the announcement shows fans going through all five stages of grief in dealing with the loss of the Rams. The denial stage was mostly over long ago, as this move has been in the works for some time now. Then they get into the bargaining and depression stages. St. Louis lingers in the anger stage of grief, perhaps a bit too long, getting in some good digs at LA, but finally the acceptance stage is reached, and St. Louis moves on, making disposal plans for all that St. Louis Rams apparel and memorabilia.
2016 Pritzker Prize Goes to Alejandro Aravena, Chilean Architect Behind Innovative Affordable Housing
Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, center, has won the 2016 Pritzker Prize. His UC Innovation Center at the San JoaquÃn Campus, Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago (left) and Constitución Cultural Center (right) from 2014, also in Chile, represent recent built work by Aravena's firm, ELEMENTAL. Photos by Nina Vidic (left), via LaFarge Holcim Foundation (center), and by Felipe Diaz (right). All images are copyright and courtesy of ELEMENTAL unless otherwise noted.
48-year old Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena has been awarded the 2016 Pritzker Prize. He's the first laureate from Chile, the third from South America, and the fourth from Latin America. He's also a telegenic star of the international architecture scene, best-known for a housing complex built at a cost of $7,500 per unit and a proponent of "the rigorous use of common sense" to create sustainable, affordable and resilient cities.
There's Still a Chance the Raiders Could Move to Los Angeles
So the Rams are leaving St. Louis and moving to Inglewood to return professional football to Los Angeles. The stadium they're building, though, can accommodate two teams perfectly equally—and two teams in LA means more money for the NFL, so the league has been hoping to get two teams in LA. The Inglewood/Rams plan was up against a plan that would've done that in one easy step—the Chargers and Raiders proposed a joint project in the LA suburb of Carson—but ultimately the NFL owners tasked with deciding on the move preferred the Inglewood plan. They still want that second team, though, so they also gave the San Diego Chargers a one-year option to decide if they want to move in with the Rams. And last month, Rams owner Stan Kroenke offered a 50/50 split on his stadium to a hypothetical second team.
Take a Good Look Around Los Angeles's Future NFL Stadium
With the votes of 30 very rich people, the Rams have been given permission to return to Los Angeles after two decades, along with the monopolistic, abuse-covering, concussion-lovers at the NFL. Yay. And it's much more than a few dozen players and a handful of Super Bowls they're bringing with them: Rams owner Stan Kroenke, known for his ruthlessness, has already broken ground on a huge stadium complex on the former site of the Hollywood Park racetrack, adjacent to an enormous mixed-use development that will include housing, office space, retail, a hotel, and a lake (altogether it covers about 300 acres), which Kroenke is co-developing with Stockbridge Capital Group. Work has already begun on the project, the stadium site is a dirt pit, and in December the LA Times reported that "If developers get the green light from the league, they say, stadium construction can begin within a couple of weeks." This will be the building football fans across the US think of when they think of Los Angeles, so let's take a tour, shall we?
BREAKING: The Rams Are Coming Back to Los Angeles, and the Chargers Might Join Them
After 21 years away, the NFL is coming back to Los Angeles. The winner after months of waiting and a busy day of voting and discussion among the NFL team owners in Houston was St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke and the Rams, who received 30 votes in favor of their relocation to LA for the 2016 season, the LA Times reports. (Only 24 were needed.) The exciting twist is that the San Diego Chargers have the option to join the Rams in their huge, shiny stadium—which is poised to be the NFL's biggest and most expensive venue, with a price tag well over $2 billion. (It'd be the priciest sports venue in the nation's history, too.)
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