People's History Mural

At half a mile long (.8 kilometers), "The Great Wall of California" in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley is the longest mural in the world. Artist Judith Baca created the mural with over 400 local teenagers during the summers between 1976 and 1984. The mural is located along the West wall of the Tunjunga Flood Control Channel and its acrylic paint is resistant to water damage. The mural depicts the history of Los Angeles and California from pre-historic times to the 1980s with a focus on women, minorities, laborers, artists, and everyday people.

A view of the first section of the mural in the flood control channel:

Here is a detail of the mural depicting the 1781 founding of Los Angeles in the Alta California region of Nueva Espana. The mural shows that the founding settlors were primarily of mixed Spanish, African, and Native American descent:

A detail of the mural depicting a wedding at a hacienda during Mexican rule of California, which lasted between Mexico's independence from Spain in 1821 until the Mexican-American War of the 1840s:

Many Chinese immigrants who came to California during the 1850s Gold Rush ended up working as laborers on the California railroads:

A detail of the mural depicting depression-era workers:

In the 1930s, thousands of migrants fled to California to escape from severe droughts and economic hardship in Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and the Texas Panhandle:
A detail of the mural depicting the forced relocation and internment of over 100,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans during WWII:

Los Angeles has the second largest Jewish population of any metropolitan region in the United States. Here is a detail of the mural depicting a Jewish family during WWII:

During the Zoot Suits Riots of 1943, white Marines, with the tacit approval of the Los Angeles Police Department, targeted and assaulted young Mexican-American men in Los Angeles:

The beginnings of suburban sprawl and "white flight" out of the urban core of the city:

A detail of the mural depicting the 1950s-era blacklisting of entertainment industry professionals who were suspected of being affiliated with the Communist Party:

The beginnings of the African-American Civil Rights Movement:

The Mattachine Society, founded in Los Angeles in 1950, was one of the first gay rights organization in the United States:

Another view of the mural along the channel's West wall:

These pictures show only a small fraction of the mural. The website of Venice Beach based Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) has pictures of all of the mural's panels, a more detailed history of the mural, and information about current efforts to restore and preserve the mural.

The Great Wall is located along Coldwater Canyon Avenue between Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street. There is a walkway along the East side of the channel on Coldwater Canyon Ave. that runs the whole length of the mural.


View Great Wall in a larger map

Desert Garden Conservatory

Here are a few pictures of the cacti and succulents housed in the Desert Garden Conservatory at the Huntington Gardens:







For more pictures and information about the Huntington Library, Museum, and Gardens, check out my earlier post about the Huntington or the Huntington website.

The Eames House

In addition to creating some of the most iconic furniture designs of the 20th Century, husband and wife Charles Eames (1907-1978) and Ray Eames (1912-1988) built a lovely modern house and studio in Pacific Palisades as part of the influential Case Study Program. Through the Los Angeles-based program, which ran from 1945 to 1966, Arts & Architecture magazine commissioned top architects to design and build inexpensive and efficient modern houses that could serve as models for the post-WWII housing boom.


After building the Pacific Palisades house for the Case Study Program, the Eameses resided in the house from its completion in 1949 to their deaths in 1978 and 1988. The Eames House is one of the Case Study Program's most popular houses and has even been replicated in miniature out of chocolate.

The house was constructed out of pre-fabricated, industrial materials and the Mondrian-inspired exterior is composed of white and primary colored panels of varying sizes outlined by black steel beams:

Twisting bark on a row of large, fragrant eucalyptus trees in front of the house provides an interesting textural contrast with the glass and steel of the structure's exterior:

The two buildings and their adjoining patios are set against an 8-foot high, 200-foot long retaining wall which abuts the hill on one side of a small meadow. The far edge of the meadow ends on a bluff with views over the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Monica Bay.

A view of the house from the top of the retaining wall:

A view from the studio over the little meadow toward the ocean:

The grounds of the Eames House are open to visitors who call in advance to schedule an appointment. The interior of the house is not open to the public, but the living room, kitchen, and dining area are visible from outside through the glass doors and windows. The living room, with its high ceiling, warm rugs, tropical plants, and tall book shelves, is unusually livable and comfy for a modernist house. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take interior photos. Here is the living room from the outside:

The side of the living room as viewed from one of the patios:



A few blocks away from the Eames House, modern treehouse-style homes are perched above little creeks running through the narrow, lush Santa Monica Canyon. Kappe House, built in 1968 on Brooktree Road by architect Raymond Kappe, is the most well-known of these treehouse residences. From the road, the Kappe House appears to be floating above the canyon. Wooden terraces jut out from the house and blend in with the treetops and a creek runs underneath the house on wide, rocky boulders.

Unfortunately, my photos do a poor job of capturing the charm of the Kappe House:

While Kappe's name is not well known among the general population, architects and designers love his houses and the L.A. Times ranked the Kappe House as number 8 on its 2008 list of the best Los Angeles Houses of all time. Also on the L.A. Times list were several other houses that I have visited including the Eames House (#4), the Gamble House (#6), the Ennis House (#3), Hollyhock House (#10), and the Schindler House (#1).

Another view of the Kappe House from the street:

Here is a map with the locations of the Eames House and Kappe House:

View Larger Map

Cat of the Week: Sal

Sal mostly stayed in the bedroom during a dinner party at his house in West Hollywood last night:

Seasons in Southern California

Here are two pictures (taken from different angles) of the La Jolla Valley in Mugu State Park. I took the first picture at the end of August, when it hadn't rained for 6 months, and I took the second picture today in mid-February after we've had a couple of winter rains:

For more information on Mugu hikes check out the Modern Hiker and the Geek Hiker websites. I recommend the 7.5 mile loop that starts at the parking lot marked below:


View

L.A.'s Cathedral

The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is the third-largest cathedral in the world and serves as the seat of the archbishop of Los Angeles. The cathedral was completed in 2002 and was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, who received architecture's highest honor - the Pritzker Prize - in 1996.

The great cathedrals of Europe were traditionally built next to rivers but in Los Angeles, the cathedral is next to the 101 freeway. Architect Rafael Moneo has likened the freeway to a modern day river that serves an an artery for commerce and transportation in the city. The view of the cathedral is so clear from the freeway that many Angelinos refer to it as "Our Lady of the 101."

Robert Graham (1938-2008), a Venice Beach based artist and husband of actress Angelica Huston, created the monumental brass doors and the modern sculpture of the Virgin Mary at the entrance to the cathedral:
Architectural critics have described the cathedral as "introspective" because it is somewhat uninviting from the exterior, but has beautiful interior spaces. The cathedral didn't appeal to me at first, but it has grown on me. I like the solidity of the building, its unusual angles, its warm color, and the repetive horizontal stripes on the exterior.

A view toward the bell tower from the front courtyard:

Here are some views of the massive exterior from the side of the building that doesn't face the 101:

The interior is divided into small and large spaces and is lit with natural light filtered through alabster windows. I had trouble capturing the quality of the interior spaces in my photos. Here is one view of the central cross over the main altar:

Our Lady of the Angels is open to the public and is located in downtown L.A. on Temple Street between Grand Avenue and Hill Street. The cathedral has an outdoor plaza and garden and lots of contemporary Catholic artwork inside. There are docent-led tours Monday-Friday at 1 p.m. and self guided tour booklets available for purchase in the gift store. More information is available at the cathedral's website.


View Our Lady of the Angels in a larger map

Cats of the Week: Brothers

Two brothers in Culver City:

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is a great new park in Culver City that includes trails, a visitor's center with exhibits, and gorgeous views over the Los Angeles basin. Here is the visitor's center designed by San Diego-based husband and wife Safdie Rabines Architects:


To get up to the visitor's center you can drive up, walk up a winding mile-long trail, or climb up a long, steep stone staircase:

There are beautiful 360 degree views of the Los Angeles basin from the top of the hill:

The master plan for this area is to connect Kenneth Hahn Park, Culver City Park, and Baldwin Hills Park and then to connect the parks to the beach with the Ballona Creek bike path.


If you want to hike up to the visitor's center, park on Jefferson and find the marked trailhead just to the East of Hetzler Road. You can also drive up Heztler and park at the visitor's center parking lot at the top of the hill. More info about the architecture and architects is available at the American Architects website.


View Baldwin Hills Park in a larger map

Mission San Juan Capistrano

In 1769, Spain's King Charles III sent a group of Franciscan priests led by Father Junipero Serra to establish Spanish missions in Alta California. The purpose of the mission system was to extend Spanish influence and power in the New World by converting and controlling indigenous populations. Between 1769 and 1823, the Franciscans built 21 missions in coastal California along the Camino Real (the 101 Freeway now roughly follows the old Spanish "Royal Road") from San Diego in the South to Sonoma in the North.

In 1775, the Franciscans founded Mission San Juan Capistrano. With its beautiful gardens and fountains, Mission San Juan Capistrano, which is located in Orange County about an hour south of L.A., is one of the prettiest of California's historic missions.


Through the missions, the Franciscans introduced Spanish farming practices and crops such as wheat, citrus fruits, figs, grapes, and olives to California. The Spanish operated the missions and their farms as coercive labor camps. Indian converts, once baptized, were "attached" to the mission and were obligated to remain at the mission and work the land. The Spanish actively searched for runaways and forcibly returned escaped Indians to the missions.

Here is a statue of Father Junipero Serra baptizing an Indian boy:

By mistreating the indigenous population, destroying traditional food sources, and introducing new communicable diseases to the region, the Spanish decimated the Indian population of California. In 1770, there were at least 300,000 Indians in California; by the mid-1800s, the Indian population was reduced by more than half.

The Catholic Church still owns and operates 19 of California's historic missions. The California missions usually have low-quality exhibits and weird dioramas that tend to gloss over their troubling histories. Here is one of the dioramas at San Juan Capistrano:

The 1776 adobe church at San Juan Capistrano, referred to as Father Serra's chapel, is the oldest known building in California. The chapel has an ornate golden altar and a traditional painted wooden ceiling:
A niche-statue inside of Father Serra's chapel:

In 1796, the Franciscans, using Indian labor, constructed a large stone church at Mission San Juan Capistrano with limestone mortar and stones from a nearby quarry. The building, which was the largest of the California Mission churches, collapsed during an earthquake in 1812 killing 40 Indians who were inside attending mass. The older church, built out of traditional adobe, survived the earthquake. Here are two views of the ruins of the great stone church:
Bells were an integral part of mission life and were used to signal the beginning of the work day, breaks for meals, and prayer time. A view of the coast in nearby Laguna Beach:



View Mission San Juan Capistrano in a larger map