You know things are bad when even the architecture is against you. Yet, most Angelenos express at least a passing familiarity with a concept called “hostile architecture.” Alternatively known as hostile urbanism or, by those supporting its use, defensive architecture, hostile architecture strives to use streetscapes and designs in public areas to put up some […]
Seth Styles
Ranking the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil Residency Shows
Featured image credit: Hermann Luyken Cirque du Soleil has become such a fixture of the Las Vegas experience that it’s hard to recall that the first permanent venture was a major risk. Up until then, the expectations of Las Vegas nightlife were drastically different. While most will agree that Siegfried and Roy did the heavy […]
From Venus with Love: The Integratron Brings Cosmic Peace to the Mojave Desert
Featured image credit: Jessie Eastland What is it about the isolation of the desert that drives people to search with such determination for profound, meaningful communication? It’s the conditions that birthed the Mojave Phone Booth: a remote payphone that inspired togetherness amongst lonely people at the end of the 1990s. And the Amargosa Opera House: […]
The Astonishing Floss Silk Tree is LA’s Strangest Plant. Is It Right for Your Yard?
Featured image credit: Mauroguanandi If you gave your three-year-old a box of crayons and told them to make up a tree, it might look a little like the floss silk tree. Appearing like flora from an alien world, the floss silk tree is characterized by its prickly trunk, cotton-bearing seedpods, and bountiful blossoms of pink […]
Neighborhood Watch: Keep These Points in Mind When Browsing Glendale Homes For Sale
Featured image credit: Choose Glendale When searching for your dream home, it pays to do your research into the surrounding neighborhood. Our new regular series, Neighborhood Watch, gives you an overview of some of the most commonly asked questions about the neighborhoods we service, getting you started on the right foot in deciding whether a […]
Absorption Rate Analysis – October 2024: Welcome to the Season of the Sellers
In the realm of real estate absorption rates, it seems that what goes down must come up. At least in the competitive housing market of the Greater Los Angeles area. As we head deeper into the autumn, the sun that shined so brightly on prospective home buyers is slipping behind the clouds, returning favor to […]
The Literally Moving Story of Olvera Street
Featured image credit: Visitor7 We often talk about the history of Los Angeles on this blog, but today we’re going back to the very beginning. Sort of. Indigenous people lived in the area we call Los Angeles for centuries before the city’s first stone was laid. But if you ask locals to take you to […]
Joshua Tree Home Spotlight: Everything is in Its Right Place at the Kellogg Doolittle House
All images: Kellogg Doolittle Residence On the edge of Joshua Tree National Park stands a 10-acre lot of land with one of the most fascinating examples of Organic Architecture ever built. It may look like some stately take on a Flintstones home or the futuristic remains of a mechanical mammoth from afar. But it’s a […]
Entering the Historic Harris House is Easy. But Leaving? That’s Another Story.
In our line of service, we meet people every day chasing their dreams of homeownership. And often, those dreams aren’t very exacting. A surprising amount of people are in the market for four walls and a roof… anything else is icing on the cake. And there’s nothing wrong with that! But Glendale’s historic Harris House, […]
The Elegantly Haunted Queen Mary Keeps Legends Alive in Long Beach
Featured image credit: Russ Allison Loar The Queen Mary has quite the reputation. No, we don’t mean a disgraced monarch. We’re talking about the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary permanently moored in the Port of Long Beach. You know, the allegedly haunted Queen Mary? She ferried the world’s ultra-wealthy across the globe’s blue highway for […]