Joe Deal, Lowering Gallery B Pyramids, August 1984–January 1986, gelatin silver print, paper: 14 x 17 in. (35.56 x 43.18 cm). The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. © The Estate of Joe Deal. Courtesy Robert Mann Gallery, New York
Join us for a lively conversation about L.A.’s many downtowns—past, present and future—and the rise of the Grand Avenue arts corridor in particular. Organized in conjunction with Mapping an Art World: Los Angeles in the 1970s-80s, an exhibition of works from MOCA’s permanent collection currently on view, the panel will look back at the history of Bunker Hill and its emergence as a cultural center, including architect Arata Isozaki’s design for MOCA’s Grand Avenue venue, and forward to consider emerging models for housing, work, culture, planning, and mobility in and around downtown. It will examine Grand Avenue, and the redevelopment funds that helped create it, as a complex case study in urban development, as opposed to the more organic emergence of gallery and performance hubs elsewhere in downtown.
The panel includesSharon JohnstonandMark Lee, principals of Johnston Marklee & Associates;Shana Bonstin, Deputy Director of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning; andMichael Maltzanof Michael Maltzan Architecture. The moderator isChristopher Hawthorne, former Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, former architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times, and now Senior Critic at the Yale School of Architecture.
This program is supported by The Ron Burkle Endowment for Architecture and Design Programs.