Expo Park: California Science Center Expansion

California Science Center Phase II is under construction in Exposition Park. I took the kid down there to go to the Natural History Museum. This new exhibit space will double the size of the Science Center, and will house the World of Ecology exhibits.

The Natural History Museum is going through some renovations, too. Which it needs badly. The exhibits definitely have a "we did these back in 1984 when the Olympics were at Memorial Coliseum next door" kind of feel. The rotunda that has the dinosaur hall is currently closed off, as is the Native American exhibits, clearly two of the biggest draws to the museum.

News from Preuss Road

There's a new house going up on our street, which these days is a good sign for our corner of West L.A. There are a few tear-down worthy old stucco bungalows on the street, and frankly the more of them get torn down to build multi-million dollar homes, the better for us. The good news is this home already has the solar panel array being built on the roof, and the window installs are high quality. It's always interesting to see change happen, as it's been happening pretty slowly. Robertson Boulevard is getting cleaned up a little; the best news of late is the arrival of Dolce Isola, the Ivy's bakery that opened up this year. Hopefully we'll see some more upgrades on our rather disappointing offerings on Robertson.

Expo line

Sorry for the bad photo. I was trying to show early construction over by USC for the Expo Line light rail that the MTA is building from downtown to near my house. The line will run from downtown, by USC (including the Galen Center) and Exposition Park (home of the Natural History Museum, the Olympic Memorial Coliseum and the California Science Center) and then through kind of some rough territory to Culver City.

Chicago! Yeah, Lake View.

I'm at a work training session in Chicago and the office got me a sick rate at the Four Seasons. I don't know what kind of corporate hoo-haw is going on here, but I can tell you that I'm paying less per night to stay in the Four Seasons than I was to stay a night at the Comfort Inn in New Bern, North Carolina. Go figure.

Tonight we had dinner at Gibson's, where I narrowly avoided going into diabetic shock after eating a pound of blue cheese dressing (on a salad), followed by a twice-baked franken-potato and a side of grilled cow. Then we had a gallon of ice cream. for dessert. On the walk home my heart was racing in an attempt to both burn off some of the 5,000 calories I must have consumed whilst pumping the cholesterol laden blood through my choked arteries. The temperature had fallen into the low 40s, but I couldn't tell since my body had become a heat-laden engine in its attempt to shed the caloric intake. Don't get me wrong; I loved every second of it. Croaking from a heart attack in front of my corporate colleagues would be a pathetic way to go, and I'm guessing it wouldn't even make a sidebar in AdWeek.

That's the John Hancock Center taking up the view in the right side of the window. Not sure what that building directly across the street is.

Been-Seen.com & BCAM

Been-Seen.com is one of those great blogs you find from a friend. This has one of the better small articles I've read on the reborn Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), next to LACMA. Little did I know that it is one of the largest column-free art spaces in the United States, which will make for some stellar installations (as you can see from the Jeff Koons sculptures here).

BCAM / Chris Burden

Saturday at the gym and the red carpet was rolled out across the street for arrivals to the grand opening party for the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum. Seeing it gradually come together from inside the L.A. Fitness on Wilshire has been interesting. I thought at first the collection of lamp posts were just being held there before installation on the grounds. As it turns out, it's an art installation by artist Chris Burden.

Back on the Blog

So, what's my excuse? I didn't have a camera-phone until yesterday, when I upgraded my four year old Blackberry with a new Blackberry Curve. I had gotten rid of my mobile phone with camera a while ago, in favor of my work Blackberry with phone and email. I didn't realize how dependent I'd become on mobile photo blogging to create posts. I guess it was just easier to write captions, or capture funny moments, than it was to just write a few paragraphs. That must be the ad agency life seeping into my my blogging. Need a visual. Need some copy.

During my "sabbatical" from this blog, I did move offices to a spot with a giant picture window looking out over Main Street in Venice. I work in the Frank Gehry "Binocular" building, in the wing that is meant to look like the bow of a ship (the white framed cutouts in this picture - you can see how it curves off to a point to the right of my office. It's a great space to work in, and I appreciate the company giving me the office.

More good times to come. Caro and I are going to a black-tie event for City of Hope this week as a guest of Gibson guitars. Should be some good blogger photo snapshots.

Downtown Little Rock

We're in Little Rock for a wedding. It's nice - we went to the Clinton Presidential Library. It's like visiting a propaganda ministry, even if you did happen to like the guy. One local described the architecture as "trailer-like." This is a shot of downtown and the river from a pedestrian bridge.

Lost Under Dallas

My colleague, Jonathan Deiss, lost in a weird rabbit warren of yellow-tiled tunnels underneath downtown Dallas. It smelled like ammonia; Jonathan suggested we were under a nerve gas attack.

Gas Station of the Future

BP has opened up a new gas station at the corner of Olympic & Robertson up the street from our place. It's been cloaked behind giant fabric walls printed with green blades of grass for months - which hints at it being something polluting, right? Finally revealed, it is strikingly modern and, frankly, quite beautiful for what it is. White jumpsuit wearing pr hires were walking around the lot behind a white picket fence, looking like members of the Dharma Project from LOST. It's not clear from the outside what makes it a particularly 'green' gas station, but this LA Times article tells us that it has solar panels, low energy lighting, concrete mixed with recycled glass, and a rain collection system to irrigate plants nearby. Interesting on the solar, but hey, it doesn't rain all that much in Southern California, guys. The article points out that the station offers no alternatives to carbon fuels.

But it's nice to look at, and since there was a gas station there previously, it's nice to have something so sharp looking as a neighborhood upgrade. Of course I will soon fall victim and will be lining up there to buy some gas. Which is exactly what BP is hoping I would do.