We’ve already said goodbye to 2012, but wanted to take a few moments to say thank you for all your love and support. This was a pretty big year for us, as we officially became a non-profit! In 2012, we also continued our schedule of hosting about two events every month, seeking out the most interesting, innovative and inventive design across this great city. And we hosted our very first home tour in Echo Park and a tour of LA’s old subway tunnels, events we hope to repeat this year. We’re so grateful for this community and can’t wait to see what 2013 brings!

Here are some of our favorite people, places and things we saw this year…

• We started the year surrounded by the words and products of the Eames. We also toured the landmark Hollywood Tower and visited the historic Best Western across the street, after both had a little work done—just like any other Hollywood beauty.
• In February we headed way east again, to Palm Springs for Modernism Week for a curator-led tour of Backyard Oasis at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
• In March, we hosted our inaugural home tour, a look at four homes in Echo Park that exemplified efficient infill for the neighborhood. We also took a tour of Burbank’s DWP EcoCampus to see innovative drylands design.
• In April (due to high demand from 2011) we again visited George Ehling’s amazing self-made Tile House in the Hollywood Hills for Obscura Day, and visited Sunset Triangle Park, LA’s first street-to-plaza conversion, in Silver Lake.
• In May we gathered in Little Tokyo’s iconic Noguchi Plaza, which had been transformed for LA’s Bloom Festival. We also ventured underground—literally!—for a tour of LA’s abandoned subway tunnels. And yes, we’d like to host another tour but these things take time to plan…patience, friends!
• In June we held our fourth annual Design-n-Dim Sum bike ride, this time with a stop at Caine’s Arcade, and participated in LA’s second annual Design Week.
• In July we partnered once again with the LA Forum to support the opening of Unfinished Business, (which features one of our projects, John Chase’s West Hollywood Map) and also partnered with our friends at the Noun Project for an LA River-themed Iconathon.
• In August we saw the future of LA’s unused alleyways, in the remarkable transformation of East Cahuenga’s alley in Hollywood and visited LA’s first distillery since Prohibition in downtown LA at Greenbar Collective.
• In September we once again celebrated Park[ing] Day, this time with the incredible park designed by recent Art Center grads The Rare Studio in front of LOCAL. We also were the first group to tour Highland Ave’s recent transformation as it evolves beyond post-production and prostitution to becoming LA’s next art epicenter with visits to Perry Rubenstein and Redling Fine Art.
• We love planning Halloween-themed events! This year we learned the fine art of silkscreen printing at Frogtown’s NOMAD Studio to make masks on old vinyl records. Did we also mention we attended the AIA|LA Awards (with fellow architecture enthusiast Moby) and were honored to present the Next LA Awards?
• In November we hosted another workshop, this time at Lala Press for an exclusive letterpress class.
• And in December we ventured into Skid Row for a tour with Michael Maltzan, Skid Row Housing Trust and several resident ambassadors of supportive housing project, New Carver Apartments. We also wrapped up the year with some holiday cheer, making our own lasercut snowflake mobiles with our friends at Knowhow Shop and 2ndwnd.

And we can’t wait to start planning 2013, starting with a tour of the newly opened Expo Line! Stay tuned for details on that and many other exciting events coming this year.

Thank you again for a great 2012!

Since our inception in 2008, de LaB has inspired and educated thousands of architects, designers, design enthusiasts and members of the general public through a diverse range of programs (more than 200!). Our signature monthly events include everything from home tours and behind the scenes tours, to neighborhood walking tours, exhibitions, lectures and much more.

Without community support, we wouldn’t be able to do the work we do, helping to connect creatives to this amazing city that we all call home. We rely on the generous spirit of those who collaborate with us to make our programs as dynamic and exciting as possible. We also rely on community and corporate sponsors who are interested in supporting our monthly programs to help us reach our goals as an organization.

Are you interested in supporting de LaB? Contact Erin Cullerton and Haily Zaki at hello@designeastoflabrea.org for complete details.

We’re currently looking for support at the following two levels:

Become a Making LA Sponsor
de LaB is currently hosting a unique programming series entitled Making LA, which is made possible by support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Making LA will consist of ten free programs hosted throughout Los Angeles between fall 2013 and fall 2014. The series will culminate in the Making LA Conference in fall 2014. We are looking for creative individuals and businesses to help us make the series and the conference as enriching and valuable as possible.

Become an Annual Sponsor
Los Angeles is home to an endless supply of creative capital and with your support we can tap it together. Each month, de LaB hosts two events that target a diverse and engaged audience of east siders, west siders, and those from across greater Los Angeles. We are looking for creative individuals and businesses to help us reach our annual programming goals.

See What the Media Says About Us

“de LaB (or design east of La Brea) is made up of four hosts – Haily Zaki, Alissa Walker, Marissa Gluck and Erin Cullerton – who dream up, organize and preside over brilliant design events around the East Side of Los Angeles, from Design-N-Dim Sum to the Subway Terminal Building tour. The women of de LaB like to joke that cocktails are the fuel that keeps their educational design nonprofit running. But just like buying another round, the group’s lively events, studio tours and boots-on-the-ground neighborhood explorations are things that are possible only in person.”

– California Home + Design, Fall 2013

 

“Los Angeles, you’re getting smarter. Or acting smarter, anyway. Judging by the runaway success of interdisciplinary idea-jam conferences like TED, intellectually spiked salons deLaB and farmlab, and the brainy bacchanal of Mindshare LA, the Los Angeles area has become a hub for gatherings that combine the social and the cerebral. It’s a brave new world here for upwardly mobile Angelenos who want to simultaneously make business connections, feed their minds and fill out their virtual little black books.”
– Los Angeles Times, Fall 2011

The Los Angeles Design Festival kicks off this week, signaling the beginning of two weeks worth of citywide design celebrations. The festivities range in size, scope, and splendor from large-scale design conferences to more intimate gatherings in studios, showrooms, and shops across town. With over 40 events scheduled in June, the LADF continues to grow with each year. Here are a few of de LaB’s top picks. For more info and a full schedule of events, check out the LADF’s website or their new mobile app.  Happy festival-ing, LA!

LADF Opening Night Party with Wiles Magazine: June 14
LADF and Wiles Magazine kick off the festival by honoring the inaugural recipient of the Julia Morgan ICON Award, the inimitable Deborah Sussman. Learn more and RSVP here.

Big City Forum: June 19
Our friends at BCF host one of their signature salons for design intellectuals.They’ll explore visual language in the public sphere and much more. Join them for the conversation and stay for cocktails. Learn more and RSVP here.

Never Built Los Angeles Preview: June 20
Join Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin for the last fundraiser before the much-anticipated Never Built Los Angeles exhibition opens at the A+D Museum next week. Learn more and RSVP here.

Dwell on Design Eastside Home Tours: June 22
Don’t miss this hot-ticket home tour which includes stops in Atwater Village, Silver Lake, Downtown LA, and Glendale. Buy tickets here.

Pecha Kucha x Ping Pong: June 26
Don’t miss de LaB’s first-ever Pecha Kucha x Ping Pong Night, curated by Santino Medina. Buy tickets here.

Design Shopping Night: June 27
Shop your favorite design haunts for one special night across town, in neighborhoods like DTLA, Highland Park, Venice and Culver City. No RSVP necessary.

Chinatown Design Night: June 29
Chung King Alley brings back the annual design street party which also serves as the closing party for LADF this year. Galleries and stores stay open late. Music, art, and even some dragons. No RSVP necessary.

We are beyond excited to announce that de LaB is the recipient of a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts! The funds will support our Making LA initiative, a new event series we’ll be producing over the next year that will include… drum roll… the first-ever de LaB conference!

As part of this round of funding, the Art Works program awarded 817 grants totaling $26.3 million to projects across the country, according to their press release:

In August 2012, the NEA received 1,547 eligible applications for Art Works grants requesting more than $80 million in funding. Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts. The 817 recommended NEA grants total $26.3 million and span 13 artistic disciplines and fields. Applications were reviewed by panels of outside experts convened by NEA staff and each project was judged on its artistic excellence and artistic merit.

We’re so honored to be in such great company! You can read more about the Art Works program and see the list of grantees [PDF].

Now, we need your ideas for how to make Making LA!

This special event series will feature ten important and inspiring community-focused projects located across the east side of Los Angeles, where you’ll have the opportunity to learn from the designers, architects, and artists who completed and/or fostered these projects. The series will culminate in 2014 with the Making LA conference, a one-day conference hosted on the east side of L.A., that features local creatives covering the elusive act of implementation for socially focused design ideas. The Making LA conference will also significantly highlight each of the creatives featured within the year-long Making LA event series, in addition to effectively educating hundreds of local creatives on how to move forward on their own projects for Los Angeles.

So let’s hear it! What designers and projects should we feature? How can we produce the most dynamic, inspirational (and fun) events and conference you’ve ever attended?

Let us know in the comments or send us an email at hello@designeastoflabrea.org

And we know we’ve been saying this a lot lately, but we really are so honored and humbled by your ongoing support as we grow* together. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

*And while we’re talking growth, we should mention that the newest member of the de LaB family was born today, a baby boy to our co-founder Haily Zaki and her husband Brian Tuey. Welcome Rowan Phoenix Tuey!