How should Los Angeles, so often caricatured as a city of the future, engage more actively with its past and the broader notion of civic memory? This stimulating panel will explore the intersection of architecture, monuments, cultural identity and the histories of place.
This 3rd L.A. event will explore important questions faced by Los Angeles as they relate to monuments, memorials and histories of place. The interactive discussion will engage audience members and build on similar themes raised by Professor Mabel O. Wilson of Columbia University in her Occidental lecture held earlier the same day, titled "Future Reckoning - Architecture, Race and American Memorials."Â
Christopher Hawthorne, Â鶹ÊÓƵ professor of practice and chief design officer for the city of Los Angeles, will be joined by LA Times columnist Frank Shyong, Wajenda Chambeshi, the program manager for the Great Streets Initiative in the Mayor’s Office of City Services, Gail Kennard, president of Kennard Design Group (KDG), the oldest African-American-owned architectural practice in the West and vice-president of the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission, and Stella Ramos '20, organizer of the Indigenous Student Association at Â鶹ÊÓƵ.
This fall, Hawthorne, organizer of the 3rd L.A. series, is launching a Los Angeles City Hall Working Group on Civic Memory. This working group involves historians, architects, designers, artists and others with the goal of articulating a set of policy recommendations to Mayor Eric Garcetti to allow Los Angeles, so often caricatured as a city of the future, to engage more actively with its past and the broader notion of civic memory.Â
The program will be designed to make room for audience participation and discussion. Please submit your questions by Thursday, October 31st - the panelists will use audience questions to guide the conversation.
This event is open to the public. Registration is recommended. Register at .
About the series:
The 3rd LA Project is emblematic of Occidental’s innovative, collaborative approach to learning that seeks to integrate its curriculum with the cultural and intellectual resources of Los Angeles.Â
2019’s (Re)Designing LA public-events series marks the fourth year of the 3rd LA Project at Occidental. Led by Occidental Professor of Practice Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles’ first-ever chief design officer, (Re)Designing LA calls on a broad cast of experts and activists to explore how the city can promote innovative design while addressing climate change and guarding against displacement and the erasure of neighborhood culture and history.
