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  Featured image credit: Dietmar Rabich  /  Wikimedia Commons  /  “Amboy (California, USA) — 2012 — 4”  /  CC BY-SA 4.0 About 200 miles east of Los Angeles and 100 miles northeast of Palm Springs sits a remote Mojave Desert town that exists out of logic and reason. It was built near a dead volcano, along a highway (that died), with a gas station (that died), a cafe (that died), and a motel (that died) at its center. And yet, this Googie graveyard continues to rise from the dust, attracting visitors with its alien charm. Today, Amboy, California is a tourist attraction that’s not really near anything . It stands on nothing but its own foundation. And it largely started with a man named Roy Crowl who just wanted to open a gas station. From Hole-in-the-Ground to Tourist Hot Spot Photo credit: Unknown – James R. Powell Route 66 Collection It was 1938 when, to capitalize on motorists crossing the Mojave Desert on the still...

  eatured image credit: mbtrama It’s not often that we get to witness experiments in architecture while they’re in motion. Yet, that’s exactly the experience case study houses offer. Arts & Architecture magazine challenged notable architects to create affordable homes to address the U.S.’s residential housing boom. With World War II finally coming to an end, millions of soldiers were returning home to start families or pick up where they’d left off. The need for new housing was crucial. Arts & Architecture funded the experiment which ran just over two decades from 1945 until 1966. While one of the homes was built in Northern California and another in Phoenix, Arizona, most were erected in the Southern California region. Today, we take a closer look at this innovative moment in California’s housing history.  Update January 2025 – Case Study House #25 Considered for Historical Status Though Case Study House #25 wasn’t among those included in our...

  California’s commercial property investment was dealt a major blow by the global COVID-19 pandemic, though one class was a glaring exception. Industrial development grew in leaps and bounds, perhaps best exemplified in Southern California by enterprises in the Inland Empire region. Yet, a new California law that went into effect on January 1 is threatening to upend that growth if a delicate balance can’t be found in time. It’s called the Planning Logistics and Neighborhood Standards Act. And it pits the state’s housing crisis in direct opposition to its industrial development.  A Law to Combat “Industrial Sprawl”  Photo credit: Envato When the Planning Logistics and Neighborhood Standards Act was first pitched, its overarching goal was straightforward enough. It would be used to address the aggressive industrial development of the region encroaching on suburban residential areas, a phenomenon known as industrial sprawl. But now that the law is...

  Featured image credit: NickCPrior Back in September, we highlighted some of the big changes coming for the Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach, as well as the Port of Los Angeles as a whole. But with the 117-year-old port now boasting its second most active year of all time, those plans are taking more definitive shape. At a recent press conference, Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka detailed how the Western hemisphere’s busiest port plans to invest heavily in technology and real estate renovations to reach new heights of revenue generation and eco-friendliness simultaneously.  The Second Biggest Year on Record for the Port of Los Angeles Photo credit: Zzyzx So what does the second biggest year in the Port of Los Angeles’s history look like? Well, 2024 closed with the largest year-over-year gain that the bustling port has recorded. It clocked in at 20% over 2023’s numbers, having transported over 10.3 million shipping containers. Por...

  Featured image credit: Ben Schumin What a year for legendary bands. New wave icons Devo retired from live performance. Rock gods Kiss called it a day. And now Munch’s Make Believe Band is packing it all in… with one notable exception. Wait, you don’t remember Munch’s Make Believe Band? Surely you’ve had the singular experience of gumming your mouth up with processed mozzarella while being serenaded by the official Chuck E. Cheese animatronic band. If not, your chances of experiencing this staple of kinder-rock just narrowed dramatically. Chuck E. Cheese locations across the country are ditching their animatronics for more modern modes of entertainment. But there is one location where the band plays on. And it’s great news for nostalgic Angelenos. The historic Chuck E. Cheese band is taking up a permanent residency in one location and one location only. And it’s in Northridge.  Update – January 2025: The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame is starting 20...

  In a city as diverse as Los Angeles, Black History Month is a special time, offering seemingly countless discussion panels, festivals, live performances, and more to honor Black culture. Putting together a completely comprehensive list of Black History Month events is an impossible task, but we’ve done our best to guide you in the right direction with some stand-outs and personal favorites. Honestly, the offerings for Black History Month 2025 are all pretty stellar, so the real challenge will be figuring out what to sit out.  The 26th Annual Los Angeles Black College Expo Saturday, February 1 9 am – 1 pm SoFi Stadium 1001 Stadium Dr, Inglewood, CA 90301 Photo credit: Black College Expo Our first of the 2025 Black History Month events takes place at SoFi Stadium; a terrible place to see live music but possibly a great place to apply for college? In partnership with Honda’s Battle of the Bands (speaking of live music), the 26th Annual Los Angeles Bla...