With a Q

Filed under: Peripherals

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The great lawn at Glendale mall/housing complex Americana at Brand is so "tired and brown" from being trampled on by excited visitors, reports the Tropico Station blog, that at least part of it is closed. And judging from the security guy hustling over towards that poor dog, it appears you can't pinch a loaf on the lawn. Also: A savvy Curbed mole reports that pre-lawn closing, the gays had already moved in and claimed--what else?--the best real estate on the lawn. "They sit on the patch of grass closest to the movie theater."
· Stay Off The Green (Temporarily) [Tropico]
· Americana at Brand: It's Crowded! [Curbed LA]

Filed under: Laptops

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Location: 741 Mildred Avenue
Architect: Steven Ehrlich
What: 8, two-bedroom, two-bath homes.
Excerpt from listing: "Row Houses reinvented forming an urban streetscape near the beach and the heart of Venice. Each entry leads to a second level 2-story vaulted living space with 14-foot roll-up glass doors, bringing the outside terrace and Pacific breezes inside."
What Else: Facts about the Venice-based architect, via Architectural Digest. "Raised in Radburn, New Jersey, America’s first planned community, Ehrlich spent six years working in Morocco and Nigeria after architecture school. “Because of living in Africa,” he says, “I have a strong affinity for courtyard housing, for housing close to the ground and for being part of a community."
Price: $1.265 million-$1.55 million
· Market Mews [Official Site]
· Market Mews [Deasy/Penner]

· Infamous Redondo Beach nightspot returning? [Daily Breeze]
· LAUSD vs. Home Ownership: What's worse [MetroBlogging]
· Glendale Galleria told to re-do its fifth-grade signage [GNP]
· Closer look: ImaginAsian sale seems rather flippy, doesn't it? [Blogdowntown]
· A heat map that breaks down weekend's heat by neighborhood [DN]
· Downtown developer Tom Gilmore: No Baby Gap in Gallery Row, please [VFAL]
· Downtown rubber tree on its way to becoming famous [Downtown News]
· Agh. Treesavers choose bad hippie music for tree-killing video; Hollywood, help them out! [Treesavers]

Filed under: Features

VENICE: Maybe you want to cool off by visiting the ocean this weekend. Good thing the Venice Art Walk & Auction is also taking place. There are studio visits and architectural tours, the latter tour will include a home (nearly completed and the rendering is above), by Daly Genik Architects. Via the site: ""An existing house and garage are transformed into colorful garden lanterns that enfold a shared courtyard, entirely wrapped with a perforated metal skin to provide sun shades and privacy. Winner of 2007 AIA/LA NEXT LA Award."

DOWNTOWN: Biscuit Company Lofts has an ad in this month's Dwell magazine proclaiming that they are 85 percent sold. Is that the truth? Or one of those lies---like the one a tipster fed us about Nicolas Cage looking at the building? Yes, old wounds.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

"The initial phase of the project will cost $4.2 billion and consist two lines covering about 44 miles of track. The first line, the Red Line, will open in September 2009..." Yeah. That's a story about the "horrific traffic congestion" in Dubai and their planned subway. It should be done by 2020. [Wired]

Earlier this week Curbed noticed that the ImaginAsian Center was listed on Loopnet, a real estate sales site. The theatre, which opened in late 2007, is listed for $5.7 million.

Cinema Properties Group developed the site, bringing ImaginAsian in to operate. In statements to Curbed and later the Downtown News, broker Sandy Bleifer said that a turn-around sale was always the plan. That stands in contrast to a statement Cinema Properties Group made to the L.A. Business Journal in 2006.

This week, Bleifer told the Downtown News that

"That's [Cinema Property Group's] modus operandi," said Bleifer. "They develop properties in partnerships and then sell the real estate when it's finished."

In 2006, though, the company was painting a different picture of its intent. A March 6th article in the L.A. Business Journal talked of what sounded like long-term plans. It made sure to point out that its agreement with ImaginAsian was a joint venture, not a simple lease.

"It's not a conventional arrangement, it's a little bit different than a lease," [co-owner Sue Ann] Kirst said. "We want to be included in the business that they do. We want to be involved owners. We're not in it just to flip it--we want to make it something very nice and a successful business."

Listing for sale at six months seems far closer to a flip than it does to having built a successful business. One also has to wonder what provisions the then-touted joint venture agreement has for a change in ownership.

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

Is there anywhere in LA that's more charming than the Venice Canals? And now that the canals are getting plugged, perhaps they won't be malaria-ridden swamp pools. Now on the market - this three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house right on the canals. According to the listing, the house featured hardwood floors in the kitchen, dining and living rooms, a vaulted beamed ceiling in the living room, and all of the bedrooms have their own balcony. The listing does admit, however, the house needs "some updating." Price for a slice of canal life: $2.1 million.
· 226 Carroll Canal Venice, CA 90291 [Redfin]

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Good news for simple-minded adults with affectionate feelings towards ridiculous objects: That tinker-toy parking structure across from the Disney Concert Hall--the one that was supposed to be demolished for Frank Gehry's Grand Avenue project--is back open, reports the Downtown News. The 39-year-old structure, closed since Dec. 1, won a temporary reprieve with the delay of the Grand Avenue mixed-use project; ground breaking for Grand Avenue is now scheduled for 2009. [Downtown News]

The latest dish from Eater LA, Curbed's hedonistic eating and drinking blog...

Rendering of Cafe Was via Eater LA.

HOLLYWOOD: With Forty Deuce now closed (at least temporarily as it moves downtown) Ivan Kane's Cafe Was in the old Schwab's space at Sunset + Vine is creeping closer to opening. Look for a mid-June opening.

WEST HOLLYWOOD: Goodbye Chocolat, hello Table 8. Table 8 will take over the closing Chocolat space on Melrose and its current space a few blocks east will become a "burger bar" called 8 oz. The burger bar should open by end of June, the newly relocated Table 8 by end of summer.

SILVER LAKE: It's a game of Silver Lake musical chairs. The conjecture over who will be moving into Flor Morena's space on Rowena can finally be put to rest. Italian restaurant Michelangelo's will be moving into the space, which was rumored to be Josef Centeno's new spot. Centeno has now opened Lot 1 in Echo Park.