When the Palisades fire swept through Los Angeles’ western hills, the Getty Villa and its collection of Greek and Roman antiquities stood directly in its path. But the building and collection survived because of substantial museum preparation. The city occupies a unique position among art locations: an urban metropolis that …
The artist John Knuth surveys the desolate landscape around Mariposa Street, in Altadena, Calif., where he lived with his wife, the interior designer Taylor Jacobson, and their young son. Where once were pretty wood and stucco houses, you can now see clear across city blocks. The vista is interrupted only …
The artist John Knuth surveys the desolate landscape around Mariposa Street, in Altadena, Calif., where he lived with his wife, the interior designer Taylor Jacobson, and their young son. Where once were pretty wood and stucco houses, you can now see clear across city blocks. The vista is interrupted only …
On Dec. 10, Michael Connelly stood on the patio behind his house in the Hollywood Hills and gazed down at a generous slice of the city he’s been writing about for 38 years. There were the spires of Hogwarts at Universal Studios. There was the 101 freeway, flowing steadily in …
When the Ralph Fiennes-led papal thriller “Conclave” secured the highest honor at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards last weekend, it seemed like a strong indicator that it would prevail in the best picture category at the Academy Awards on Sunday night. After all, the last three winners of SAG’s …
Will a different city emerge from the Los Angeles fires? Time and again fires have fast-tracked urban change. London after the Great Fire of 1666 rewrote its safety laws, widened streets and erected new public buildings, like the domed St. Paul’s Cathedral. Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871, which …
In Topanga Canyon on Saturday morning, suspended midair from an electricity line, hung the smoldering top of a utility pole. The pole itself had burned away. Its remaining crosspieces resembled a crucifix on fire. By the time Bob Melet videotaped this eerie scene, firefighters had managed to halt the advance …
More than a week after Los Angeles’s devastating fires began, the losses to the region’s rich architectural legacy are becoming clearer. The fires have already destroyed more of the county’s built heritage than other single event, according to Adrian Scott Fine, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Conservancy, …
After decades of mounting damage from climate-fueled natural disasters, researchers have compiled many misery-filled data sets that trace the economic fallout over weeks, months and years. The fires still burning in Los Angeles are sure to rank among America’s most expensive — but there is no perfect analogue for them, …
To live in Los Angeles is to be regularly reminded that much of what surrounds its residents is fleeting. That pertains, most essentially, to human life and the natural world, as the deadly fires reminded us this week. But also to both the vital everyday structures and the cultural monuments …
