Bates Motel

French artist Vincent Lamouroux has turned Silver Lake's

dilapidated old motel at Sunset and Bates

into a temporary public art space called  Projection.

The structure and trees were sprayed bright white with an ecologically safe limewash.

It's intended to both attract attention and disrupt the colorful "commercial landscape" that surrounds it on this part of bustling Sunset Boulevard.

Based on the number of people who are stopping to take in the sight,

it seems to be doing both.

The building has been vacant for decades and will be demolished soon

to make way for a 122-unit building with 5,000 square feet of combined retail and restaurant space,

a 4,519-square-foot gym/recreational space for residents,

and 165 parking spaces in two levels of underground parking.

Read:  more traffic.

The Ennis House

Was lucky to tour Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House today.

Gorgeous concrete structure rising like a Mayan temple in the hills overlooking Hollywood.

Wright was not a skilled engineer, nor did he seem to care if his homes were uninhabitable.

Prior to occupation, the house leaked, and has continued to leak for 90 years.

Wright's solution, "Get a bucket.", 

was not well received, and the Ennis' fired him.

Completing the house they veered from Wright's vision, and added

 marble floors and wrought iron details which made the architect seethe.

Forty years later he was rehired by a new owner to add a pool and billiard room.

The current owner is restoring the house with many of Wright's original details and furnishings.

The major undertaking is making the house impervious to leaks.

Four years into the restoration project,

problems are being solved as new issues are being discovered.

Years away from being completed, the house will most likely never be a residence again, but a living museum to FLW's vision and stubbornness.

Pop Up Picnic

At 3pm today the location for Los Angeles' first pop up picnic was revealed.  Tickets were already purchased, food was prepared, and white clothing had been chosen.  The site of the event was the last tidbit of information we needed.  After we learned we'd be dining on the South Lawn at the Natural History Museum downtown, we loaded the trunk with white plates, glasses, votives, linens and flowers and battled Saturday evening traffic.  Our menu consisted of hors d'oeuvres, citrus chicken, various salads, lemon bars and Veuve Clicque.  Over a thousand people, all wearing white, gathered on the grounds for a late summer picnic.  At 9 o'clock the quartet retired and the DJ started spinning, turning the elegant dinner into a big dance party.  We grooved until our feet hurt, and our sides ached from laughing.  I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but this was truly an exceptional evening.