I wrote a poem. It's called, "LA Restaurants with Four Letter Names"
Alma
Alta
Etra
Dune
Yala
Ryla
Orla
Woon
Anzu
Nobu
Maru
Gwen
Dama
Noma
Noya
Shin
Sora
Sogo
Soko
Shor
Capo
Kato
Little Door
A big W for LA. What a stunning space. The project is beyond anything I imagined. Mellody Hobson is a major force in her own right, and I didn’t realize the extent of her involvement. I’m excited to have this kind of new, ambitious civic and cultural investment in our city.
The movie business has been lurching from one existential crisis to another since the pandemic.
This year, for the first time in seven years, people feel... hopeful?
@tgbuckley
https://t.co/2afvSwkxZm
Netflix has increased its prices by 150% since 2013.
The price increases will continue until customers tell the company to stop.
https://t.co/2R8oGAahLC
A cluster of oil platforms off the California coast has begun selling crude for the first time in over a decade, shipping supplies to a Chevron refinery near Los Angeles, per Bloomberg
HEY, you should check out this story by Julia Wick in the five days before the filing deadline in the LA Mayor's race. And if you live in Los Angeles or care about Los Angeles, you should subscribe to LA Material - incredible team of reporters and editors launching a brand new news outlet in LA that you will love and that this city needs.
Texas is the clean energy capital of the United States. And a chunk of that is because of their easy permitting, relatively ample transmission, and highly deregulated electricity market. Abundance thinking in energy works.
This is shaping up as the most consistent finding in housing studies: Building lots of luxury housing can reduce rents at the top of the market—but the people it helps most are renters struggling to afford even the least desirable units
WTF. The random 35-story ED-1 project in Hollywood, which at 1,441 du/acre and 31 FAR is going to be the densest building in LA history, apparently broke ground this morning??
@drvolts A few years ago UCLA did a study on room usage. I often think about how useless a porch/dining room is. Why hasn't there been more innovation around how people ACTUALLY use their space in their homes?
https://t.co/fGtbLCTDjB
The whole “Death of SaaS” thing and the “American Shenzhen” vibe have gone from niche Twitter debates to very real momentum over the last few months.
It’s pretty obvious LA is shaping up to be one of the most important startup hubs in the world.
A couple years ago, I wondered if it was a mistake not to live in SF full-time. I grew up in the Bay Area and I’m still up there all the time, so it felt like the center of gravity.
Now it feels flipped. Not spending real time in Los Angeles might actually be the bigger mistake.
A lot of developer friends ask how we design and build beautiful buildings with budgets that beat far less attractive projects.
There are many levers.
But most deals quietly die in one place:
Structure.
Here are some pro tips, particularly for multifamily podium design:
Column grid
Keep it tight: 24–28 ft max.
Go wider and you trigger thicker PT slabs, drop panels, punching shear steel, and endless MEP conflicts. The last one might be the most painful, but the first two are the most expensive.
Load path
Never shift columns between floors.
Transfers = heavier structure, more rebar, slower schedules, real money burned. Don’t approve a schematic design layout before this is flushed out.
Slabs & soils
Bad soils force thicker slabs, mats, piles. Foundation costs can jump 2–3×. Choose sites carefully. Get good soils. Expansive soils? We’re out.
MEPs
Stack wet walls. Have dedicated plumbing walls with no structural value. Lock sleeves early. Another killer: Bathrooms over columns or even electrical rooms. Late MEP coordination are how “on-budget” jobs blow up in the field.
Shear & hold-downs
Maintain continuous exterior wall zones (~12–16”) from podium to roof.
Clean load paths = less steel, simpler inspections, better seismic performance.
Wood framing
Align shear walls with column grids.
Misalignment adds transfer forces and structural weight you don’t get paid for. Again, don’t even go past schematic phase until this is sorted out. Only exception. Facade area.
Cost effective constructions isn’t about cheap finishes. They’re about disciplined structure, driven by architectural design logic. Get this right, you’re half way there. Get it wrong, no amount of value engineering will save you.