Maybe I’ve been wrong about Farmers Field being the worst thing that could happen to downtown L.A., a giant domed stadium plastered with digital billboards lighting up the night sky from the Hollywood Hills to the ocean. 
Maybe turning the core of the city into a prop for the TV cameras and a visual back drop for the movies is just what we deserve.
After all, this is Hollywood. It’s all make believe. It’s not like we are real people living real lives. L.A. is just a stage and we the people are just bit players, bystanders who have seen billions of our tax dollars flow into downtown like a river into the sea for no other purpose than to enrich the rich.
The latest design put forward by AEG for its NFL stadium is just another in a long line of bait-and-switches. It doesn’t have a dome or a retractable roof’; it’s got plastic wings like it’s ready to fly off somewhere far away, which truly would be the best thing that could happen. Plastic panels that supposedly will take hours to haul out from beneath the stadium can be put over the top for events like the Auto Show and conventions to preserve the myth that there is a public benefit because Farmers Field is an “events center,” not a stadium.
There never was a doubt that Tim Leiweke’s claim the stadium would cost $1.2 billion was a blatant lie when enclosed stadiums cost closer to $2 billion even if they don’t need a lot of reinforced steel because of the earthquake danger.
The newest concept from the architect Gensler — the firm that got $1 million in federal poverty funds and a three-year business tax holiday among other gratuities to move downtown from Santa Monica to be closer to this boondoggle — may have the same problems.
Given that AEG somehow expects to have its environmental impact report finished for review in two months, even before the architectural and engineering plans are complete, is sure to make the CEQA review process a battleground, which explains why the company spent so heavily and passed out so many chits to politicians for free tickets in the future in order to limit the legal process.
Now, AEG is proposing to provide us with multi-colored light shows reflecting off the translucent wings, adding to the surreal glow from dozens of flashing digital billbaords inside and outside the stadium and rebuilt Convention Center and the artificiality of LA Live.
“The after-dark renderings AEG released Tuesday showing the stadium as a canvas for showy light effects are a particularly depressing reflection of AEG’s design priorities and its interest in using the project to extend the permabright placelessness of its corner of downtown,”
wrote LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne who condemned the first version of the stadium over what it would do to the downtown streetscrape and found the latest incarnation only slightly better.
“The only way to rescue this design is for the architects
to display the courage of their convictions (or to convince AEG to let them do
so), ditching the wings and trimming back the structure to a far more dramatic
degree. This is a moment when light, efficient, minimal gestures make a great
deal of sense in stadium design. They match our economic realities and the
larger cultural mood. More than a few young architects are looking back for
inspiration at Frei Otto’s light, tensile designs for the 1972 Munich Olympics, a
project whose combination of innovation and modesty seems increasingly timely
in our era of the Occupy movement’s tent cities and other examples of
makeshift, micro-budget architecture.”
Hawthorne’s judgment: “The result is an odd and unsuccessful amalgam: overscaled, grandiose wings above, light and transparent touches below.”
Maybe he’s wrong, too.
Gaudy, gauche, grandiose — what could better reflect mentality of the business, civic and political leadership of L.A. than a made for TV stadium that symbolizes the only value they understand: naked greed.
That’s what it’s all about, that’s what it has always been about.
I may be wrong but didn’t the Board of Supervisors just pass an ordinance this week stating that no bright lights, digital billboards etc after 10pm? LA doesn’t even have a team yet and AEG with its arrogance continues to put out headlines like this.
Yuk! Blaach! Barf! Gag me with a spoon!
And remember,folks. This won’t cost us peons one centavo, one franc, one cent, one drachma, one euro, one deutchmark. Nada! Nothing! Zilch! Just a bazillion dollars in bonds…but no real money.
That’s right. No real money for the stadium in search of a team. Except the money for team DWP, because they’re going to have to build a power plant just to light that monstrosity. And we all know that’s just what we need — more eye blight and blocking out the beautiful light of the stars.
Yuk! Blaach! Barf! Gag me with a spoon!
And remember,folks. This won’t cost us peons one centavo, one franc, one cent, one drachma, one euro, one deutchmark. Nada! Nothing! Zilch! Just a bazillion dollars in bonds…but no real money.
That’s right. No real money for the stadium in search of a team. Except the money for team DWP, because they’re going to have to build a power plant just to light that monstrosity. And we all know that’s just what we need — more eye blight and blocking out the beautiful light of the stars.
L.A. County is set to PROTECT homeowners from “light-blight” in baning the flashing lights and crap after 10pm! Cities like Calabasas/Malibu/Topanga/Monte Nido where the 1% live, are DEMANDING the Board of Stupid-visors ban all lights where it’s dark at night!
But here’s a good question?===DID YOU SEE PAGE 1 OF THE DAILY NEWS TODAY ABOUT A NEW DWP $5.00 A MONTH SURCHARGE FOR WATER? How about JACK-ASS HUMPHREYVILLE SAYING HE SUPPORTS THIS RATE PAYER THIEVERY!!!!! Why this tax? BECAUSE YOU THE DWP CUSTOMER LET YOUR LAWN DIE LAST SUMMER (LIKE ME) AND CONSERVED TOOOO MUCH WATER! Because we all let our lawns die, we get REWARDED WITH A $60/YEAR EXTRA WATER TAX!
THANKS JACK-ASS HUMPHREYVILLE FOR “LOOKING OUT” FOR US RATEPAYERS. So you should have had a nice lawn for the summer—you should of wasted water.
I’ll leave you with the most unusual quote:
“I USE AND WASTE ALL THE WATER AND ELECTRIC I CAN SO THE ILLEGALS CAN’T USE IT, I LEAVE ALL MY LIGHTS ON 24/7 AND JUST DROWN MY LAWN ALL YEAR, SCREW CONSERVATION…”
GUESS WHO SAID THIS? THE LATE GREAT TERRY ANDERSON! R.I.P. MY VERY BRILLIANT FORTUNETELLER
FRIEND!!!!
Yuk! Blaach! Barf! Gag me with a spoon!
And remember,folks. This won’t cost us peons one centavo, one franc, one cent, one drachma, one euro, one deutchmark. Nada! Nothing! Zilch! Just a bazillion dollars in bonds…but no real money.
That’s right. No real money for the stadium in search of a team. Except the money for team DWP, because they’re going to have to build a power plant just to light that monstrosity. And we all know that’s just what we need — more eye blight and blocking out the beautiful light of the stars.
Wings or not, that thing looks 1000 times better than the Broad, which looks like something out of an Alien movie