#davechan

If you build it, they will come.

Keep Venice weird.

Step it up.

In my field research, I became interested in the layers of decommissioned relics of the built environment resulting from natural and human influence on the landscape. I was also inspired by my Critical Worldviews class to invite the element of time.

Though their primary role was to evoke the old world charm of Venice, Italy, the canals also functioned as part of Kinney's transportation plan for the development. In 1905, the automobile had barely dawned on the Southland, and so Kinney laid out Venice of America at the pedestrian's scale. Visitors would arrive by interurban streetcar or steam railroad and once there could reach the entire community and its various amusements by footpath. The canals -- as well as a miniature railroad that circled the development -- provided an alternative to walking. Gondoliers rowed tourists through the canals for a fee, serenading their passengers in Italian. Homeowners, meanwhile, navigated the system of waterways by canoe or boat.

The Watts Towers are more remarkable when you know they were the vision of one man, a semi-literate Italian immigrant who worked, with no outside help and only the most elemental tools, nearly every day for 34 years to build a monument at once impenetrably personal and joyously communal.

For 30 years, the AC100 has blazed a trail through the Angeles National Forest, in the backyard of Los Angeles. The 180 or so runners who experience it every year can thank Ken Hamada, the race director and its founder. Hamada was running ultras in the 1980s when most were courses of multiple loops. He wanted a 100-miler that "starts somewhere" and "goes somewhere," and he enlisted friends and volunteers to develop the route and organize the first AC100 in 1986. Much of the trail winds through pine and Douglas fir forest. Some trees are more than 2,000 years old. Other trees are dead and ashen-colored from recent fires, including ones that forced the cancellation of the race in 2002 and 2009. The terrain of the trail -- rocks, tree roots, inclines -- threatens twisted ankles and falls along some steep ledges. Running up and down mountains means greater physical demand than simply a long race. Elevation affects breathing, weather can add impediments and even danger, and the terrain of the trail -- rocks, tree roots, inclines -- threatens twisted ankles and falls along some steep ledges. In addition, there is the challenge of running by the light of a headlamp, all night long. The highest peak on the course is more than 9,000 feet above sea level, nearly the top of Mount Baden-Powell. But it's not necessarily the most challenging stage. Many runners would agree that distinction goes to Mount Wilson, a 4½-mile climb that begins an exhausting three-quarters of the way through the race and is usually climbed under the stars. The foot (and hoof) race that pits humans against horses" That is where the race really begins," explained Hamada. After 75 miles and 20-plus hours of running, "your gas tank is empty, and your hubcaps are spinning off. Then you have to deal a real big challenge: Mount Wilson. And that is really the moment of truth for most runners in the race, because ... there is no easy way out except making it to the finish line.”

Bergamot Station Arts Station, recently changed ownership and name to “26th Street Art Center” (Santa Monica), Mt. Baldy (San Gabriel Mountains)