Category Archives: Beyond Levitt

Streets for People, Not Just Cars

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If you’ve ever commuted in the city, you’ve been here.

You’re in a crowded train or bus, or maybe just alone in a car. It’s taken 20 minutes to move a mile during this particular commute. You cast longing glances at any pedestrians you can see walking by, and you’re pretty sure that the cyclist who carefully navigated between cars ten minutes ago is already two-to-three miles up the road. But there’s a reason you didn’t bike or walk: maybe there are just too many cars and you don’t feel safe, or maybe there’s not even a sidewalk.  Continue reading →

Retail Space vs. Street Sport: A Controversy Continues in London

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A photo of London's Southbank Centre

London’s Southbank Centre

In November we wrote about the whitewashing of 5 Pointz in Queens, a graffiti mecca that will soon become a residential high rise with retail space. Over the past few months, a similar controversy has been brewing between London’s Southbank Centre and the skateboarders who have been a fixture of the building’s undercroft (considered architectural dead space) for over 40 years.

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Musical Resolutions and More, Just in Time for the New Year

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Cheezburger cats make new year's resolution to spend time on treadmill by laying on it.It’s that time of the year. It seems like everyone is making plans to work out more, plan house renovations, get finances in order (no, really in order) and more. But New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be dreaded or even major commitments.

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Nobody Walks in L.A., Except for the People Who Do

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If you take time to walk around Los Angeles, you might find yourself near this cat, chicken and ninja mural, too!

If you take time to walk around Los Angeles, you might find this cat, chicken and ninja mural.

Three weeks ago, Michael Schneider of the blog Franklin Avenue led a group of 300 from Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood to the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica. It’s 18 miles, a seven-hour walk. To give you a comparable sense of the distance, walking the length of Manhattan is 13.4 miles, and walking along Lake Michigan from Chicago’s downtown Loop to north suburb Evanston is about 13 miles. In other words, it’s pretty far. Continue reading →

Don’t Let the Winter Cramp Your Style. Get Out and Play!

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823998225_25237f4512_oIn case you didn’t know, Levitt Pavilions is based in Los Angeles. While we don’t see snow in the city, many of us are originally from cold weather climates (Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska) or have spent significant time in places that can get very, very cold. So when we see creative placemaking projects that involve snow, we get really excited. OK, I get really excited. I suddenly have an urge to throw a snowball, lick an icicle, grease up a metallic disc sled or watch Home Alone. Continue reading →

Enough Pie for Artists and the Community in Charleston, S.C.?

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Charleston's historic district

Charleston’s historic district

When I think of Charleston, S.C., I think of Lowcountry shrimp and grits at Martha Lou’s, the exquisitely preserved neoclassical Nathaniel Russell House and the possibility of spotting nearby resident Bill “No One Will Ever Believe You” Murray. But now residents are doing their part to put the city on the map for other reasons: art and the local creative economy.
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5 Pointz, a Street Art Mecca in Queens, Nears Demolition Day

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5 Pointz

5 Pointz

Early Tuesday morning, a warehouse building in Long Island City, Queens, had its exterior walls painted white.

This would usually not be notable. But for the past 20 years, the 109-year-old building, lovingly-known as 5 Pointz, had been a refuge for New York’s graffiti and street artists who lived, worked and exhibited in the space. Tourists by the busload flocked to see four brick stories colorfully—and legally—covered by the spray paint, sharpies and chalk of over 1500 artists from France, Japan, Brazil and beyond. Street art aficionados noted their favorite tags, while others took in the Aztecan-meets-Keith Haring murals or off-kilter, post-apocalyptic scenes. But it all disappeared on Tuesday.

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For Anthony Bourdain, Detroit is All About the People

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Anthony Bourdain at Duly's in Detroit.

Anthony Bourdain at Duly’s in Detroit.

Last weekend, CNN aired season two’s last episode of urban enthusiast and traveling-chef extraordinaire Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown. And where was the final episode filmed? Detroit.

Bourdain loves Detroit. He loves Detroiters. He loves their tough sense of humor. In a blog post devoted to the city and episode, he writes, “Detroit isn’t just a national treasure. It IS America. And wherever you may live, you wouldn’t be there—and wouldn’t be who you are in the same way—without Detroit.”

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Hot in Cleveland…and Omaha and Houston

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The "upcycled" doors of Cleveland's St. Clair. (via cleveland.com)

The “upcycled” doors of Cleveland’s St. Clair.
(via cleveland.com)

We keep hearing buzz about places like Cleveland, Omaha and Houston, where cool arts projects are redefining perceptions of what the cities are and can be. Cleveland’s St. Clair Avenue actively engages in neighborhood-wide “upcycling,” creating funky arts and crafts from discarded materials while generating business from the products. Green in the City, an Omaha-based design competition, will create a multipurpose community space and outdoor theater in that city. And Houston’s “rockabilly oasis” of Mid-Main boasts a First Thursday that not only attracts people to the neighborhood for an evening of music, art and libations, but also donates 5% of the evening’s proceeds to local nonprofits.

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