the CLUI celebrated
its Landscape Information Center development
program with the creation of a regional exhibit at the Center’s
Los Angeles display space last Fall. The exhibit focuses on some
of the compelling and dramatic elements of the Southern California
landscape, and includes several projects that have been produced
by the CLUI on the subject over the past few years, including Emergency
State: First Responder and Law Enforcement Training Architecture; Loop
Feedback Loop: The Big Picture of Traffic Control in Los Angeles; One
Wilshire: Telco Hotel Central; Curious
Orange: Points of View of the Landscape of Orange County; Terminal
Island; Ground
Up: Photographs of the Ground in the Margins of Los Angeles;
and Aerial
Survey of the Inland Empire. More regional programs are being
prepared for the space.
In order to fit a lot of information into a small space, the
exhibits have been converted to an electronic format, with images
and text presented on a collection of screens installed in kiosks.
High resolution CRT monitors have been used, giving the digitally
acquired imagery their best look in their native habitat.
Also in the space are displays that enable visitors to tour
hundreds of points of interest in Southern California, letting
their fingers to do the exploring on a touch-sensitive scalable
map. Monitors and workstations also allow access to other CLUI
programs and exhibits, and allow access to the Center’s
Land Use Database, which covers the whole nation. A wall of brochures
in the entrance provides information on points of interest across
the country, as well as locally. The Center’s book shop
has an extensive “regional” section, featuring titles
about the southern California landscape, as well as selected
notable titles that explore landscape issues in general.
At the heart of the Landscape Information Center program is
the establishment of regional Landscape Information Centers,
or “LICs,” at selected locations around the United
States. In Troy, New York, the Center’s northeast office
will be opening a LIC this summer. A building currently undergoing
renovations at the Center’s Wendover, Utah complex will
open as the LIC for the Great Basin area within a year’s
time. And new displays are under construction at the Center’s
Desert Research Station site, where, once completed, the publicly
accessible building will be rechristened as the LIC for the Mojave
Desert area.
The LIC program has been part of the conceptual framework for
the Center for Land Use Interpretation since the inception of
the organization. Though it has had a few different names over
the years, the objectives have always been the same: to create
a network of regional interpretive facilities that serve the
public as a source of information about the built landscapes
that surround all of us. The official announcement of the program
comes at a time when the Center has finally secured the resources
to perform the necessary work to implement the program. “Its
been a slow process, but through the continued support of our
friends and benefactors, we have been able to make the transition
from just operating regional offices and assorted programs at
disparate locations, to operating a network of Landscape Information
Centers at these locations,” said CLUI Program Manager
Matthew Coolidge. Announcements of the opening of other LICs
will be made over the next few years.
The Landscape Information Center in Los Angeles is open to the
public Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12-5pm. The conversion
of the public storefront space in Los Angeles to a Landscape
Information Center does not exclude the use of the space for
periodic presentations and exhibits about other aspects of the
American landscape. Occasional special programs will be presented,
as scheduling and resources permit. And one display wall hosts
periodically changing, timely exhibits about land use issues
and themes, such as the exhibit Vacation:
Dauphin Island, currently
on view. |
