thanks for the insightful replies everyone! living on the Westside of Los Angeles, I see a lot more of the high-end residential stuff, much of which adheres to a cookie-cutter “Los Angeles garden” look – but there is the creative and unique stuff out there too. Every time I go downtown I am amazed by some of the public space work that is going on. Anyone else see the movie 500 Days of Summer? I loved it for showing off downtown LA and its architecture – not the normal Beverly Hills and palm trees stuff you usually see in LA-based films.
Also, I’d imagine that a lot of Los Angeles work has to be much more team-structured – when it comes to both individuals and multiple firms collaborating – when designing around concerns like earthquakes and wildfires. Maybe that’s why SoCal LAs sometimes are relegated more of a “decorator” role, as someone said above.
