Lecture Response: Criticized a Maltzan Building Lately?

Response to Michael Maltzan: “Scales of the City”

From cityscapes to hero shots to residential vignettes, Michael Maltzan’s lecture covered a lot of ground. So, what did he leave out? Maltzan offered a precise commentary on his ambitious and varied body of work. He expertly delivered insights into building in Los Angeles—his career-defining city, where his shiny white buildings stand out in the messy cityscape—while characterizing his other projects as canonically “not in Los Angeles”. My row in Hastings was hypnotized by the neat package of his oeuvre. Seemingly perfected, airtight statements are perhaps a necessary skill for successfully building affordable housing.

The glare of Maltzan’s white buildings against the gritty city left burns on our retinas, and with it, questions about material culture. In response, he framed the bright stucco façade of the Skid Row housing project as a canvas for the neighborhood, albeit no one tags it with graffiti—insinuating a collective reverence. The same city, he shared, rioted in the streets after the Rodney King verdict in 1992, an event that changed his practice. These complicated stories situated the idealized object within its messy reality. And the images were the strongest precisely when people entered the frame: residents loitering amid the pinks and greens of 26 Point 2 Apartments, or a wedding proposal on the Sixth Street Viaduct.

Ironically, from Google Street View, the façade of the Skid Row housing has actually been tagged and painted over several times. If it truly is a canvas, maybe they should keep the graffiti.