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February 2025

Design as Healing – Turning Loss Into Beauty Food for thought

Design as Healing – Turning Loss Into Beauty

Fire, earthquake, riots—Los Angeles knows destruction. But it also knows renewal. Wildfires sweep through, leaving nothing but scorched earth and memories. The 1994 Northridge earthquake shattered buildings, only for the city to quietly retrofit and reinforce them while life continued. After each disaster, we rebuild, but rebuilding should be more than just restoring what was lost—it should be an opportunity to create something better, safer, more intentional. I’ve spent decades designing homes that blend beauty with resilience. Fire-resistant materials like concrete and metal roofs drastically reduce a home’s vulnerability to…
Sarah Owens
February 19, 2025
From Peanut-Brittle Concrete to Dream Homes – My LA Story Food for thought

From Peanut-Brittle Concrete to Dream Homes – My LA Story

Los Angeles is my homeland. It’s where I ate my first 10-cent McDonald’s burger and a 5-cent bag of fries. Where I learned to pee in a jar rather than wake my family while we sat rapt at the Victory Drive-in. My mother, ever resourceful, made our farmhouse driveway in Van Nuys with her own homemade concrete. She and my father, with five boys crammed into a ’47 Nash Hudson, would haul sand from the open banks of the LA River in Pacoima, stuffing it into used rice sacks. We…
FuTung Cheng
February 3, 2025
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