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 scavenged Santa Monica and Redondo Beach for pebbles, and night after night, with as little cement powder as possible to stretch the budget, she would direct us in mixing wheelbarrow batches of what she called her peanut-brittle concrete.
By the 1960s, our scrappy little farmhouse was gone, replaced by a modernist home designed by a young Asian-American architect, Bob Lee. My mother lived there until she passed in 2015 at 100 years old. Meanwhile, my older brother, FuDing, was studying architecture at USC, taking me along to see the greats—Frank Lloyd Wright, Lloyd Wright, Lautner. Inspired, I wrote my first school essay on Le Corbusier in 8th grade. I was 12 and had my own bedroom. At 14, I had a salvaged Vespa motor scooter, no license, and all of LA as my playground. I raced through Mulholland Drive, San Pedro to Malibu, Pasadena to Palm Springs.
LA in the ‘50s was a feast of flavors. Downtown’s Clif’s Cafeteria, Bob’s Big Boy, Cupid’s Hot Dogs, Phillipe’s French Dip, and the original Tommie’s Hamburger on the corner of Alvarado and 6th. Back when sushi was still an oddity in Japantown, I was there, eating raw fish before anyone cared to understand it.
Decades later, I find myself designing homes across California, layering my upbringing into every detail. LA is scrappy, ever-changing, yet deeply rooted in reinvention. My story is LA’s story—one of grit, resilience, and the pursuit of something greater.
As folks navigate rebuilding their dreams and homes, we will also reinvent how we build. Contact us with any questions or consultations on your project – Cheng Design is here to help and offer assistance.