Jane's Walk: Venice Beach, CA

Italy meets Cony Island… only in Los Angeles!

The Rose

Walking Venice

What: Jane’s Walk, Venice Beach
When: Saturday 6 May ‘17
Where: Starts at LA Louvre Gallery
Starts: In the gallery at 10:00am

I’ll be “leading” this walk, but I’m hardly an expert on this rich, historical LA treasure. Please chime in with any information and stories you can share.

Jane’s Walk LA Links

Brief intro to Jane Jacobs & Jane’s Walk
Official JWLA Home Page <– lists all walks & You can add your own walk too!
JWLA Facebook page
Jane’s Walk: Venice, CA - Sat 6 May ‘17 - Details
Jane’s Walk: Venice, CA - Sat 6 May ‘17 - Facebook Event Page
Jane’s Walk: New Taipei, CA - Sun 7 May ‘17 - Details
Jane’s Walk: New Taipei, CA - Sun 7 May ‘17 - Facebook Event Page
About Glenn

LA Louvre

Founded 42 years ago in Venice, CA, LA Louvre is an art gallery on the edge of contemporary culture. We’ll start our walk inside the gallery where we’ll meet with Assistant Director Beatrice Shen for a few stories about Venice, the gallery, and Art in Los Angeles.

Venice Boardwalk

From LA Louvre we’ll walk a short block to the beach. One right after the other we’ll visit

Muscle Beach
The Basketball Courts
Mark di Suvero Sculpture
The Art Walls
The Skate Park

All famous spots that you’ve probably been to or seen in media.

From there we’ll carry on down the boardwalk passing so many food & clothings shops, street artists & musicians, and visitors from LA and the world.

We could turn up any street, but it only makes sense to turn up the street that shares a name with Pablo Picasso’s daughter: Paloma. We’ll walk down the tiny street / alley / laneway and admire the small, adorable homes. If we survive the treacherous Paloma & Pacific street crossing, we’ll head up to Main street and Google Venice.

Google Venice

Before it was Google Venice, it was Digital Domain, and Chiat / Day, and a few other things. Once upon a time you couldn’t do “real” advertising west of Chicago. Chiat / Day changed all that. Among many legendary clients was Apple and all of the early Macintosh work. Including Ridley Scott’s legendary 1984 commercial for Macintosh. A few years after Apple fired Steve Jobs, they fired Chiat / Day. Years later when he finally returned to Apple, Steve Jobs first act was to fire their then current ad agency and rehire Chiat / Day.

When Chiat / Day wanted to build a new headquarters they hired Frank Gehry to build what would come to be known as the Ship / Binoculars / Forest building. Legend has it that sculptors Claes Oldenberg & Coosje van Bruggen were in Gehry’s studio one day, looked at the model of the building, picked up a pair of binoculars from a bookshelf, and put them in front of the model.

While the building was under construction Chiat/Day was headquartered behind the site across Hampton Drive. That location would later become the home of Digital Domain until their more recent move down to Playa Vista. While Chiat / Day had both buildings there was some concern that Hampton Drive was just a little bit like the Frogger episode of Senifeld. To spare valuable employee lives, Oldenberg & van Bruggen proposed a giant wood screw as a bridge across Hampton connecting the two buildings. The Binoculars famously did get built. The Wood Screw never did.

The Rose

Next to Binoculars-Google-Chiat/Day-Gehry-Oldenberg & van Bruggen, on the corner of Rose & Main, is the former Rose Cafe, recently remodeled and redubbed The Rose. LA Louvre opened in 1975 and The Rose Cafe opened 4 years later in 1979. Across the street from The Rose is a CVS Pharmacy with a giant Jonathan Borofsky Ballerina Clown as its front facade.

We’ll finish our walk at The Rose and settle in for some optional coffee, snacks, lunch, or whatever you like. We can stay for as much conversation as you like and optionally walk back toward LA Louvre together.