9. Utopia/Dystopia: Art and Downtown Development in Los Angeles

Aesthetics of Gentrification: Seductive Spaces and Exclusive Communities in the Neoliberal City

“…A last piece, the $1bn+ Frank Gehrydesigned Grand Avenue Project, is under construction and, when completed, will form a luxury mixeduse residential tower complex whose proponents and detractors both already compare it to New York City's Hudson Yards (Lubell 2019). In this case, as in many, gentrification bypassed resettlement, funnelling private investment into multibilliondollar projects now reading as showpieces of global capital more than they do the image of a thriving city (Peterson 2011).…”

“…But what is often missing as these issues are debated in media and public -and the arts public is no exception -is a historical understanding of how this came to be. While artists can form part of an opposition to the economic restructuring of urban space (Deutsche 1996), they just as often go unaware of their active participation in this process -their selfplacement within a complex web of transactions implicating and affecting this change (Peterson 2011). This apparent lack of awareness on the part of both existing residents and artists seeking affordable rents, has produced the caricature pitting the selfinterest of the gentrifier against the collective (and often illfated) resistance of the neighbourhood.…”

“…156279). In fact, such changes to law were spearheaded by artists themselves who had begun moving into the upper floors of disused manufacturing properties throughout the 1970s in search of cheaper rents, and organized to lobby both state and local governments for the changes (Peterson 2011). A temporary Museum of Contemporary Art founded in part by artists, today's Geffen Contemporary branch of MOCA, was opened at the area's northern edge, its buildings adapted from garage and warehouse into the raw aesthetics of studio spaces that today collectively signify the look of creativity (Newbury 2021).…”

“…A temporary Museum of Contemporary Art founded in part by artists, today's Geffen Contemporary branch of MOCA, was opened at the area's northern edge, its buildings adapted from garage and warehouse into the raw aesthetics of studio spaces that today collectively signify the look of creativity (Newbury 2021). In subsequent decades, artists themselves pushed to formalize adaptive reuse ordinances following enactments of various property tax breaks for developers working in historic districts (Peterson 2011). A 1999 adaptive reuse ordinance put into place redevelopment incen tives for individuals occupying Downtown buildings constructed before 1974 (LA City ord.…”

Aesthetics of Gentrification. Seductive Spaces and Exclusive Communities in the Neoliberal City

“…But what is often missing as these issues are debated in media and public -and the arts public is no exception -is a historical understanding of how this came to be. While artists can form part of an opposition to the economic restructuring of urban space (Deutsche 1996), they just as often go unaware of their active participation in this process -their selfplacement within a complex web of transactions implicating and affecting this change (Peterson 2011). This apparent lack of awareness on the part of both existing residents and artists seeking affordable rents, has produced the caricature pitting the selfinterest of the gentrifier against the collective (and often illfated) resistance of the neighbourhood.…”