Thank you for joining Next American City in Los Angeles for our kick off to the Urbanexus series! Over the course of three days, we met over 150 new friends as we engaged Los Angeles in a series of conversations covering everything from architecture in the city to the availability of local food in the neighborhood grocery stores.

On Oct. 29, nearly 50 guests attended the salon at the A+D Museum to discuss the challenges of developing built environment in LA. Our guests – Christopher Hawthorne of the Los Angeles Times and Sam Lubell of The Architect’s Newspaper – shared their own perspectives as guests questioned the pros and cons of architecture in their own neighborhoods.

On Oct. 31, Next American City and over 100 guests explored Los Angeles’ hidden gem, Farmlab. The afternoon lunch, courtesy of Farmlab, included a spread of fresh foods and vegetables including some ingredients – cactus and bananas – grown on the premises! Occidental College’s Mark Vallianatos then took attendees through a brief history of food in Los Angeles, highlighting some of the key conversations at the moment including the lack of affordable fresh food in several neighborhoods, the demand for schools to offer healthy alternatives and the recent fast food ban.

For more information on the Urbanexus series, please send us an email at events@americancity.org.