Beneath and around it is a public park that the museum has named the African Ancestors Memorial Garden. It’s clearly conceived as a tribute to victims of the torturous Atlantic Ocean crossing known as the Middle Passage, and specifically to those who arrived, dead or alive, at this very spot. Ghostly images — life-size silhouettes of bodies packed together, shoulder to shoulder, as if in a ship’s hold — appear to be carved into the garden’s pavement. Yet surrounding, and softening, this sepulchral frieze are signs of new life and growth in the form of plantings, designed by the landscape artist Walter J. Hood, of lush vegetation: palm trees native to Africa, sweet grass native to South Carolina.

“It’s essentially a giant back porch,” says Kevin Daly, referring to that classic southern domestic social space. The 65-year-old Los Angeles-based architect, who designed the building in collaboration with Mexican office Productora, studied at Houston’s Rice University and knows the city well. “We wanted to create the feeling of a relaxed, open relationship to the public, and a place where discussions can spill outdoors.” Read all about the Houston Endowment by kdA in The Guardian.

Alexandra Lange speaks with Escher GuneWardena regarding this house originally designed by the midcentury-modern architect Gregory Ain. It receives a new life after a fire, thanks to good bones and forensic grit.

Occupying on a natural promontory, adjacent to Raphael Soriano’s iconic Lipetz House from 1936, Bestor Architecture‘s contemporary ‘House Stepping Down a Hill’ overlooks Los Angeles. With this new residential project, the LA-based design team pays homage to its early modernist neighbor to create a dialogue between past and present.

AUX Architecture speaks with Carolina Miranda about the new GKPAC in Culver City. Vista Del Mar provides a range of educational, counseling and mental health services for minors who live both on and off the site. The idea for the new Kaufman center (funded by one L.A.'s most dedicated dance patrons) is to create a space that will serve Vista’s clients as much as it will the larger dance community.

Midnight Room is a new guest house/studio and re-envisioning of the family backyard in Atwater Village. The design is centered around the connection between the two structures and a mirroring of the program. Featured in the LAT, Yahoo, Azure, Wallpaper and others.