Practically speaking, Los Angeles shouldn't even exist. Naturally a desert, water has to be piped in, homes are cantilevered on shaky hills, earthquakes and wildfires constantly threaten to bring it all crashing down. Two articles in this week's Los Angeles Times take a close look at the first two issues; The Scout spotlights an item made from the ravages of third. In the first, Susan Carpenter shares her experiences installing a gray water system; in the second, a home in the Palisades solves a common challenge of hillside homes. More details, peeks and links, after the jump...
When you own your own home, all of those little things that didn't matter so much when you were a renter start to add up, including water. Suddenly, you find yourself taking shorter showers, fewer baths, watering your garden less. Being green is only one aspect of your new found water conservatisim; another aspect is the disappearance of the green in your pocket. Reusing gray water to care for your garden seems like a no-brainer. But, as Susan Carpenter puts it, "...translating desire into action is often problematic..." and the complex codes governing waste water don't help. Read 
LA's divided into three types of homes: the flats, beachfront property and the hills. The second two have one thing in common; they're built on angled sites which often means sacrificing light. Predock Frane Architects challenged themselves to overcomes this challenge; their home for client Richard Loring is an astonishingly light and breezy space. For the full story, click 
We love house tours because they allow us to take a look at how each person puts a unique stamp on their space. A new column, The Building, will compare how neighbors with similar floor plans put a personal spin on home. 
Lamps made from wood ravaged by wildfires? The Scout 
Not to be a stickler, but LA is not "naturally a desert"...
It's technically a temperate climate (mediterranean subtropical), which gets around 15 inches of rain a year.
The Los Angeles climate problem is from the systematic destruction of environment around it. Read "The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth (Creating the North American Landscape)" by Blake Gumprecht or "Ecology of Fear" by Mike Davis"! Decades of thoughtless construction and bad decisions have made this city more susceptible to fires and earthquakes.
I think this post was trying to spread the necessary awareness: more planning around the land, instead of changing it to fit our needs. Interesting ideas here, you could flush them all out into bigger topics.
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But don't forget that Davis also tried to prove that LA is the tornado capital of North America. He's got political points to make but at the expense of hard science.
A better choice is Reyner Banham's classic, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies.
The LAT's home section hasn't been good for years, and it's not getting better.
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