BuBees beehive: modern architecture for the urban bee

Backyard beekeeping is the buzz of urban farming, with some wanting to replenish bees disappearing through Colony Collapse Disorder and others simply wanting to harvest home-grown honey. Now a Malibu business called BuBees is making beehives that are as fashionable as the city dwellers keeping them.

Designed by commercial artist and Art Center College of Design graduate Steve Steere, the $300 hives are a blend of form and function. A so-called top bar design, BuBees beehives mimic the way bees live in nature. The 36-by-18-inch living space is equipped with 24 bars, under which the bees build their combs. Two solid boards that run the width of the hive can be moved to make the space smaller or larger depending on how many bees adopt the hive. A viewing window lets beekeepers see inside the space, which can accommodate thousands of the pollinators.

For beekeepers who want honey, the top bar system allows easy harvesting. Just lift out one of the bars, cut off the comb and smash it in a bucket.

Behind-the-scenes tours of Carpinteria flower farms

The Carpinteria Greenhouse and Nursery Tours are Saturday, a chance for gardeners and flower fans to get an insider's view into the world of cut flowers by taking a greenhouse or field tour. Participants also can buy flowers directly from the growers.

The fourth annual self-guided tours are hosted by eight flower farms and the Santa Barbara County Flower & Nursery Growers' Assn. The Carpinteria valley is one of the most prolific cut flower-growing regions in the state, and on the drive north from Los Angeles toward Santa Barbara, it's impossible to ignore what seem like acres of greenhouses lining U.S. 101 -- polychromatic explosions of blooms destined for florists, supermarkets and farmers markets.

Erik Van Wingerden of Myriad Flowers said visitors to his family's farm will see one of California's last major rose-growing operations, where more than 10 million rose stems are produced annually.

"Seventy-five percent of what we grow are roses," he said. "We have hybrid teas, sweetheart roses and spray roses. As for the rest, we grow pompom chrysanthemums, dahlias, ranunculus, solidago, sunflowers, gladiolas and irises."

Gerbera grower Winfred Van Wingerden, Erik's cousin and president of Maximum Nursery, said when visitors tour his greenhouses and see jelly-bean-colored blooms covering 4.5 acres, "there's a wow effect -- it's totally magical."

Two floats bring California flowers back to Rose Parade

Back in 1890 — when the population of Pasadena was 4,882 and the Rose Parade was in its earliest iteration — members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with hundreds of blooms to showcase the region's abundance of flowers, even in winter.

“In New York, people are buried in snow,” Charles F. Holder said at a club meeting, according to historical accounts. “Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.”

But somewhere along the way in the decades since, Pasadena began to import its paradise. The colorful flower petals and shiny green leaves decorating Rose Parade floats were less likely grown in California's rose fields and more often flown in from abroad, a reflection of global shifts in the floral trade.

“The Rose Parade began as a way to flaunt California's year-round beautiful weather by showcasing its bounty of flowers,” said Kasey Cronquist, chief executive of the California Cut Flower Commission. “Ironically, today, most floats feature flowers sourced from overseas.”

The kicker came last January. Passion Growers, a U.S. importer of South American-grown roses, signed on as a corporate sponsor of the pageant and was billed as “the official rose of the Rose Bowl.”

“It was embarrassing,” said Mike A. Mellano, production vice president at Mellano & Co. and a third-generation flower grower based in Oceanside. “Here we have this iconic domestic event, and California flowers are not even recognized as a part of it.”

That was the impetus, Mellano said, to make sure two of the 44 floats traveling along Colorado Boulevard on Monday are decorated in locally grown roses as well as California gerbera daisies, field mums, alstroemeria, solidago and gypsophila. The last time any Rose Parade float was decorated with 100% California-grown ingredients was — well, it has been so long, officials aren't quite sure.

“It would have been decades ago,” said Rick Jackson, president of the Tournament of Roses, who has been with the organization since 1975. “The only decorating rule we have is that everything on the float has to be covered with something organic in its natural state.”

Modern living: A 2011 spin on a 1951 photo

The Times photo studio was abuzz (and aflame) earlier this week as we re-created an October 1951 Los Angeles Times Home Magazine cover, swapping out the furniture of the past  with California design of the present.

Inspired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's authentic restaging of that 1951 scene, the Home crew earlier this month took key elements -- indoor armchair, patio chair, planter, fire feature and so on -- and nominated contemporary California designers and manufacturers who embodied modern living. We added a category, pet beds, to acknowledge the larger role that pets play in our lives (and our pocketbooks). Then we asked you to vote.

More than 6,700 votes were cast, and the designs pictured in the photo at top represent your favorites, assembled and staged by writers David A. Keeps and Lisa Boone with an assist from Katy McNerney. Your choices -- a rechargeable LED outdoor lamp, a computer-cut room divider and more -- spoke volumes about what modern living means today.

PHOTOS: California design poll nominees and winners

INTERACTIVE KEY: The 2011 photo deconstructed

Mash Studios' ModSeries, a top-shelf bookcase

In thinking about California design that truly embodies the idea of modern living, the Home crew kept returning to the new ModSeries shelving system created by Bernard Brucha, founder of Mash Studios in Venice.

Why? Take a look at this adorable ModSeries video and you'll discover what won us over: a modular system that has a clean, Scandinavian vibe coupled with practical versatility.

The components are shipped flat and assembled at home with one Allen wrench (included), but the construction is solid: The system is based on cubbies made of powder-coated steel uprights and shelves made of wood (shown in pine here but available in other finishes). Each cubby is 24 inches wide, 13.5 inches high and 15.5 inches deep, and it can be configured with doors (plain wood or upholstered), drawers or a drop-down desktop, right.

The units can be built as nightstands, dressers and low media consoles. Construct them as tall towers joined together and you've got a wall unit that appears to float on thin, metal plate legs.

For pricing and delivery time: Mash Studios, (310) 313-4700.

LACMA re-creates 1951 Times photo for 'Modern Way' exhibit

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will open “California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way” on Saturday with a 60-year-old magazine cover brought to life. An October 1951 cover of the L.A. Times Home magazine has been re-created as part of the exhibit, complete with plastic Eames armchair, Van Keppel-Green cord patio furniture and other pieces of modern living. It's a scene that Times editors presented with the headline: “What Makes the California Look.”

Full article: LACMA re-creates 1951 Home cover

“People are still clamoring for accessible modernism, and these pieces fulfill that desire as well as speak to interest in the past and in how people lived when there was promise and hope, the dawning of a new age,” said Bobbye Tigerman, co-curator of the show. “It speaks to contemporary desires and hearkening back to old times.”

ALSO:

"California Design 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way"

Time-lapse video: Eames House living room moved to museum

Eames House launches preservation project

-- David Hay

Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times

Julius pot from Potted gets its groove back

The Julius pot is back -- and with it a tale about just how hard it's becoming for California designers to manufacture their latest looks locally.

In 2009 Annette Gutierrez and Mary Gray, owners of Potted in Atwater Village, introduced the Julius -- "a modern, sexy pot with a curve and a little pedestal," Gutierrez said, and a tribute to the late architectural photographer Julius Shulman. Back then, Potted worked with a small, local ceramics factory to produce the planter. "We did a couple runs, and then he went out of business," Gutierrez said.

In its short life, the retro planter was popular with landscape designers who liked how it graced the poolside and the patio. The Julius was used at the Geffen Playhouse and in the model residences at the W in Hollywood.

"It was our best seller, but suddenly we couldn't find anyone locally to make it," Gutierrez said.

So the Julius was shelved as Gutierrez and Gray looked for another local manufacturer who could turn out consistent colors and forms in small quantities. "Every year, the number of Los Angeles ceramics factories has dwindled," Gutierrez said. "And because of its size, the larger Julius design doesn't even fit into most local kilns, so that made it even more difficult."

Graze Organic's reusable, washable cloth lunch bags

Parents can be serious -- even obsessive -- about finding eco-friendly, reusable, BPA-free lunchboxes for their children. Kids can be just as picky.

My 13-year-old? She just wants something that looks cool.

So when I came home from the Renegade Craft Fair with Graze Organic's pretty zinnia lunch bag, shown above, my daughter snatched it for herself before I could explain that I had bought it for me.

Measuring 11.5 inches long, 7.5 inches wide and 5 inches deep, the cloth lunchbag is roomy. The sturdy cotton construction makes the bag easy to collapse, so kids can stash it in a backpack when lunch is done. And when it gets dirty or starts smelling funky, you just toss it in the washing machine.

The lunch bag that I bought endured a beating at my daughter's dusty horse camp last week. I was impressed.

Heather Jacobs and Leslie Sarracino of Studio City have been making the reusable lunch bags and sandwich bags since 2009.

On Thursday they launched "create your own lunch kits" just in time for back-to-school season. How it works: Kids and parents can go online and choose one of three lunch bag designs -- zinnia, robot or plain. The plain version can be personalized with permanent markers or paints. Next, add two snack or sandwich bags, shown above right, and a napkin of your choice. Total price for the set: $47.

The individual large lunch bags are $29.95 apiece. That may sound steep, but Graze Organic emphasizes that the bags are 100% certified organic cotton and are silk-screened by hand with illustrations made from water-based inks. The designs include no plastic linings, and presumably kids (and grownups) can use them for years to come. In keeping with the company's green spirit, the bags are made in Los Angeles.

Graze Organic sells exclusively online.

-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits: Heather Jacobs

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TerraTrellis, a modern take on the garden trellis

Los Angeles landscape designer and artist Jennifer Gilbert Asher has reinterpreted classic garden trellises into colorful, contemporary forms. Her new TerraTrellis collection of steel tuteurs, arbors and wall trellises offers an alternative to generic metal and wood pieces at big-box stores.

"Playful architectural forms and compelling colors in the garden are what's behind this collection," said Asher, whose new pieces range from $279 to $579. Each piece was fabricated in a metal studio in south Los Angeles. The steel plant supports are hand-welded and have stainless-steel hardware and cables. They are oxide-finished or cloaked in a joyous array of powder-coat colors.

The collection's Gracie arbor, pictured at the top of the post, echoes the shape of hoop houses that dot Southern California's plant nurseries. The 5-foot Lazio trellis is a scaled-down hommage to the giant rebar sculpture that holds riotous bougainvillea at the Getty Center's Central Garden. Potted in Atwater Village will carry the line, and pieces also can be bought through the TerraTrellis website.

Keep reading to see more examples of the TerraTrellis designs...

ReUse Haus, a miniature dwelling made with used materials, on display at AltBuild

When it comes to green building, energy efficiency gets most of the attention. If reused building materials are discussed, it's usually in context of de-construction, not re-construction using materials from demolished or remodeled homes.

The ReUse Haus on display at the AltBuild Expo running through Saturday in Santa Monica focuses on the reconstruction. The mini house, left, is meant to show that a recycled home "doesn't have to look like a tree house," said Ted Reiff, co-founder of the Oakland-based deconstruction firm the Reuse People.

The Reuse People provided most of the materials for the 8-by-12-foot space, including the lumber, doors, windows and decking. "Everything is reused from buildings we ourselves have taken apart," Reiff said, noting the exceptions of paint, drywall, nails and corrugated metal. 

Reiff said his firm had deconstructed more than 1,000 buildings over the last 16 years. "If all we do is deconstruction, all we'll have is an above-ground landfill," he said. "People have to start using this stuff. We just thought it would be best to show people how easy and attractive it is."

Reiff coordinated with Wally Geer, a Ventura architect certified in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, to design the ReUse Haus. Long Beach contractor Wes Harding built it. Saturday morning, the three will conduct a panel at AltBuild titled "Remodeling With Reused Materials."

"Building with reused materials is the tail that wags the design dog. It's a reverse process from the way one ordinarily approaches design," said Geer, who sourced his materials from the Oakland and Pacoima warehouses where the Reuse People sells deconstructed materials to the public. 

"Usually, designing a project starts with a clean sheet of paper and the architect makes it happen with new materials according to the architect's vision," Geer said. Designing with reused materials is "sort of like a used building material buffet. What's there is there, and you have to pick and choose from it and put a meal together. You pick what you want and design from what you've got."

-- Susan Carpenter

Photo: ReUse Haus. Credit: Ted Reiff

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