The Infrastructural City. Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles

255 Pages·2008·49.571 MB·English

by  Kazys Varnelis

THE
INFRASTRUCTURAL
CITY
N ETWORKED ECOLOGIES
IN LOS ANGELES
EDITED BY KAZYS VARNELIS
MAPS BY LEAH MEISTERLIN
A PUBLICATION OF
Actar Barcelona/New York
The Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design
The Network Architecture Lab,
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation,
Columbia University
04 InTroducTIon
neTworked ecologIes
Kazys Varnelis
18 landscaPe 100 faBrIc 176 oBJecTs
20 owens lake 102 TraffIc
InfrasTrucTure of BlockIng all lanes
The VoId Sean Dockray, Fiona Whitton,
Barry Lehrman Steve Rowell
34 los angeles 118 TelecoMMunIcaTIons 178 ProPerTy
rIVer waTershed InVIsIBle cITy counTIng (on) change
flood conTrol freakology Kazys Varnelis Roger Sherman
David Fletcher
130 landscaPe 206 dIsTrIBuTIon
52 oIl Tree huggers consuMers gone wIld
crude cITy Warren Techentin Deborah Richmond
Frank Ruchala
146 MoBIle Phones 218 ProPs
66 graVel cell sTrucTure sTory of The eye
MargIns In our MIdsT Ted Kane & Rick Miller Robert Sumrell
Matt Coolidge,
Center for Land Use Interpretation
PIcTurIng los angeles: The lInear cITy
Lane Barden

76 The rIVer 156 The sTreeT 236 The Trench
The los angeles rIVer wIlshIre BouleVard The alaMeda corrIdor
04 InTroducTIon
neTworked ecologIes
Kazys Varnelis
18 landscaPe 100 faBrIc 176 oBJecTs
20 owens lake 102 TraffIc
InfrasTrucTure of BlockIng all lanes
The VoId Sean Dockray, Fiona Whitton,
Barry Lehrman Steve Rowell
34 los angeles 118 TelecoMMunIcaTIons 178 ProPerTy
rIVer waTershed InVIsIBle cITy counTIng (on) change
flood conTrol freakology Kazys Varnelis Roger Sherman
David Fletcher
130 landscaPe 206 dIsTrIBuTIon
52 oIl Tree huggers consuMers gone wIld
crude cITy Warren Techentin Deborah Richmond
Frank Ruchala
146 MoBIle Phones 218 ProPs
66 graVel cell sTrucTure sTory of The eye
MargIns In our MIdsT Ted Kane & Rick Miller Robert Sumrell
Matt Coolidge,
Center for Land Use Interpretation
PIcTurIng los angeles: The lInear cITy
Lane Barden

76 The rIVer 156 The sTreeT 236 The Trench
The los angeles rIVer wIlshIre BouleVard The alaMeda corrIdor
4 5
4 5
preceding pages: Oil tanks at Chevron’s El
Segundo Refinery watch over Dockweiler
beach. The neighboring town of El Segundo, in
Los Angeles’s South Bay area, is named after
the refinery, the second such plant to be built
by Standard Oil on the West Coast.
Kazys Varnelis
INTRODUCTION
NETWORKED ECOLOGIES
Submerged a little over a mile off the coast of Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades,
an array of twenty-four silicon-iron alloy electrodes hangs suspended in concrete enclosures.
Acting as a grounding device, this structure is paired with 1,067 cast iron anodes laid out
in a 3,400-foot-wide ring, buried in a two-foot-deep trench of petroleum coke some eight
hundred fifty miles away on the Oregon-Washington border. Together, these two structures
serve the Pacific Intertie, North America’s longest, highest voltage direct current transmis-
sion line. Capable of delivering some 3,100 megawatts, the Pacific Intertie brings current 0 50 100 200
from the Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles, provid-
Miles
ing nearly half of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s capacity in the summer.
In the winter, when cooling needs in the south decline and electricity demands in the north Pacific Direct Grounding Grounding
climb, Los Angeles returns the favor, sending electricity back up the lines. Current and Alternating Pacific Direct Current Intertie Pacific Direct Current Intertie
The Pacific Intertie’s transmission towers each carry only two wires. Normally, in what Current Interties Pacific Alternating Current Intertie Pacific Alternating Current Intertie
Interstate Highways Major Rivers & Water Bodies
is called bipolar mode, one transmits current while the other acts as a ground. When a wire Source: Bonneville Power Interstate Highways
needs to be taken off-line for repairs, the remaining one is dedicated to transmitting cur- Administration, Celilo
rent. To provide the ground, the two electrodes are activated, giving electricity a return path Modernization Project Fact 0 50 100 200
Sheet, http://www.trans- Miles
through the ocean and earth itself. Conveying an invisible force between them, these two
mission. bpa.gov/PlanProj/
megalithic structures drive an entire city. Transmission_Projects/
Completed-TransP/Celilo/4-
15-03FactSheet.pdf
6 7
preceding pages: Oil tanks at Chevron’s El
Segundo Refinery watch over Dockweiler
beach. The neighboring town of El Segundo, in
Los Angeles’s South Bay area, is named after
the refinery, the second such plant to be built
by Standard Oil on the West Coast.
Kazys Varnelis
INTRODUCTION
NETWORKED ECOLOGIES
Submerged a little over a mile off the coast of Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades,
an array of twenty-four silicon-iron alloy electrodes hangs suspended in concrete enclosures.
Acting as a grounding device, this structure is paired with 1,067 cast iron anodes laid out
in a 3,400-foot-wide ring, buried in a two-foot-deep trench of petroleum coke some eight
hundred fifty miles away on the Oregon-Washington border. Together, these two structures
serve the Pacific Intertie, North America’s longest, highest voltage direct current transmis-
sion line. Capable of delivering some 3,100 megawatts, the Pacific Intertie brings current 0 50 100 200
from the Bonneville Power Administration in the Pacific Northwest to Los Angeles, provid-
Miles
ing nearly half of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s capacity in the summer.
In the winter, when cooling needs in the south decline and electricity demands in the north Pacific Direct Grounding Grounding
climb, Los Angeles returns the favor, sending electricity back up the lines. Current and Alternating Pacific Direct Current Intertie Pacific Direct Current Intertie
The Pacific Intertie’s transmission towers each carry only two wires. Normally, in what Current Interties Pacific Alternating Current Intertie Pacific Alternating Current Intertie
Interstate Highways Major Rivers & Water Bodies
is called bipolar mode, one transmits current while the other acts as a ground. When a wire Source: Bonneville Power Interstate Highways
needs to be taken off-line for repairs, the remaining one is dedicated to transmitting cur- Administration, Celilo
rent. To provide the ground, the two electrodes are activated, giving electricity a return path Modernization Project Fact 0 50 100 200
Sheet, http://www.trans- Miles
through the ocean and earth itself. Conveying an invisible force between them, these two
mission. bpa.gov/PlanProj/
megalithic structures drive an entire city. Transmission_Projects/
Completed-TransP/Celilo/4-
15-03FactSheet.pdf
6 7
For John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and eighteenth-century electrotherapist, this Scattergood
force—electricity—was nothing less than “the Soul of the Universe.”1 But Wesley had little Generating Plant
inkling of just how electrification would transform life. Less than two centuries later, looms over Dockweiler
State Beach.
the Soul of the Universe was captured from the wild rivers of the American West as they
rushed down mountainous slopes, fueling the growth of the region.
With its promise to harness untamable nature and transform it into paradise for man so
appealing to the inhabitants of the frontier, infrastructure is the only theology that really
took hold in the American West. Facing the vast and unknown American continent, its
awesome terrain unprecedented in Europe, colonists confronted the sublime. Through
such wonders as Death Valley, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite Valley, North
America was capable of overwhelming the senses. The European mind swiftly set out to
dominate this wild nature. By overpowering the wilderness mentally through exploration
and mapping, then taming it physically, by reshaping the sublime terrain for their own
purposes, settlers created a justification for their own existence. On the basis of this capacity
to exploit the land, Americans held to the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny.” They assumed it a
divine mission to expand westward and bend the continent to their will.2 If farming turned
the great vastness of the plains into geometric regularity, infrastructure reshaped the West.
The building of bridges, the damming of rivers, the harnessing of electricity, even the con-
struction of long-distance telecommunications lines proved the legitimacy of man to God by
showing his ability to make use of the land.
The frontier is only the most dramatic place that infrastructure and theology came
together. As Colin Rowe observes in The Architecture of Good Intentions, modern architecture
understood itself as a religion, promising that “the Good Works” would result in the estab-
lishment of Paradise on Earth. Modernists believed in the virtues of the plan, the capacity of
a clear idea to bring order to the chaos of the metropolis.3 In implementing the plan, modern
architecture relied on infrastructure above all else. A city’s modernity is dependent on its
infrastructure, something we can see in the Haussmannization of Paris, the technologi-
cal landscapes of Tony Garnier’s Cité Industrielle, or the wild, electric fantasies of Antonio Infrastructural City Founded in 1850, Los Angeles is the epitome of the modern city, a prod-
Sant’Elia’s Città Nuova. Modern architecture would be mere pastiche without the infra- uct of infrastructure. Whereas New York’s modernity is enacted on a grid made for pedestri-
structure to support it, nothing but new clothes for an old body. The engineer, Le Corbusier ans and horses, Los Angeles is laid out according to the progressive ideals of the decongested
concluded, “puts us in accord with natural law.” Only after the engineer laid down a founda- metropolis, planned for the efficient movement of trolleys cars and, later, automobiles.
tion could the architect start to create beauty through form.4 If the West was dominated by the theology of infrastructure, Los Angeles was its Rome.
Infrastructure also captured the popular imagination. Americans came to accept modern- Cobbled together out of swamp, floodplain, desert, and mountains, short of water and
ism through bridges and dams before they accepted it in buildings. Only once the massive painfully dependent on far-away resources to survive, Los Angeles is sited on inhospitable
burst of infrastructure building under the New Deal accustomed Americans to the idea that terrain, located where the continent runs out of land. No city should be here. Its ecological
massive structures based on functionalism and technology would lead it to economic pros- footprint greater than the expansive state it resides in, Los Angeles exists by grace of infra-
perity could modern architecture spread in the United States. structure, a life-support system that has transformed this wasteland into the second largest
metropolis in the country.5 Nor was this lost on Angelenos. They understood that their city’s
growth depended on infrastructure and celebrated that fact. After all, what other city would
name its most romantic road after a water-services engineer?
Los Angeles, then, provides an ideal case study for a book on infrastructure. To be sure,
1 John Wesley, The Desideratum: Or, Electricity Made Plain and Useful By a Lover of Man and Common Sense
(London: Ballière, Tindall, and Cox, 1759), 9. it is a unique condition, but it is also a modern city par excellence. As Ed Soja has observed,
2 On the role of the sublime in America and the technological sublime see David E. Nye, American Technologi- Los Angeles is both an exception and the rule, a singular instance that reveals generic condi-
cal Sublime, (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994). On a discussion of infrastructure as theology in the tions.6 This is our point of departure for this book.
American West see Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: the American West and its Disappearing Water, (New York:
Penguin Books, 1993).
3 Colin Rowe, The Architecture of Good Intentions. Towards a Possible Retrospect (London: Academy Editions, 5 Worldwatch Institute, “What is your Ecological Footprint?” World Watch (April 2000),
1994). http://www.nwf.org/nwfWebAdmin/binaryVault/CoC_ecofootprint.pdf, 1.
4 Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, trans. Frederick Etchells (1931; New York: Dover, 1986), 1. Corbusier 6 Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (New York: Verso,
repeats the passage for emphasis on 11. 1989), 191.
8 9
For John Wesley, the founder of Methodism and eighteenth-century electrotherapist, this Scattergood
force—electricity—was nothing less than “the Soul of the Universe.”1 But Wesley had little Generating Plant
inkling of just how electrification would transform life. Less than two centuries later, looms over Dockweiler
State Beach.
the Soul of the Universe was captured from the wild rivers of the American West as they
rushed down mountainous slopes, fueling the growth of the region.
With its promise to harness untamable nature and transform it into paradise for man so
appealing to the inhabitants of the frontier, infrastructure is the only theology that really
took hold in the American West. Facing the vast and unknown American continent, its
awesome terrain unprecedented in Europe, colonists confronted the sublime. Through
such wonders as Death Valley, Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, and Yosemite Valley, North
America was capable of overwhelming the senses. The European mind swiftly set out to
dominate this wild nature. By overpowering the wilderness mentally through exploration
and mapping, then taming it physically, by reshaping the sublime terrain for their own
purposes, settlers created a justification for their own existence. On the basis of this capacity
to exploit the land, Americans held to the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny.” They assumed it a
divine mission to expand westward and bend the continent to their will.2 If farming turned
the great vastness of the plains into geometric regularity, infrastructure reshaped the West.
The building of bridges, the damming of rivers, the harnessing of electricity, even the con-
struction of long-distance telecommunications lines proved the legitimacy of man to God by
showing his ability to make use of the land.
The frontier is only the most dramatic place that infrastructure and theology came
together. As Colin Rowe observes in The Architecture of Good Intentions, modern architecture
understood itself as a religion, promising that “the Good Works” would result in the estab-
lishment of Paradise on Earth. Modernists believed in the virtues of the plan, the capacity of
a clear idea to bring order to the chaos of the metropolis.3 In implementing the plan, modern
architecture relied on infrastructure above all else. A city’s modernity is dependent on its
infrastructure, something we can see in the Haussmannization of Paris, the technologi-
cal landscapes of Tony Garnier’s Cité Industrielle, or the wild, electric fantasies of Antonio Infrastructural City Founded in 1850, Los Angeles is the epitome of the modern city, a prod-
Sant’Elia’s Città Nuova. Modern architecture would be mere pastiche without the infra- uct of infrastructure. Whereas New York’s modernity is enacted on a grid made for pedestri-
structure to support it, nothing but new clothes for an old body. The engineer, Le Corbusier ans and horses, Los Angeles is laid out according to the progressive ideals of the decongested
concluded, “puts us in accord with natural law.” Only after the engineer laid down a founda- metropolis, planned for the efficient movement of trolleys cars and, later, automobiles.
tion could the architect start to create beauty through form.4 If the West was dominated by the theology of infrastructure, Los Angeles was its Rome.
Infrastructure also captured the popular imagination. Americans came to accept modern- Cobbled together out of swamp, floodplain, desert, and mountains, short of water and
ism through bridges and dams before they accepted it in buildings. Only once the massive painfully dependent on far-away resources to survive, Los Angeles is sited on inhospitable
burst of infrastructure building under the New Deal accustomed Americans to the idea that terrain, located where the continent runs out of land. No city should be here. Its ecological
massive structures based on functionalism and technology would lead it to economic pros- footprint greater than the expansive state it resides in, Los Angeles exists by grace of infra-
perity could modern architecture spread in the United States. structure, a life-support system that has transformed this wasteland into the second largest
metropolis in the country.5 Nor was this lost on Angelenos. They understood that their city’s
growth depended on infrastructure and celebrated that fact. After all, what other city would
name its most romantic road after a water-services engineer?
Los Angeles, then, provides an ideal case study for a book on infrastructure. To be sure,
1 John Wesley, The Desideratum: Or, Electricity Made Plain and Useful By a Lover of Man and Common Sense
(London: Ballière, Tindall, and Cox, 1759), 9. it is a unique condition, but it is also a modern city par excellence. As Ed Soja has observed,
2 On the role of the sublime in America and the technological sublime see David E. Nye, American Technologi- Los Angeles is both an exception and the rule, a singular instance that reveals generic condi-
cal Sublime, (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994). On a discussion of infrastructure as theology in the tions.6 This is our point of departure for this book.
American West see Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: the American West and its Disappearing Water, (New York:
Penguin Books, 1993).
3 Colin Rowe, TTThhheee AAArrrccchhhiiittteeeccctttuuurrreee ooofff GGGooooooddd IIInnnttteeennntttiiiooonnnsss... TTTooowwwaaarrrdddsss aaa PPPooossssssiiibbbllleee RRReeetttrrrooossspppeeecccttt ((LLoonnddoonn:: AAccaaddeemmyy EEddiittiioonnss,, 5 Worldwatch Institute, “What is your Ecological Footprint?” World Watch (April 2000),
1994). http://www.nwf.org/nwfWebAdmin/binaryVault/CoC_ecofootprint.pdf, 1.
4 Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, trans. Frederick Etchells (1931; New York: Dover, 1986), 1. Corbusier 6 Edward W. Soja, PPPooossstttmmmooodddeeerrrnnn GGGeeeooogggrrraaappphhhiiieeesss::: TTThhheee RRReeeaaasssssseeerrrtttiiiooonnn ooofff SSSpppaaaccceee iiinnn CCCrrriiitttiiicccaaalll SSSoooccciiiaaalll TTThhheeeooorrryyy ((NNeeww YYoorrkk:: VVeerrssoo,,
repeats the passage for emphasis on 11. 1989), 191.
8 9