2017 Interview for Delirious LA with Mark Montiel

DLA: We’re excited to be launching the LA Forum Voices project as a feature on our website.  You produced that oral history project for the 25 year retrospective Unfinished Business.  Can you tell us about the project and how it came about?

SB: Yes, that was 5 years ago, already!  I have always been inspired by the stories of others, and I thought ‘why not trace some of the institutional history of the LA Forum through an oral history project, and turn it into a StoryCorps type feature on an iPad?’.  Our team’s goals were to solicit soundbites from the founders, board alumni, and anyone who was a past contributor to the LA Forum.  We aimed to touch on a variety of themes and not to solely focus on the past.  It was important to keep the subjects relevant - whether it was discussing the infrastructure of our city as a “backstage” to Los Angeles or why it’s critical to continue giving a stage to the femmes fatales in our profession.  We ended up with 18 soundbites, edited and condensed to around 4 minutes each. Interviews were conducted in-person, via Skype, and were also self-recorded.  LA Forum Voices was a year-long project in the making from conception to installation of a listening station that Lyric designed for the exhibition at the WUHO Gallery in July 2012.

DLA: Does your firm Lyric Design and Planning take any queues from collecting stories such as these?

SB: Absolutely!  Storytelling and listening is one of my biggest forms of research.  My firm Lyric Design & Planning focuses on public space design projects, ranging in location from Santa Monica to DTLA, Boyle Heights, and South LA.  While it’s impossible to be “of” every neighborhood that I work in, it is possible to dig deep into what matters most to the people around me.  I remind myself everyday to “look closely, listen intently”.  It’s my motto. I can’t begin the work or the speculation until I hear what residents, business owners and activists in other communities have to say.  That might mean taking a site visit and informally interviewing folks that I meet, or going to panel events that aren’t necessarily geared toward my projects, but give me a real insight into the key issues of a community, specifically those dealing with shifting demographics and economies. 

I just wrapped up a Metro Rail to River project that will be converting a 30’ railroad right-of-way along Slauson Ave into a pedestrian path and 2-way bicycle path - the tracks will be removed and the corridor will be lined with shade trees and a bioswale.  Before the project even started, I attended a talk hosted by Zócalo Public Square at Mercado La Paloma.  Over 100 people from the community came to listen. It was there that I heard one of the panelists, Jorge Nuño of Nuevo South urge his fellow residents to “improve, don’t move”, suggesting a recrafting of the gentrification narrative to be one of positive development without erasure of an important social history. I urge anyone working on projects that are not in their area of residence to dive deep into the social history of their sites:  look closely, listen intently.        

DLA: What is the mission for Lyric Design and Planning?  And what role would you like to see the LA Forum play in the design community?

SB: My greatest mission is to continue to keep my ear to the ground while building for a beautiful and sustainable public benefit.  My hope is that the web-launch of LA Forum Voices instigates a new curiosity in the exchange of ideas in multiple formats while striving for diversity in the voices that are represented.