Building Material

7 landscape ideas from designer Jay Griffith's studio garden

2013-05-08 07:10:00

Landscape designer Jay Griffith believes in reinvention — in life and in the garden. “I love recycling,” he said, referring to his preference for rescued plants, reclaimed concrete, repurposed lumber and castoffs from commercial sites,...

Ruben Barrales, party guy

2013-05-08 00:00:00

When President Obama told students in Mexico that without the support of U.S. Latinos he would not be president, he wasn't talking about the GOP's Ruben Barrales. But Barrales gets the message. He is the son of immigrants, and San Mateo County's first...

L.A. full of roads to ruin for cars

2013-05-04 18:47:00

A drive along Angus Street in hilly Silver Lake requires navigating a gantlet of buckled concrete slabs and dirt-filled cracks. But on South Seabluff Drive in Playa Vista the ride is smooth, the pavement is black and you can smell the fresh asphalt....

Florida fights stucco-eating African snails

2013-05-04 08:00:00

An epic battle is raging in South Florida: man against snail. The state is struggling to contain an invasion of the giant African land snail, a species that thrives in hot and wet tropical climates. These gooey and destructive mollusks grow up to 8.5...

Legoland Hotel is built, brick by brick, with kids in mind

2013-04-28 00:00:00

CARLSBAD, Calif. — The Legoland Hotel, which opened April 5, got plenty of little things wrong in its first weeks. But its designers got one thing enormously right, and that will make this place a screaming success: kid-centricity. "The dragon...

Bangladesh factory collapse: 19 pulled from rubble

2013-04-27 04:14:00

SAVAR, Bangladesh -- Police in Bangladesh took five people into custody in connection with the collapse of a shoddily-constructed building this week, as rescue workers pulled 19 survivors out of the rubble on Saturday and vowed to continue as long as...

Fern Dell water shut-off a mystery

2013-04-16 00:00:00

Of the many indignities visited upon Fern Dell, the garden oasis in Griffith Park, one remains a mystery: Who turned off the water? Starlets and health-seekers lined up in the 1920s to fill jugs from the spring that fed this 20-acre fantasia of ferns,...

In the Inland Empire, an industrial real estate boom

2013-04-12 23:30:00

Nestled on the windy plains at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains, once austere stretches of agricultural land have morphed into the country's most desirable industrial real estate market, and it is growing faster than any other industrial region in...

Mérida — an appealing destination in Mexico's south

2013-03-24 00:00:00

M�RIDA, Mexico — Until this winter, M�rida had just been a busy city I passed through on my way to the ancient Mayan ruins. Then, in mid-December, I made it my destination. I pretty much had to: I'd been hearing the city's name all fall, from...

Patio paint and stencil create carpet of color for outdoor room

2013-02-28 18:31:00

When designers Karen and Guy Vidal went to revive a concrete area along the back of an East Hollywood apartment building that they owned, the couple turned to an inexpensive DIY trick: stenciling a “carpet” directly onto the patio. “We...

L.A. schools falling apart, literally

2013-03-12 19:21:00

The dilapidated bleachers at Marshall High School in Silver Lake have been in such a sorry state for so long, I stopped noticing until recently, when I saw a grandfather teeter as he stepped over a sinkhole in the floorboards. That made me really look...

Hinoki & the Bird design: quilted denim, mirrored subway tile

2013-03-07 08:05:00

The seductive new Century City restaurant Hinoki & the Bird, reviewed by Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold last week, conveys a dark intensity. But take a closer look at some of the interior details and you’ll find a degree of playfulness....

Inside Bricks Family Restaurant, a buffet. Bricks has a kids buffet table, about 18 inches shorter than the adult version.

2013-04-24 17:22:36

Look at the roof of the home you are considering purchasing, but don't stop there, said William J. Stanley Jr., owner of the Stanco Inc. home inspection company in Cheshire. "You can compare it to the ones on either side," Stanley said. "If it looks a lot worse, it's a red flag.

2013-04-17 00:00:00

The living room has a lofty 11.5-foot ceiling and a concrete floor scored in large rectangles. Fiberglass powder was added to concrete poured 2.5 inches thick. "The thicker-than-normal concrete helps minimize cracking," Don Dimster said.

2013-02-21 10:03:46