Alameda Heart Notes: An exploration of place, time and memory
with SALT Landscape Architects + Design Week LA
June, 2019
The IAO teams up with SALT Landscape Architects to present a series of scents created by historic association with the former tenants of the ROW, in downtown Los Angeles.
From SALT: “In this project, we have used the sense of smell to explore one geographical location through time, invoking everything from tangy citrus groves to human toil, from the soot produced by a train engine to fresh fruits and vegetables, from soap to sagebrush. Working with the The Institute for Art and Olfaction, we have harnessed the craft of perfumery to create smellscapes representing specific eras and industries, allowing for a visceral and vital (if not always sensorially pleasant) journey through the history of a crucial Los Angeles landmark. ”
SCENTS
2000: Industrial Reuse (The American Apparel Factory)
1917: The Terminal Market (Fruit and Vegetable Market)
1876: Agriculture (citrus groves, and the new railroad
1833: Spanish Mission (new agriculture such as wine crops)
PRE-1781: The Gabrieleño (landscape and the Gabrieleño Indians)
COLLABORATORS
SALT Landscape Architects
Michael Wells
LA Design Festival
Scent Bar
Gabrielle Band of Mission Indians Tribal Government
David Boulé
Matthew R. Teutimez
Michael Holland
Glen Creason
Rob Banning
And the Institute for Art and Olfaction
ABOUT
The site of ROW DTLA has a long and rich history whose layers are concealed today through the vast asphalt parking lots, bustling markets, and recently adapted American Apparel headquarters. As landscape architects and designers, we are interested in the relationship between landscape as it relates to memory, and what the history of a site might reveal. Through this exploration, we hope to distill the cultural narratives and forgotten ephemera embedded in this ever evolving site.
We are proposing to invite a few people who have personal or family connections to the site in its earlier manifestations to join us in a series of workshops at the Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) in Chinatown prior to LA Design Week. These folks may have worked for American Apparel or in the preceding food markets or railways. There may be someone who has family that owned or worked in the early orchards or farmlands there or they may be historians. Through research, conversation and collaboration we seek to identify and extract both the tangible and intangible elements related to particular moments in time and capture it in the creation of a unique series of scents under the guidance of the experts at IAO. These scents are meant to evoke discrete segments of the site’s history – manufacturing, rail yard, orchard, or other aspects we will uncover in our research.
We propose to provide staff at the Block Party who will be in custom aprons, or some other distinctive clothing element, who will each have one of the unique scents we have created with the workshop group. They will have small cards with a brief narrative about the particular segment of history attached to the particular scent. The staff will offer to spray the card and hand them to attendees through the evening.
SALT Landscape Architects would like to thank the Institute for Art and Olfaction, the LA Design Festival team, the librarians at the Downtown Central Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, our fantastic photographer Michael Wells, and all of our workshop participants.