Trails and Treasures: Igniting Excitement about Architecture with FORT: LA’s Urban Adventures

FORT: LA offers an innovative approach to exploring cities. Our maps of architectural treasures, collaborations with artists and academic fellowships are expanding the community of urban adventurers.

Russell Brown is the founder of Friends Of Residential Treasures: Los Angeles (FORT: LA), which brings an innovative approach to exploring cities. Our trail maps of architectural treasures, collaborations with artists, academic fellowships, in-person events, and dispatches from an eccentric flamingo are expanding the community of urban adventurers.

Founded in 2019, our organization has developed four interconnected initiatives. FORT Trails, our flagship program, offers free monthly online maps curated by experts for self-guided tours of the exteriors of significant houses. These maps include extensive research on each featured stop. Over 40 trails are available on our website, ranging from topics including: Small Neutra Houses, the Layers of Leimert Park, Iconic Masters Hit Newport Beach, and our popular annual Halloween offering on Witch Houses. 

The FORT Fellowship fosters new knowledge by funding academic projects, and has supported research about Black modernist James Homer Garrott, Awesome and Affordable Housing, and the work of Frank Israel. FORT Frames facilitates the appreciation of the interiors of iconic structures by collaborating with artists, creating short documentaries, new fiction and poetry, and even a cocktail inspired by a visit to the W.C. Fields Mansion.

Lastly, FORT Gatherings brings people together through virtual and in-person experiences, including Hollyhock Hot Dog, a discussion of the work of Myron Hunt, and an event exploring architecture by the sea. FORT: LA is the winner of an LA Conservancy Preservation award and California Preservation Foundation award. The organization has received coverage from the LA Times, KCRW, NBC: LA, Spectrum News, KCAL, Los Angeles Magazine, Time Out Los Angeles, American Way, and other outlets.

You can learn more at FORTLA.ORG or @fort.losangeles.

$15

Things to Know
This event is for 12 and older.
Ample free public parking is available.
Enter underground parking at Hyatt on Palm Canyon Drive or in the multi-level public garage across from the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Handicap parking is available.
This event is wheelchair accessible.
The organizer of this event is Modernism Week.

Event Check-in Location
Modernism Week Theater At CAMP
Hyatt Palm Springs
285 N Palm Canyon Dr.
Palm Springs, CA 92262
View Map
 

Photo Credits: Courtesy Fort: LA