LA Forum Voices is a collection of informal sound bites that vocalizes the origins, design culture and other inspirations that led to the founding of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design 25 years ago. You will hear co-founder Christian Hubert talk about more than just the heady topic of architectural criticism and lack of mobility in Los Angeles but also the teasing of the Hungry Architects Society for its priority to stock up on wine and snacks before garage gang gatherings. Topics of big infrastructure and inherited sites via Therese Kelly and Greg Hise, the clarity of Wilshire Boulevard as seen from a helicopter via Lane Barden and why Merry Norris has a pair of boxing gloves with her initials on them — these and more all hope to introduce a new dimension to the LA Forum’s unfinished business and build on its existing institutional memory.

This collection of sound bites is culled from a variety of sources. They include audio recordings from Field Trips 2009 and a number of recent one-on-one interviews and self-recordings from Spring/Summer 2012. We are grateful to everyone’s contributions. As a piece of Unfinished Business, this is just the beginning of a greater vision for incorporating new media and podcast archives to the Forum collection.

If you would like to get involved and contribute a story of your own, please contact us at info@laforum.org. The LA Forum Voices project was produced by Siobhán Burke in 2012. The team included Eric Olsen, Iris Anna Regn and Kenneth Zapata with participation from BROODWORK: Creative Practice and Family Life and SPAN (Social Practices Art Network)