The Midnight Charette, a video podcast about design and the everyday, has released a new video podcast interview with Christopher Hawthorne, The Chief Design Officer of Los Angeles. Hosted by architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, The Midnight Charette features a variety of renowned professionals as guests in unscripted and in-person interviews, allowing for thoughtful takes and more personal discussions. 

In this 2-hours long video interview, Christopher Hawthorne talks about Los Angeles' plans for the 2028 Olympics, real estate development strategies for solving the city's housing crisis, why Elon Musk's tunnel transportation proposal is wrong for the city, concerns over the aesthetic similarity of multi-family housing developments in California, the challenges of his job, and his unique background among many other things.

Elon Musk is also founder of SpaceX, Tesla Motors and co-founder of PayPal - Musk first founded Hyperloop Technologies in a garage in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood in June 2014. In December 2014, Hyperloop Technologies established an Innovation Campus in LA's downtown arts district. The industrial space, surrounded by artists, graffiti, and gritty railroad tracks, serves as an ideal location to innovate, design, and test the components of the Hyperloop. 

Recently, the Hyperloop system started to be applied in many countries of the world, and lately it has been approved in India. FR-EE also developed a new Hyperloop Corridor connecting Mexico City to Guadalajara in 38 minutes.

The interview was published on The Midnight Charette's website, YouTube channel, and iTunes, Spotify, and all other podcast players as a podcast. A short video clip of Christopher explaining why Elon Musk's tunnel system is wrong for the city can be watched below:

Video courtesy of The Midnight Charette

The Midnight Charette previously welcomed other international guests, including Michael Sorkin, Award-winning author and Director of the Urban Design Graduate Program at The City College of New York; Dong-Ping Wong, the designer of Kanye West’s Yeezy Tour Stage and +POOL; and Neil Denari, Principal of NMDA, designer of HL23 on the High Line, and Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Top image courtesy of The Midnight Charette

> via The Midnight Charette