L.A. Live, NFL edition

Ed Roski's proposed mixed-use complex in the City of Industry, anchored by a 75,000-seat football stadium, doesn't do much for LAT architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne, who calls it "L.A. Live, San Gabriel Valley edition." While he has some nice things to say about the stadium design itself (sort of), Hawthorne calls the overall complex "a determinedly self-contained commercial universe." In other words, lots of attention to cars and parking lots.

Roski has even recruited the lead architect on Staples Center, Dan Meis, to design the stadium -- and perhaps the larger complex as well. And though Meis' stadium design has much to recommend it -- more on that a bit later -- the plan as a whole relies on a number of outdated ideas about growth and mobility in Southern California.

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The league is so intrigued by the location that it quietly asked Meis to design a stadium capable of accommodating not one but two NFL teams. That kind of dual residency makes particular sense for a football stadium, since pro teams play at home during the regular season just eight times a year.