ABOUT SANCTUARIES LA
I'm Shelby Nico Diamond, a design-obsessive, longtime Eastside resident, and the person behind Sanctuaries LA. This is my ongoing record of my favorite places, makers, and guides to the city.
I started this project because I kept finding extraordinary places and people that nobody had written about: a woodworker making otherworldly furniture, a Highland Park café built inside a building that had been empty since the 1960s, an 89-year-old composer who’s lived in the Hollywood Hills since the moon landing.
I’m interested in the architects and designers working with what’s here instead of importing a look from somewhere else. The makers doing things slowly and on purpose. The buildings worth fighting for. The neighborhoods that haven’t been flattened yet. Los Angeles has one of the richest design cultures on earth, and I want to celebrate it all.
WHAT YOU’LL FIND HERE
Deep features on homes, architects, designers, makers, and shared spaces across Los Angeles, with particular attention to design, ecology, local history, and preservation. New features publish every week across five series: Profiles, Interiors, Shared Spaces, Detours, and Guides.
Between features, I occasionally publish From the Field: a shorter dispatch of what I saw that week, what’s worth paying attention to, and what’s coming up in the city.
Free Subscribers receive: Most features, delivered to your inbox.
Paid Subscribers receive: Access to all guides, plus an annual print magazine collecting the best of Sanctuaries LA. Beautifully designed, offset printed, mailed to your door.
Founding Members receive: Everything above, plus a named thank you in the annual zine.
A FEW PLACES TO START:
For features, collaborations, or story submissions, reach out at shelby@sanctuaries.la
