Weekly Wrap-Up: Breaking boundaries in Venice, Ayn Rand meets Frank Lloyd Wright

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Each week we give you a rundown of the stories appearing in the print section, in case there’s a cool story you want to e-mail someone or an interesting piece you remember reading that you’re having trouble finding online.

The cover story this week is on the crazy house in Venice (pictured), which looks like two houses stacked on top of each other. Why? Because that’s what it is. When husband-and-wife architects Robert Choeff and Krystyan Keck needed more space, they built a translucent modernist box right on top of their 1913 cottage. (An online photo gallery is coming soon.)

We also take a look at groundbreakers from a former era: the correspondence between Ayn Rand and Frank Lloyd Wright, which led to the architect designing a concept home for the novelist/philosopher. It was never built, but a drawing is on exhibit at the Edward Cella Art + Architecture gallery in the Mid-Wilshire area.

Looking for landscape inspiration? Read about a Pasadena couple who turned a boring frontyard into a landscape that looked as turn-of-the-century as their 1906 Greene & Greene Craftsman home.

And on the family front, we’ve got a new column called Parentology, which takes a look at how Sophie the rubber giraffe became a status symbol among L.A. moms.

Enjoy!

-- Deborah Netburn