Meet Your Neighbors, Laura and David
We recently met up with Laura Juncker and David Newman at their home to talk about living in South Park. Laura is an artist — check out her work at laurajuncker.com. David is a PhD candidate in Management & Organization at USC’s Marshall School of Business.
Laura and David met in New York, where David grew up and Laura attended Pratt Institute, and moved to South Park in 2014. In October 2016, they renovated their condo at Elleven with the help of Studio 11 Design.
Laura: We stopped leasing our other apartment in December 2016, and moved in when we came back after traveling for the holidays.
David: For a few months we lived with contractors. All of our furniture was basically piled in the center of the room, and we had people in and out every day. It was all worth it in the end.
What inspires you about the neighborhood?
Laura: Personally, I really like seeing the murals. I see new ones all the time, so it feels like it’s really changing. I also work at the pilates studio just down the block. A lot of locals go there — and so when I’m walking down the street I’m always running into someone that I know. It makes the community feel really small, even though we’re part of a huge metropolitan area. People are really friendly, and it’s a healthy, positive community that I’ve put myself in.
David: I really like how far the neighborhood has come. It’s changed a lot on three and a half years. Barcito opened, PRANK opened, the pilates studio (Club Pilates DTLA) opened, all these little restaurants and shops. There’s a great night life scene, there’s a lot of healthy eating. There’s a lot of really beautiful construction too. I mean, the construction is a bit of an eyesore, but the buildings themselves look really good, and it’s exciting that soon they’ll be completed.
Laura: 11th Street is changing before us too! Right now it’s not an improvement — but it’s going to be!
We stay local. Especially now that I work here. We walk around, I go to the hair salon in the next building (Salon Eleven). Everything is so close. Also, because we’re by the train, we get to USC really easily. The USC Village is really exciting — they have the Amazon Store, and Corepower, and Trader Joe’s. It’s a little bit more of a hike than Whole Foods, but it’s not hard to get to.
David: I like that we never validate parking when we go to Whole Foods. ‘Do you need your parking validated?’ ‘Nope, I walked here.’
Laura: This year we tried out doing a wine and paint event in our home. We invited artists and amateurs, set up a still life, and painted around it. It was so much fun. I like working next to other people. Art can be fairly lonely. It’s expensive to make art, and it can also be touchy. I think most people love art, but they tend to get nervous about showing that they don’t know anything. I think it’s a lot more approachable than people think. It’s not supposed to be all museum stuff and untouchable. Michelangelo was a person too. He probably had a girlfriend of a boyfriend, some pals, they probably got drunk sometimes. But you don’t think about that.
I would also like to have people over to cook with. Making pasta or something that’s more of a group activity.
Say ‘hi’ to David and Laura when you see them around the neighborhood — and for more of Laura’s work, and her contact info, check out her website.
