One of the hallmarks of every Design Summit is the opportunity to experience the host city through the eyes of the people shaping it. This year, Los Angeles becomes the classroom.
From private homes and leading architecture and design studios to artist workshops, blue-chip art collections, and neighborhoods defined by innovation, this year’s behind-the-scenes tours offer rare access to the people, places, and ideas influencing one of the world's most dynamic creative capitals. Whether you're interested in architecture, interiors, art, landscape, preservation, hospitality, or urban development, each experience has been thoughtfully designed to immerse you in a different facet of Los Angeles.
Browse the tours below and begin planning your Design Summit experience. Note that space on many tours is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Rustic Canyon’s Architectural Hideaways
AT CAPACITY
Join architect Leo Marmol, cofounder of design-build practice Marmol Radziner, for an intimate walking tour of Rustic Canyon’s architectural gems. Explore the legacy of California modernism and discover how today's leading practitioners are responding to the area's unique landscape. The day will conclude with a visit to Marmol Radziner’s studio, an industrial shed transformed into an open, collaborative environment for high-end home design.
Mansions and Mausoleums: A Hollywood History
Explore one of Los Angeles's most distinguished historic neighborhoods with architectural experts. Stroll past grand estates by legendary architects including Paul R. Williams, Wallace Neff, Elmer Grey, and Sumner Hunt while uncovering the stories, design traditions, and remarkable personalities that shaped Hancock Park's enduring architectural legacy. The tour also includes Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where historic chapels, Neoclassical mausoleums, and thoughtfully designed landscapes reveal another chapter of the city’s built and cultural history.
LA According to Luis Fernandez
AT CAPACITY
See Los Angeles through the eyes of designer Luis Fernandez, beginning with breakfast at his home before setting out to explore some of the places that inspire his work. From favorite neighborhood stops to a private visit and lunch at Erik Lindstrom's gallery, this insider's tour offers a personal look at the people, spaces, and creative community shaping design in Los Angeles today.
Private Passions: LA’s Art Collections
AT CAPACITY
Gain exclusive access to some of Los Angeles’s most significant private art collections with arts experts Andrea Feldman and Candy Coleman. Explore blue-chip works, emerging art, and collectible design in the context of deeply personal spaces and learn how top collectors are shaping the city’s cultural landscape.
Icons Worth Saving: West Hollywood’s Architecture
Discover the rich design history of West Hollywood and the champions of its preservation. This tour will highlight the neighborhood's landmarks—from midcentury icons to Regency and classical revival gems—and showcase SIA's ongoing work to preserve the city's architectural legacy.
The Art of the Find: Shopping LA
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Enjoy an insider’s guide to the Los Angeles design scene with Kathryn Ireland and Martyn Lawrence Bullard. Visit their favorite showrooms, secret sources, and antique shops for an inside look at the very best the city has to offer the discerning design eye—and a sure sense of fun from this duo.
Artists and Architects of Silver Lake
Explore one of Los Angeles's most fertile creative enclaves with designer and longtime resident Jared Frank, who knows Silver Lake the way only someone who has helped shape it can. The tour will include a rare visit to the Neutra VDL House, Richard Neutra’s landmark home and studio and one of Los Angeles’s most significant works of modernist architecture, as well as a stop at Marta, the influential gallery known for its unconventional approach to art and design. From there, move through Frank’s essential neighborhood haunts—singular shops, architectural landmarks, and design projects redefining the area—tracing the lineage of taste and experimentation that has drawn makers to the hills east of the reservoir for decades.
At the Drawing Board with LA’s Architects
Peek behind the scenes at some of the city's most influential architecture firms for a look at their latest work, creative process, and the strategies that drive their firms to success. This tour offers an opportunity to meet the principals and teams shaping the future of the built environment in Los Angeles and beyond, with stops at studios from Venice to Beverly Hills.
Behind the Rooms: LA’s Design Studios
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Go behind the scenes at some of Los Angeles's top interior design studios, hearing from their principals and seeing the creative teams in action. See where inspiration takes shape and learn how these top firms develop their celebrated projects, from initial concept to final installation.
California Living, from Venice to Bel Air
AT CAPACITY
Experience the pinnacle of Los Angeles living with a private tour of exceptional homes in the city's most exclusive neighborhoods. This tour showcases extraordinary projects by leading architects and designers, offering a rare look inside the gates of Bel Air and Holmby Hills.
Behind the Gates of Bel Air and Malibu
AT CAPACITY
Experience the pinnacle of Los Angeles living with a private tour of exceptional homes in the city's most exclusive neighborhoods. This tour showcases extraordinary projects by leading architects and designers, offering a rare look inside the gates of Bel Air and Malibu.
Art in the Making: LA Studio Visits
AT CAPACITY
Los Angeles is home to some of the most dynamic artists working today. In this wide-reaching day, you'll visit studios across a multitude of styles and disciplines, from ceramist Peter Shire's Echo Park workshop to the HQ of the Haas Brothers' whimsical, genre bending creations to. Discover work in sculpture, metalwork, painting, and multimedia shaping the city's art world right now.
An Architectural Grand Tour of Pasadena
AT CAPACITY
Explore the rich architectural heritage of Pasadena, from masterpieces of the Arts and Crafts movement to grand estates recalling Hollywood's golden era. This tour uncovers the unique history and design that make the city a veritable living museum of early California architecture and includes a private lunch at the stately San Marino home of Made Goods founders Chris Dewitt and Oscar Yague.
Made by Hand: LA’s Craft Ateliers
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In partnership with the Michelangelo Foundation, this Homo Faber-guided tour celebrates contemporary craft in Los Angeles. Visit the workshops of master artisans and witness the skill, tradition, and innovation driving the city’s vibrant craft movement, from ceramics to weaving to quilting.
LA’s Next Act: The Lucas Museum and Olympic Park
Get a preview of the projects set to—liteally—redefine the landscape of Los Angeles over the next few years. This tour offers a first look at the nearly-complete Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the developing sites that will play a central role in the 2028 Olympic Games.
Ari Heckman’s Little Black Book of LA
AT CAPACITY
See the city through the eyes of one of the buzziest figures in its hospitality and design scene. Ash Hotels cofounder Ari Heckman will take participants to some of his favorite places in Hollywood, from the famous Hightower Elevator to his favorite neighborhoods and galleries. The day will conclude with a visit to Ash's latest project, the soon-to-open Rialto in Venice Beach
Wednesday, November 4: Optional Tours
Architectural Invention of Beverly Hills
While Beverly Hills is world renowned for luxury retail and hospitality, it’s also a city shaped by thoughtful planning, significant architecture, and a rich cultural history. This walking tour begins with a private visit to the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, offering insight into the adaptive reuse of one of the city’s most important civic landmarks. From there, attendees will explore historic residential streets, notable public spaces, and commercial buildings, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s distinctive Anderton Court Shops. Moving beyond the familiar Hollywood narrative, the experience reveals the architectural and cultural influences that helped define Beverly Hills and its enduring legacy. Visit the Beverly Hills Women’s Club with designer Jaime Rummerfield for a closer look at another chapter of the city’s architectural history.
Inside Beverly Hills’s Iconic Historic Estates and Gardens
Explore Beverly Hills’s most storied estates, historic interiors, and remarkable landscapes. Through rare private access to landmark properties—including the Virginia Robinson Gardens and the iconic Greystone Mansion—attendees will gain a deeper understanding of the architecture, gardens, and cultural history that shaped one of Los Angeles’s most celebrated neighborhoods. Along the way, the experience offers insight into the enduring legacy of residential design, preservation, and the tradition of entertaining that helped define the city’s distinctive character.
