Best of 2013: Christopher Hawthorne picks Citi Bike, L.A.-centric ‘Her’

In this time when news is disseminated ever more quickly, we asked our critics to list the best of culture in 2013 in tweet form:

1) “Building Seagram.” Phyllis Lambert’s book on the great Mies tower is a rare attempt to blend memoir with rigorous architectural history.

2) Citi Bike. Among other benefits, New York’s bike-share system is great for 2-wheeled architecture tours. Too bad L.A.’s is stalled.

3) Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan. A zoning blueprint without parking requirements? In Los Angeles? I hope this catches on.

4) “Everything Loose Will Land.” Most (only?) daring exhibition of Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Presents series also had finest catalog.

5) 4 World Trade Center. Fumihiko Maki’s elegant design somehow emerged from the WTC rebuilding process with its charisma intact.

GRAPHIC: Best of 2013 | Entertainment and culture

6) “Her.” Cars and NIMBYs alike have been vanquished in Spike Jonze’s mesmerizing L.A. of the near future, replaced by subways, skinny towers.

7) “Invisible Cities.” Opera based on Calvino novel let audience members roam through Union Station and see its architecture from a new POV.

8) “Never Built Los Angeles.” Curators Greg Goldin, Sam Lubell captured L.A.’s rising nostalgia for the days we dreamed bigger civic dreams.

9) Steve McQueen at Schaulager. Show on artist-filmmaker in museum by Herzog + de Meuron was best art-architecture combo I saw all year.

10) Women in Design. Harvard group launched petition to give Denise Scott Brown a Pritzker — and overdue discussion on gender, collaboration.

Worst: Tempted of course to say MOCA’s “A New Sculpturalism.” But losing Goldberg’s Prentice and Astrodome vote were bigger blows.

Twitter: @HawthorneLAT