This insidious phenomenon, which seems to present itself periodically at the least convenient times, has no direct cause, no singular reason why it comes or goes. No lane seems open, no relief appears down the road. Though people joke you can get anywhere in Los Angeles in 15 minutes, on days like this, a simple trip takes an hour.

A minor crash at 6:35 a.m. in Calabasas partially caused Monday morning's logjam on the 101, but its effects resonated for miles and hours after crews cleared it....The city's rotten traffic is nothing new, but it doesn't feel so bad when there's a clear reason for the hang-ups. But this morning, long after the Calabasas crash occurred, no car parts littered the lanes, no orange-vested workers shut down off-ramps.

A+D opened this month after being closed for almost a year.

The new space is 7,000 square feet, with 15-foot ceilings, large rectangular windows, newly sealed concrete floors and a gently industrial look in places.

"It's an exposed ceiling; you see all the duct work and cables," [Tibbie] Dunbar says. Fountains buffer the building from Wilshire.

A+D's current show is "New Blood: Next Gen," which Dunbar calls L.A.'s "real emerging talent in architecture and landscape architecture." The exhibition, which runs through Aug. 18, offered scaffolds to 39 design firms; some treat their scaffolds as large brochures, with promotional copy and scale models of recent projects.