An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Paperback)
Product Description
Known as “the bible” to Los Angeles architecture scholars and enthusiasts, Robert Winter and David Gebhard’s groundbreaking guide to architecture in the greater Los Angeles area is updated and revised once again. From Art Deco to Beaux-Arts, Spanish Colonial to Mission Revival, Winter discusses an impressive variety of architectural styles in this popular guide that he co-authored with the late David Gebhard. New buildings and sites have been added, along with all new photography. Considered the most thorough L.A. architecture guide ever written, this new edition features the best of the past and present, from Charles and Henry Greene’s Gamble House to Frank Gehry’s Disney Philharmonic Hall. This was, and is again, a must-have guide to a diverse and architecturally rich area.
Robert Winter is a recognized architectural historian who lives in Los Angeles, and has led architectural tours through the Los Angeles area since 1965. He is a professor at Occidental College in Los Angeles.
From the Inside Flap
CONTENTS Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Los Angeles A Brief History of Los Angeles Architecture Historic Preservation in Los Angeles Planning Landscape Architecture Area Reference Maps 1. Malibu 2. Pacific Palisades, North 3. Pacific Palisades, South 4. Santa Monica, North 5. Santa Monica, South; Ocean Park 6. Venice; Marina Del Rey 7. Los Angeles International Airport 8. South Beach Area 9. Palos Verdes, North 10. Palos Verdes, South 11. Santa Catalina Island 12. San Pedro 13. Wilmington 14. Torrance 15. Long Beach, Downtown and West 16. Long Beach, East; Naples; and Seal Beach 17. Long Beach, North 18. Inglewood; Hawthorne 19. Gardena 20. Baldwin Hills; Culver City 21. Brentwood 22. Bel Air 23. Westwood, West 24. Westwood, South and East 25. UCLA 26. Beverly Hills, North 27. Beverly Hills, South 28. Century City 29. Carthay Circle 30. South Carthay 31. West Hollywood 32. Central Hollywood 33. Hollywood Hills 34. East Hollywood; Los Feliz; Griffith Park 35. Silver Lake 36. Angelino Heights; Echo Park; Elysian Park 37. Wilshire Boulevard District; Hancock Park 38. MacArthur Park, West 39. MacArthur Park, North 40. MacArthur Park, East 41. Downtown 42. Downtown, Civic Center 43. Downtown, Plaza and Northeast 44. Downtown, South 45. Boyle Heights 46. Exposition Park, West; Leimert Park 47. Exposition Park, East 48. University of Southern California 49. Vernon; Commerce; Huntington Park; South Gate; Bell; Maywood; Watts 50. Highland Park 51. Mount Washington 52. Eagle Rock 53. Lincoln Heights 54. Alhambra 55. Montebello; Pico Rivera 56. Whittier 57. Santa Fe Springs 58. Downey 59. Norwalk 60. Artesia 61. San Fernando Valley 62. Glendale 63. Burbank 64. Universal City 65. North Hollywood 66. Toluca Lake 67. Studio City 68. Sherman Oaks 69. Encino 70. Tarzana; Woodland Hills 71. Calabasas 72. Highway 101 West 73. Simi Valley; Westlake Village 74. Canoga Park 75. Chatsworth 76. Northridge 77. Granada Hills; Mission Hills 78. Van Nuys; Panorama City; Sepulveda 79. Mission San Fernando Rey de Espana 80. San Fernando 81. Newhall; Saugus; Valencia 82. Palmdale; Lancaster 83. La Crescenta Valley 84. Tujunga 85. La Crescenta 86. La Canada-Flintridge 87. Route 66-San Gabriel Valley 88. Pasadena 89. Upper Arroyo Seco 90. Lower Arroyo Seco, North 91. Lower Arroyo Seco, South 92. Oak Knoll 93. Pasadena, Central Business District 94. East Pasadena 95. North Pasadena 96. Altadena 97. South Pasadena, Central Section 98. San Marino 99. San Gabriel 100. Sierra Madre 101. Arcadia 102. Monrovia 103. Duarte 104. Bradbury 105. Azuza 106. Glendora 107. San Dimas 108. La Verne 109. Temple City; El Monte; 110. Covina; West Covina; Irwindale; Glendora 111. Industry; La Puente 112. Pomona 113. Diamond Bar 114. Claremont Readings Index
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The best available
If you are looking for an extensive guide to architecture in Los Angeles County this is the best available. No other current guide covers nearly as many sites.
The long-awaited fifth edition of an LA guide that’s often called “the bible” is a major disappointment. Robert Winter is a perceptive scholar of Victoriana and arts and crafts, but he sensibly left modernism to his collaborator, the late David Gebhard. Now he has attempted to do it all, by providing entries on key buildings of the 1990s that he neither likes nor understands, and the result is embarrassing. Gehry, Maltzan, Mayne, Moss, Pei, and Yazdani will be surprised to find themselves bundled together under the label “Neo-Expressionism (Postmodernism).” Disney Hall, which is pictured on the cover, is described in terms of what happened ten years ago (plus cloddish public reactions to the first pictures of the model); there’s not a sentence on the completed building. Other adventurous work is dismissed as “very strange.” A long-winded entry on the Getty reads like a chatty letter to a friend; most are absurdly brief. The revisions add almost nothing, and are woefully incomplete; the publisher is guilty of gross negligence for not wielding an editorial pencil. Earlier selections have been edited, but the William Cameron Menzies house in Beverly Hills is still there, even though it was demolished three editions ago, along with Gehry’s Venice restaurant, Rebecca’s. The original 97 percent of the guide remains invaluable and engaging. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)
4.0 out of 5 stars
L.A. Architecture
The book goes deep into detailing each of the buildings…It was definetely a good purchase. However,maybe just for architects, not listings of cool design bars or clubs,…
2.0 out of 5 stars
Could have and should have been better
This book is a major disappointment, it is hardly thorough and tries to cover to much ground and in doing so really does not cover anything.
If you want a book to LEARN about architecture in LA, then look elsewhere. But if you want to FIND architecture in LA, there is no better resource than this book. This is just a big fat list & map guide book and as such, functions brilliantly. I haven’t seen this latest issue but previous ones had lived in my car the last 8 years I lived in LA. Almost anywhere I went, this guide would show me great homes and buildings hidden away and in plain sight that I never would have found otherwise. I happily burned many tanks of gas with this book in one hand and my steering wheel in the other. I left my copy with a friend when we left the area but if we were ever move back, I’d buy fresh copy right away.
Not AIA sponsored but in familiar AIA format, this guide is about as good as one can expect for such an incredibly vast urban area. There’s lots of modernism, which is a good thing in this case since Los Angeles contains perhaps the best ensemble of high-quality modernism in the world. The entries are very short, sometimes as short as one sentence. Only about one building in five comes with a small black & white photograph. Covers all of Los Angeles County, but nothing from Orange, Ventura, Riverside or San Bernardino counties. Some important slivers of Riverside county would be a good addition.
While more than a few people believe Los Angeles is nothing but a formless sprawl with little interesting architecture, this guide proves otherwise. The real key to Los Angeles is that its architectural features are scattered all over the basin rather than in one dense location, but they’re out there for you to discover. This guide will help you find them. Bring it along with a full tank of gas.
Another revised edition that fills out Long Beach, Shaw, Monrovia, Pomona and Claremont would be nice.