Heteropolis: Los Angeles : The Riots and the Strange Beauty of Hetero-Architecture

The brilliant Charles Jencks turns his laser-like eye on the architecture and urban texture of Los Angeles in the mid 1990's in this facinating book, first published in 1993. Jencks posits Los Angeles as ground zero for heterophilia, the love of the different; he infers from this the idea of hetero-achitecture, an architecture that combines the traditions of Southern California modernism with realities of the new city: the city of immigrants, gangs, fear and riots. Jencks's view is refreshingly sunny.