Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies

Banham, Reyner

ISBN 10: 0713902094 / ISBN 13: 9780713902099

Published by Harper & Row, 1971

Very Good hardcover in a Very Good dust jacket. First Edition, First Printing as stated. Overall a bright and attractive copy. Light aging to the exterior. The text and illustrations are clean and bright. No tears or chips to the dust jacket. Original price of $6.95 on the inner front flap. 256 pp. Seller Inventory # 006041

Synopsis:

Banham aims to "present the architecture...within a topographical and historical context of the total artifact that constitutes Great Los Angeles, because it is this double context that binds the polymorphous architectures into a comprehensive unity that cannot often be discerned by comparing monument with monument out of context" (23). Book is broken down into "four " Ecology Surfurbia (beaches as biggest thing to envy; focus on indoor/outdoor living; spanish colonial revival; freeways); Ecology Foothills (fancy suburbs; mobility-focused architecture; landscape of "do your own thing;" city obsessed with transportation); Ecology The Plains of Id (flatlands as "heartland;" Schindler, Neutra, and the International Style ; plain cubes; people should accept the non-existent downtown for what it dead); Ecology Autopia (freeway as central feature; L.A. as embodiment of bourgeois good life of urban homestead; people unfairly castigate L.A. when they should examine all the fabulous architecture there and think about why L.A. has inspired so much of that). Argues that "the language of design, architecture and urbanism is Los Angeles is the language of movement" (23). Southern California is an ecological wonder and the land of "perpetual spring." People are too hard on L.A., and should not fault it for being different; it really embodies many ingrained American values - especially the desire for freedom of movement.

About the Author: Reyner Banham (1922-1988) was Sheldon H. Solow Professor of the History of Architecture at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and Professor of Art History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Among his many books are A Critic Writes (California, 1996) and Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1961). Anthony Vidler is Professor and Chair of Art History at the University of California, Los Angeles. His most recent book is Warped Space: Art, Architecture, and Anxiety in Modern Culture (2000).

Bibliographic Details

Title: Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four ...
Publisher: Harper & Row
Publication Date: 1971
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Edition: 1st Edition