An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles [Paperback]

Robert Winter (Author), David Gebhard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Back Cover

The most comprehensive guide to the built environment of Los Angeles County ever published.

New in this 5th edition:

-Lists of major architects for each style-Victorian, Beaux-Arts, Mission Revival, Arts & Crafts, Period Revival, International Style, Postmodernism

-Examples from a new generation of architects, including Frederick Fisher, David Lawrence Gray, Johnson & Favarro, Michael Maltzan, Pugh & Scarpa, and David Hertz Revised, reader-friendly historical essays

An essay on landscape architecture and a list of prominent landscape architects by period 300 new photographs by Robert Winter

Prominent new landmark buildings, including Frank Gehry's Philharmonic Hall, Raphael Moneo's Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels, Morphosis's Diamond Bar High School

In this updated and revised edition of the guide to Los Angeles, Robert Winter deftly highlights architectural delights both grand and obscure. The keen insights of the authors, their sense of humor and broad taste in art and style make this an entertaining and essential volume for anyone who loves to roam through neighborhoods and back streets in search of architectural treasures.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith; Revised edition (September 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586853082
• ISBN-13: 978-1586853082
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles, April 17, 2004

By 

Michael Webb (London, England > Los Angeles, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Paperback)

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 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Irreplaceable List, March 21, 2008

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Brian Jewett (Ludlow, VT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Paperback)

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More modern and postmodernism, less history than 4th edition, March 11, 2007

By 

Jon L. Albee "Faulkner Wannabe" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles (Paperback)

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.

If you own the 1994 edition of this book (as I do) there are a few things you may want to consider before buying this one. Really, this edition includes very few changes other than the addition of a FEW important modern structures and a new page layout. There are also a few more photographs, but that's really it. In fact, a number of important historic sites are removed from this edition in order to make "page space" for modern structures. I guess what I'm saying is this: If modern architecture is your thing, by this edition, but the older edition is actually BETTER than this one for architectural historians.