Bohemian Modern: Living in Silver Lake [Hardcover]

Barbara Bestor (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 2, 2006

Also published in a gorgeous, slip-cased limited edition, Bohemian Modern is now available in this beautiful hardcover edition. Through striking illustrations and stunning photographs, Bohemian Modern explores the unique structural and interior designs that have put California's ultra-chic Silver Lake neighborhood at the forefront of a new style phenomenon.

One of the country's most renowned modernist architects, Barbara Bestor has fully embraced and perfected Silver Lake's "bohemian modern" style: a practical philosophy that is Californian in origin but achievable anywhere. It is a look that favors raw, authentic materials, brilliant colors, creative space planning, and a natural flow between indoors and outdoors.

The results, as Bohemian Modern presents, are striking: a flawlessly restored Neutra house decorated with both whimsy and restraint, a rooftop constructed for viewing the stars, a lavish outdoor garden delicately integrated into the surrounding architecture, a double-sided bookcase that soars three stories and serves as a functional art installation...there is no limit to the creativity and beauty of Silver Lake style.

Both modern and classic, refreshing and inviting, Bohemian Modern will delight readers with its breathtaking, vividly photographed tour of Silver Lake.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Design; First Edition ~1st Printing edition (May 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060792159
• ISBN-13: 978-0060792152
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #592,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Someone Needs to do a good book on Silver Lake October 2, 2006

By Ron Burgundy

Format:Hardcover

The L.A. neighborhood called Silver Lake is home to a large number of iconic Modern-era houses, with many created by the West Coast's masters of the period. In recent decades, as "mid-century modern" has found new admiration, a new generation of architects has been called on to add to the already rich Silver Lake Modern storyline. Thus, today, perhaps more than any other neighborhood in the U.S., Silver Lake---a neighborhood with distinct, widely acknowledged geographic boundaries---is a mecca for Modern. What's more, there's actually enough extant iconic Modern houses in Silver Lake to merit a book-length treatment. After all, many of these daring examples of design have fascinating stories.

Sadly (and frustratingly), Bestor's book, despite its title, isn't about Modern residential architecture in Silver Lake. While it does consider a small portion of Modern houses there, including important houses by Neutra, Schindler, and Lautner, it spends much more time looking outside of Silver Lake (Echo Park, Elysian Park, Atwater), in places that have their own distinct identities and architectural histories. Almost immediately, the reader is forced to ask, "What happened to Silver Lake?"

Just when one recluctantly accepts this fact in an effort to move on to experience the other houses she's selected, Bestor abruptly ends the house tour and devotes the balance of the book to her favorite restaurants and other businesses, complete with photos of the owners, recipes, and flat-footed self-promo quotes from the managers and other employees of these establishments. Few of these businesses, it must be noted, are contained in Modern buildings. Why are they in a book about Modern in Silver Lake? Page after page, it all smells of blatant advertising.

If there is a common thread binding each of the author's very odd selections of subjects, it is her seemingly incessant need to use the book's very casual short texts to promote her own firm (as well as that of her many friends mentioned in the book) and give the proprietors of her neighborhood hang-outs a pat on the back.

How a book with such a confused sense of focus got past its publisher is shocking. The door to do a good book on Silver Lake remains wide open.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable overview of America's most interesting neighborhood July 5, 2006

By Matthew J. Austin

Format:Hardcover

Beautifully illustrated and informative exploration of the design and architecture of America's most unique and unheralded artist community. The author seems a bit eager to anoint herself the leader of the BOMO movement, taking great pains to establish her legacy as its central figure. At times this leaves the book feeling like an overpriced brochure for the Barbara Bestor Studio, however, there is enough content to make it a worthwhile read, particularly for those familiar with the area.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars this book is great July 19, 2008

By michael saitta

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Forget Ron Burgundy's review. This is a great book. Real people, real houses - not impossible to live with Architectural Digest layouts. One of the few books I have seen that shows everyday (almost - these are sort of trendy ie bohemians of the title) people in their own homes. Ms. Bestor includes not only Silver Lake but the surrounding areas like Atwater and Echo Park to give a glimpse of the entire area. As for the inclusion of shops and restaurants that Mr. Burgundy so disliked - this is the world Ms. Bestor knows and has included in her book of Silverlake so the reader can acknowledge Silver Lake as a whole, not just a series of houses. If that (famed architectural houses) is what you want buy a book on Neutra or Schindler. If you want a taste of the real Silver Lake, but this. PS - I don't know any of these people so my review has no hidden motive.