L.A. Modern [Hardcover]

Tim Street-Porter (Photographer), Nicolai Ouroussoff (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2008

The birthplace of American modernism, Los Angeles is the epicenter for a new way of living for the last one hundred years, as manifested in its cutting-edge architecture and design. With roots in the innovative houses by Frank Lloyd Wright, Greene & Greene, and Rudolph Schindler in the early twentieth century, this constantly evolving city became a crucible of modern living. Inspired by the International Style, architects and designers in Los Angeles developed their own individual styles with a rare sensitivity to site, landscape, and human scale. This brand of modernism, blurring the boundaries of indoors and outdoors, has since been imitated from Seattle to Sydney. Acclaimed architecture and design photographer Tim Street-Porter captures the best Modernist architecture of Los Angeles, from the seminal Neutra houses to the idiosynchratic structures by Frank Gehry. With iconic buildings by Craig Ellwood, Pierre Koenig, John Lautner, Charles and Ray Eames, and Oscar Niemeyer, among others, L.A. Modern presents the full spectrum of Los Angeles modernism in gorgeous new color photography.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"(Street-Porter) and (Ouroussoff) document some of the city's most drop-dead spreads, including those by Frank Gehry, John Launtner and Craig Ellwood." --Angeleno Interiors

"Tim Street-Porter basks in LA Modern." ~Vanity Fair

Review

"Tim Street-Porter basks in LA Modern."

"Tim Street-Porter basks in LA Modern."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 248 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (October 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847830675
• ISBN-13: 978-0847830671
• Product Dimensions: 14.3 x 1.1 x 10.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 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: #237,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "well-guarded, perfectly restored Beverly Hills aeries...Street-Porter...rated access", December 28, 2008

By 

Michael W. Kelly (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: L.A. Modern (Hardcover)

I did a bit of Googling and found the title of this review on the GQ web site:
[...]
I also found this review in Modernism Magazine;
[...]

Review of L.A.Modern in the Winter 2008-09 issue of Modernism magazine
By Sandy McLendon
Tim Street-Porter's L.A. Modern resembles a coffee-table book, but
it isn't really; it's a valentine to a city with which
the photographer is madly, dizzyingly in love. Street-Porter, who is a
long way from his native Britain, lost his heart to Los Angeles many
years ago, and it shows. His sumptuous, saturated, crystalline images
of the best modernist residential architecture in the city are the archi-
tectural-photography equivalent of George Hurrell's famed glamour
shots of Hollywood stars, photographs that communicate not only an
idealized beauty, but their creator's love of the subject, too. Structures
so often photographed as to be almost wearyingly familiar, such as
Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House (1924), become fresh and vital
again when seen through Street-Porter's lens; the photographer is able
to communicate not only the oft-seen monumental quality of its exte-
rior, but the gentle melancholy of its interiors as well. His photographs
of Richard Neutra's Singleton House (1959) show how the structure's
Mulholland Drive acreage and extraordinary views made its design
inevitable. Tim Street-Porter has undertaken the task of writing his
book's text to excellent effect: his architectural connoisseurship and
his knowledge of his adopted city spill from every page.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Metropolitan Home magazine, November 16, 2008

By 

Annie Kelly (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: L.A. Modern (Hardcover)

"Tim Street-Porter, a frequent Met Home contributer and one of the leading architecture photographers in America, offers up this handsomely formatted goody (perfect for an Isamu Noguchi coffee table): L.A. Modern (Rizzoli), with text and images by the British-born lensman and an introduction by Nicolai Ouroussoff, architecture critic of the New York Times. Street-Porter, who lives in LA., is fast becoming the Julius Shulman of his generation, documenting modernist architecture with an eye that encompasses the macro forms as well as the nuance of details. The photos of homes in L.A.Modern, arranged chronologically, include extensive interior as well as exterior shots, all recent and all in color; they range from Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House of 1920 through the Schindler, Neutra, Eames and Lautner years up to Frank Gehry's landmark Schnabel House of 1989." Michael Lassell, Metropolitan Home magazine December 2008.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is a disappointment., November 23, 2008

By 

pomo design "pomo design" (new jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: L.A. Modern (Hardcover)

After reading several reviews of this book in various home magazines, I was excited about its content and purchased it right away. I was initially delighted to see the variety of homes featured by both prominent and lesser known architects. Where the book falls flat however, is in the depth of the photographic coverage and the lack of visual subject matter to back up the text. The author has certainly done his homework relative to the history of each house and its unique features, but many times the photographs do not back up the text and there are far too few photographs per house. Many of the houses only receive two pages of coverage in this oversized monograph. The other area I was disappointed with was the photography. Although the book is beautifully composed and printed, the photographs themselves lack the drama and depth one has come to expect from seeing these houses in previous publications. I was very surprised to see that the author did not take any cues from Julius Shulman and shoot some of these houses in black and white to give them a sense of timelessness. The photos come off like very nice travel photos. Overall, I would agree with the other review that this is a nice coffee table book, but for those wanting the power and detail of a California Architectural monograph, you should probably hold out for something better.