Featuring: KassemG: www.youtube.com Omar: www.youtube.com Exective Producers: Jenny Fancy and Patrick Pope Production Coordinator: Celeste Hughey Shot and Directed by: Alana Fickes www.youtube.com Edited by: Kurt Schmidt — KassemG, Miya, MiyaTV, Omar, The Station, Surf, Beach, How to, Manattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, California, surfing instructor, surfer girl, El Porto
As with almost everything else about Los Angeles, the entertainment industry and its over-the-top persona exert a great deal of influence over the city’s architectural styles. As a result Los Angeles has evolved into a city that’s glitzy, glamorous and far from understated, much like Hollywood itself. Whether you love ‘em or hate ‘em, you have to acknowledge that many Los Angeles buildings are stylish, innovative and full of pizzazz.
Los Angeles features an extremely eclectic concoction of architectural styles. Sturdy California Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival, gingerbread Victorian, functional Arts and Crafts, elegant Art Deco, 1950s retro, Pre-Modern, Modern and Post-Modern — the city has buildings in all of those styles. Checking out some of the city’s more stylish and innovative buildings is one more way that people entertain themselves while they’re in Los Angeles.
Many of the city’s more prominent buildings were designed by widely-acclaimed architects. Truth be told, the list of these architects is almost a “Who’s Who” of international architecture. Pierre Koenig, Eero Saarinen, Frank Lloyd Wright, I.M. Pei, Arata Isozaki, Frank Gehry and other renowned architects are all represented by buildings in this city. Be advised, if you tour some of these architects’ buildings you may or may not like what you see. So what’s the bottom line about these buildings? They’re controversial but they’re also entertaining and like Hollywood film stars, they’re ever-so strikingly stylish. Say what you like, but in the world of architecture these buildings and their designers are no slouches.
Several spectacular buildings are located in downtown Los Angeles. The showy Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, is an exuberant, effervescent riot of curving stainless steel panels. You may love or hate its unusual exterior, but no one ever quibbles about the beautiful interior and its extraordinary acoustics.
The modern US Bank Tower, also called the Library Tower, is another dramatic building in the downtown area. An I.M. Pei design, this skyscraper is said to be the tallest building between Chicago and Singapore, and it’s designed to withstand an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter scale. It features an illuminated glass “crown” at the top, along with the highest building helicopter pad in the world.
The austere but imposing Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles is the third-largest cathedral in the world. A recent complex designed by Jose Rafael Moneo, it features Mission-style colonnades, numerous tapestries and other works of art, a large plaza and several gardens. Its exterior is sand-colored, angular and somewhat uninviting, but its interior is sublime.
Not all the interesting downtown buildings are so new. The city’s center also has the historic Biltmore Hotel, an architectural monument to early 20th century elegance and grandeur, along with the Bonaventure, another grand hotel. It features a 1970s urban design and exhilarating outdoor glass elevators.
The L.A. Central Library is a downtown landmark. Originally designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue in the 1920s to mimic buildings in ancient Egypt, the building has been renovated and expanded and now features a Modernist/Beaux Arts style. The library’s splendid interior features an eight-story atrium, a colorful mural depicting the history of California, and various statues, chandeliers and other features.
One of the few remaining great American train stations, downtown’s Union Station is a wonderful example of California’s pre-World War 2 Mission-style architecture. Completed in 1939, its richly paneled and beautifully detailed interior evokes the elegance and glamour of yesteryear. Union Station’s interior may even look familiar: popular films shot there include Blade Runner, The Way We Were and Bugsy.
For many years Los Angeles City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles. Its unusual ziggurat-shaped tower, designed to resemble one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is quite conspicuous. But people outside the city may best know it as being the headquarters of the fictional newspaper that employed Clark Kent in the old Superman television series.
Lest you get the wrong impression, rest assured that not all of the city’s more interesting buildings are located downtown. For example, if you fly into Los Angeles International Airport you’ll probably notice the Theme Building. It’s hard to miss because it looks like it’s something from The Jetsons, the futuristic early 1960s animated television show. And the main control tower at LAX is noteworthy; it’s designed to look like a stylized but still welcoming Southern California palm tree. In Beverly Hills there’s a 1950s-style gas station that looks like a spaceship. And the entrance of the Chiat/Day building in Venice is framed, somewhat bizarrely, by a three-story pair of binoculars. It’s odd, but that’s Southern California.
Many other architectural works of art in Los Angeles provide visual entertainment. The Victorian Bradbury Building and its huge skylight, Hollywood’s circular Capitol Records Building that resembles a stack of vinyl records, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and the lesser-known Egyptian Theatre, centuries-old Spanish missions and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Freeman House can all be explored in Los Angeles and its surrounds.
Spanish revival architecture is hugely popular in California, and increasingly across the nation. The mission revival style and colonial revival styles grew in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century, but people today still chose to emulate the Spanish style when building their homes and public establishments. Why do people continue to use this Spanish style? I argue that the Spanish colonial style represents the very beginnings of the United States on the west coast, and this time in the US history continues to spark people’s imaginations. The aesthetic elements are iconic, and people still commission architects to create the homes of their dreams in this style.
The Spanish Colonial Revival style was created in the United States in the 20th century, and it was sparked after the opening of the Panama Canal. The novel Ramona also had a great influence on the popularity of this architectural style. The early Spanish colonies of North and South America had their particular style of architecture brought from the homeland, and this style was them updated to accommodate the new century in the US. Between 1915 and 1931 this style was all the rage, and movie stars in Hollywood clamored to get their Hollywood hills homes built in this style. Mostly the single-level detached home saw this style. On a personal note, my own grandmother has one of these homes in California, and it’s pink!
The Spanish Colonial Revival style is very similar to the Spanish Mission Revival style, but with a few key differences. It’s also similar to the pueblo styles of the west and southwest, and influenced as well by the arts and crafts movement that was the foundation of these architectural styles. The iconic use of smooth plaster, stucco walls, and chimney finishes, clay tile roofs, terra cotta and concrete ornaments is still a highly noticeable, recognizable style. Other elements include porches and balconies, and Roman arcades and fountains. You’ll also see canvas awnings. The most important Spanish Revival architect in California was George Washington Smith who practiced during 1920′s and 1930′s. Perhaps his most famous house is the Steedman House in Montecito, CA, now a museum called the Casa del Herrero.
But there are other architects who took this Spanish style across the globe. Take for example a lovely Spanish Revival building in St. Louis, by the architect T.P. Barnett, son of George I. Barnett; another famous architect in St. Louis. The T.P. Barnett building is particularly interesting because it also has Art Deco influences, making it one of the most unique buildings in the Grand Center region of St. Louis. Certainly the next time you’re in St. Louis, you need to visit this Spanish Revival building on Washington Avenue.
The modern American house, with its interlaced spaces, functional zones and cubic forms, was developed in Europe by Le Corbusier and others, modified in America by the works of the Masters, and transformed into a new idiom through its regionalization.
The images of the “American house” were transmitted around the world, making it the modern model for the 1950s and 1960s.
An essential contribution to the genesis of the ‘American modern house’ idea was given by John Entenza -publisher of Art & Architecture- that in 1945 conceived the ‘Case Study Houses Program’ together with some of the most important post-war Californian architects.
The houses had to be an example of modern and inexpensive way of building and living for post-war modern families.
The first houses included in the program were built in wood -due to the shortage of industrial materials- and their dimensions were regulated by law.
Six of these economical houses were built in California by 1948; they set the scene for what was to follow when conventional industrialized products once again became available on the market.
An exceptional house using prefabricated components was built by the designers Charles and Ray Eames in 1945-1949 in Santa Monica, California.
The house is set back from the sea on a hilly site, amidst trees that filter the light into its interior. lt is a box that recalls the delicacy of a Japanese shoji screen, in this instance with a prefabricated framework of metal, filled in by transparent and opaque panels of varying sizes.
The interior space, with its double-height living area overlooked by the sleeping loft, employs the same vocabulary, and features furnishings such as the now famous Eames chair.
The Richard Neutra Kaufman Desert House in Palm Springs, also, set the rules for the typical mid century modern American Suburbian houses.
The house ‘landed’ -as Richard Neutra liked to say- with its green grass all around and the swimming pool, in a desertic landscape surrounded by hills and rocks. Its plan has the shape of a cross with each wing designed by Neutra to have their own view and access to open space.
ln addition to its seminal 1932 “lnternational Style” exhibition, the Museum of Modern Art in New York also staged other events that brought modern architecture to an American audience.
ln 1949, for example, it exhibited a model – essentially suburban – house by Marcel Breuer. The house had a V-shaped butterfly roof, like that of Le Corbusier’s project for the Errazuriz House (1930) in Chile and with similar dimensions, and was also similar in the way that it was zoned for contemporary living.
Both houses were modified by locally manufactured materials and components. Breuer’s house reflected the exuberance of postwar optimism in America as a model for middle-income dwelling.
The Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House and Philip Johnson’s Glass House more than any other mid century modern house expressed the most known features of the American house: horizontality and spaces flowing into each others.
The Farnsworth House brings to a domestic level what van der Rohe already did with the Illinois Institute of Technology.
lt was unlike any conceived before it, consisting of a minimalist rectangular box enclosed by a floating roof slab and a floor slab suspended 1,5 m above the ground, both supported by eight steel H-columns.
The walls were of large panes of glass. ln plan it measured 8.6 m x 23.7 m.
The patio is on the west side and as big as the whole house. The one space plan interior is only divided by the kitchen-bathroom-fireplace core and a set of closets that screen the sleeping area.
The perfect integration of the house with the landscape, its lightness and sense of open made the Farnsworth house unique in the mid century modern as in the contemporary architectural scene.
Built before the Farnsworth House was completed but clearly indebted to its design was Philip Johnson’s Glass House (1949) in New Canaan, Connecticut.
Sitting on a low brick podium, it held a single space that was symmetrically contained by columns at the corners, centers and entrances of each of its four sides.
The interior itself was defined asymmetrically by free-standing cabinets and a cylindrical bathroom core, an arrangement that, according to Johnson in his Writings, was inspired by a Malevich painting.
According to Mies’ biographer Franz Schulze, “Mies disdained the house not simply because it was an imitation but because he considered it poorly detailed as well.”
Some years later, during a visit to the house, Mies and Johnson argue about it and other architectural matters, and their rift never healed.
As Schulze observed, it was probably for the best that Johnson left the shadow of the Master when he did, and went on to become one of America’s most influential architects.
However, as examples of perfect dwellings both the Farnsworth and Johnson houses failed.
They both allowed only poor climatic control, were expensive to build, and designed as pieces of art; not really attractive for the majority of people.
Despite this, the two houses became international icons of the mid century modern architecture and extraordinary successful.
California the hot spot of travelers, is famous for its suitable weather, and historical and tourist landmark sites. The region is a home to businessmen, entertainers and world explorers; it comprises of cities like Hollywood, Los Angeles, Ventura, Anaheim and many more. Each place within the region has some historical importance, and bears monuments and architecture, recognized by the world historical gazettes.
A few venues worth a visit are:
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park is also called The Los Angeles Plaza Historic District; it is situated in one of the oldest areas of Los Angeles. The park displays statues of Carlos III of Spain, Father Serra, Felipe de Neve, and The Bell of Dolores.
The Olvera Street is a part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles. There are 27 historic buildings lining Olvera Street that include museums, the bazaar, winery, hall, theater, plaza station and shops.
A part of the street boasts of the Mexican bazaar and eateries; the place holds a number of cultural shows and festivals.
The museums of El Pueblo de Los Angeles, worth a visit are, the Avila Adobe, Chinese American Museum, Plaza Firehouse Museum, Sepulveda House, and the Italian American Museum.
Los Angeles Union Station, was opened in May 1939, and became famous as Last of the Great Railway Stations. The building is amazing and offers rail service by Amrak, Metrolink and L.A. Metro Station.
Chinatown in Los Angeles is found in the city’s downtown, was built in the year 1938 and is the second Chinatown to be constructed in the city. The first one was where the Union Station now stands; downtown Los Angeles is not the only place in USA that boasts of Chinatown, there is one in San Francisco and one in Oakland, as well.
Little Tokyo, the Little Tokyo Historic District, is an ethnic centre for Japanese Americans; it was founded in the beginning of the 20th century and is also popular by the name of J-Town. The site was declared as a National Historic Landmark District in 1995. Two other Japanese American centers by the same name are located in San Francisco and San Jose.
The Civic Center in Los Angeles is the administrative hub of the City of Los Angeles and comprises of city, state, and federal government offices, buildings, and courthouses.
Bunker Hill holds historic prominence; originally it separated the downtown area of Los Angeles, from western side of the city. In the late 20th century the elevation of the hill was lowered and the area was developed; it now boasts of modern high-rises and other architectural structures for residences, business, entertainment and education. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is also present here.
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, it is a movie theater on the list of Hollywood Walk of Fame. The most distinct feature, the place has earned a name for is that the concrete blocks set in the forecourt bear the signatures, handprints and footprints of famous movie artists of the 1920s to the present day. It took eighteen months to build the site and was opened to public in 1922, ever since, it has been a home to premier movies like The King of Kings and The Star Wars. The venue hosts events like birthday parties, corporate gathering and Academy Awards ceremonies.
The Capitol Records Building, also called Capitol Records Tower, and Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District, is located in Hollywood, Los Angeles. It is a home to recording studios and echo chambers of Capitol Studios. The structure was completed in April 1956, and is one of the city’s notable architectures.
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores is the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions and is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco. It was built on June 29, 1776, by two persons known for preaching to the locals and inviting Spanish settlers to the Upper California region, Alta.
Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral is a proto-cathedral and parish of the Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco, California. The cathedral is situated on the corner of Grant Avenue and California Street.