Glamorous yet rough around the edges, LA has always attracted the daring, including in architecture. From simple modernist homes to shape-shifting civic design, this history of risk is about to go on view in the city's main museums, under the Getty Foundation-funded umbrella 'Pacific Standard Time Presents (opens in new tab): Modern Architecture in LA'. Here, we give you a sneak preview of its eleven exhibitions, including an ambitious Getty Foundation (opens in new tab) show focusing on vintage Ed Ruscha prints immortalising the beautiful banality of 1960s Los Angeles, from gas stations (pictured) and dingbat apartments, to every building on Sunset Strip.
Picture: 'Standard, Amarillo, Texas, 1962', by Ed Ruscha.
Writer: Carren Jao
Exhibition: In Focus: Ed Ruscha
Dates: 9 April to 29 September
Location: J Paul Getty Museum (opens in new tab), LA
Throughout his career, Ed Ruscha has found inspiration in the streets of Los Angeles. 'In Focus' zooms in on the artist's exploration of the city's urban landscape, which inspired some of his most iconic works.
Picture: Mock-up for 'Every Building on the Sunset Strip, 1966', by Ed Ruscha.
Exhibition: In Focus: Ed Ruscha
Dates: 9 April to 29 September
Location: J Paul Getty Museum (opens in new tab), LA
Throughout his career, Ed Ruscha has found inspiration in the streets of Los Angeles. 'In Focus' zooms in on the artist's exploration of the city's urban landscape, which inspired some of his most iconic works.
Picture: Contact sheet for 'Pacific Coast Highway, 1974-1975', by Ed Ruscha.
Exhibition: In Focus: Ed Ruscha
Dates: 9 April to 29 September
Location: J Paul Getty Museum (opens in new tab), LA
Throughout his career, Ed Ruscha has found inspiration in the streets of Los Angeles. 'In Focus' zooms in on the artist's exploration of the city's urban landscape, which inspired some of his most iconic works.
Picture: '1018 S. Atlantic Blvd., 1965', by Ed Ruscha.
Exhibition: In Focus: Ed Ruscha
Dates: 9 April to 29 September
Location: J Paul Getty Museum (opens in new tab), LA
Throughout his career, Ed Ruscha has found inspiration in the streets of Los Angeles. 'In Focus' zooms in on the artist's exploration of the city's urban landscape, which inspired some of his most iconic works.
Picture: '818 Doheny Dr., 1965', by Ed Ruscha.
Exhibition: A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture From Southern California
Dates: 2 June to 2 September
Location: The Museum of Contemporary Art (opens in new tab), LA
'A New Sculpturalism' investigates the rise of radical forms in Southern California architecture. Starting from the wane of postmodernism in the mid-1980s, the exhibit offers the works of Eric Owen Moss, Thom Mayne and Franklin D Israel as touchstones to the city's expressive, experimental style.
Picture: Samitaur Tower, Culver City, California, 2008-2010, by Eric Owen Moss Architects.
Exhibition: Overdrive: LA Constructs the Future, 1940-1990
Dates: 9 April to 21 July
Location: J Paul Getty Museum (opens in new tab), LA
Due to it nascent aerospace industries and influx of émigré influence, post-war Los Angeles was a laboratory for cutting-edge design. 'Overdrive' brings to light the bold structures that have shaped the city, from its shopping malls and theme parks, to freeways and airports.
Picture: LAX, Theme Building; perspective view, 1961.
Exhibition: Everything Loose Will Land
Dates: 9 May to 4 August
Location: MAK Center for Art and Architecture (opens in new tab), LA
Known for its freewheeling sensibility, Los Angeles became home to architects and artists alike searching for new ways to express their respective art forms. 'Everything Loose Will Land' explores a time when artists and architects intermingled methodologies to create art that was architecture and vice versa.
Picture: Jef Raskin, inventor of the Macintosh computer, pictured with his 'Bloxes' (circa 1970), used as building blocks for walls and furniture for the offices of the likes of Google and Twitter. Image: courtesy the Estate of Jef Raskin. Accession: Raskin Archive
Exhibition: A Confederacy of Heretics: The Architecture Gallery, Venice 1979
Dates: 29 March to 7 July
Location: Southern California Institute of Architecture (opens in new tab), LA
For several weeks in 1979, Thom Mayne's home turned into a temporary gallery where emerging architects like Frank Gehry, Michael Rotondi, Coy Howard and many others found their voice. 'A Confederacy of Heretics' examines the pivotal role of this ephemeral space in shaping contemporary architecture in LA.
Picture: Seven of the architects who participated in The Architecture Gallery, from left to right: Frederick Fisher, Robert Mangurian, Eric Owen Moss, Coy Howard, Craig Hodgetts, Thom Mayne, Frank Gehry.
Exhibition: Windshield Perspective
Dates: 18 April to 23 June
Location: A+D Architecture and Design Museum (opens in new tab), LA
The exhibition recreates a drive down a short, dense street in Los Angeles. While most drivers fail to take note of what actually lies outside their windows, 'Windshield Perspective' attempts to highlight the character of the built environment that has slowly encroached this part of the city: messy, disorderly, yet vital.
Exhibition: Outside In: The Architecture of Smith and Williams
Dates: 13 April to 16 June
Location: Art, Design & Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara
Despite more than 40 awards and numerous projects published, the post-war California work of partners Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams have remained under the radar. 'Outside In' highlights the firm's success in selling modernism to a growing middle class and the subtle ways they've introduced landscape into architecture.
Picture: Community Facilities Planners office (South Pasadena, California), 1958.
Exhibition: Stephen Prina: As He Remembered It
Dates: 7 April to 4 August
Location: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (opens in new tab)
What happens when Rudolph Schindler's built-in furniture is removed from its original context? Artist Stephen Prina recreates the custom furniture from two 1940s Schindler homes, paints it bright pink and re-stages it inside the museum.
Picture: 'As He Remembered It' (detail), by Stephen Prina, 2011, installation view at Secession Vienna, 2011. © the artist; courtesy of Galerie Gisela Capitain, Colgne, and Petzel Gallery, New York.
Exhibition: Technology and Environment: The Postwar House in Southern California
Dates: 11 April to 12 July
Location: W Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery (opens in new tab), Cal Poly Pomona (opens in new tab)
History has a way of simplifying a narrative. In 'Technology and Environment,' another strain of the modern tradition inherent in the works of Rudolph Schindler, John Lautner and Ray Kappe is unveiled, stretching beyond the Case Study-style, flat-roofed steel boxes iconic of the era. The exhibition includes newly constructed models, drawings, photographs, many of which are available to the public for the first time.
Picture: The living room of Ray and Shelly Kappe House by Ray Kappe, Pacific Palisades, 1966-1968.
Exhibition: The Presence of the Past: Peter Zumthor Reconsiders LACMA
Dates: 9 June to 15 September
Location: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (opens in new tab)
A museum examines itself with 'The Presence of the Past.' Alongside a historical view of the LACMA's architectural evolution, architect Peter Zumthor is asked to re-think the museum's east campus using his previous major commissions as entry points.
Picture: Kolumba, Art Museum of the Archdiocese of Cologne, Germany, 2007, by Peter Zumthor.
Exhibition: A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living
Dates: 25 May to 8 September
Location: Hammer Museum (opens in new tab), LA
Photographs never quite come close to the actual experience of walking through a space. In the first major retrospective of architect A. Quincy Jones, the Hammer Museum commissioned enlarged photographs of the underappreciated architect's key projects to impart his design's expansive spaces and efficient layouts.
Picture: Schneidman House by A. Quincy Jones, Whitney Smith, and Edgardo Contini, 1946-1950. courtesy of Hammer Museum
-
In memoriam: Pierluigi Cerri (1939 – 2022)We remember Italian architect and designer Pierluigi Cerri, who died on 29 November 2022 aged 83
-
British Columbia house immerses its occupants in the region’s evergreen forests
Openspace Architecture has designed this grand modernist retreat in the heart of Whistler, making the most of the spectacular natural landscape
-
Crunch time: mark a matrimonial moment with an engagement watch
Discover classic watches from Omega, Cartier, Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe and more
-
Calming interiors characterise a 1950s mid century modern house in Mexico City
HEMAA Arquitectura celebrates the mid century architecture of a family house – designed by Mexican architect Augusto H. Álvarez – with a respectful renovation, plus a new material palette of light oak and grey stucco
-
Join virtual tours of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpieces
A new series of virtual tours offer you the chance to explore Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture from the comfort of your home. The campaign to continue educating and inspiring the public through the digital sphere is also a reminder of the importance of the physical experience of architecture, and an appeal for funding support to heritage sites all over the world during the Covid-19 crisis
-
Dirk Engelen tours his restored Antwerp home – a 1970s architectural masterpiece
Belgian architect Dirk Engelen was surprised to find a John Lautner look-a-like house in suburban Antwerp. Drawn to its unique concrete and brick design, his curiosity got the better of him and he bought the house and renovated it, not without bringing some architectural abstractions of his own to the design
-
Herbert W Burns’ Gillman Residence renovated in Palm Springs
A Palm Springs house designed by architect Herbert W Burns has been brought back to life, with plenty of contemporary improvements. ‘This house can truly be considered a brand new home with Herbert Burns’ bones’ say the designer-developer duo behind the comprehensive restoration and renovation
-
Join a 1960s celebration of desert modern residential design
For Palm Springs Modernism Week the residents of Park Imperial South, a modernist community with zig-zag roofs designed by architect Barry berkus in 1960, are throwing a party to celebrate the architecture and the era
-
Four architects on the influence of Palm Springs
Many contemporary architects working today have been inspired by the modernist architecture of Palm Springs. Modernism Week brings them back to the desert town for a series of events that focus on the work of contemporary architects from restorations and renovations, to obsessions and design expressions
-
An Instagram hotspot in Tokyo is under threat, so snap it before it’s flattened
Designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, the iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo has become something of an Instagram pilgrimage for architecture enthusiasts. But as the building fell into a state of disrepair, the Metabolist landmark has long been in danger of demolition and the final decision is to be made by the building’s management society by vote
-
British modernism inspires Waldo Works’ Television Centre penthouse
Tom Bartlett, founder of interior design firm Waldo Works, brings a British modernist interior to the largest Television Centre penthouse through a Festival of Britain-inspired colour pallette and design pieces from Living Diwani, Barber Osgerby, Ingo Maurer and Olivia Aspinall
