Architecture of Entertainment: LA in the Twenties

"As the most pervasive influence life has yet known motion pictures have had a definite influence on trends taken by architecture within the last decade." - Cecil B. DeMille writing for the Bulletin of the Allied Architects of L.A. in 1925 The 1920s were a time of dramatic change and burgeoning growth in the City of Angels. Much of the varied architectural milieu of Los Angeles came to be during this decade, as the centre of the city was planned and talented architects from around the world flooded into the area and competed for projects. Images of flappers, booze, and jazz combined with the escapist attitude that came to dominate the decade and led to much of the early-twentieth-century "escape" architecture of Los Angeles. In L.A. in the '20s, noted architectural historian and author Robert Winter explains this "architecture of entertainment"-the inherent beauty and mystery of the era when historic architectural styles became adventurous escapades. Chapters cover topics such as "Planning the City Beautiful," "Eclecticism," "Housing for the Masses," "Gardens," "Public Architecture," and more. Architects covered in this book include Bertram Goodhue; Morgan, Walls and Clements; Allison and Allison; and Parkinson and Parkinson working in public architecture; as well as Frank Lloyd Wright and Wallace Neff working in residential architecture. Also included here are works from noted modernists Irving Gill, Alfred Loos, Richard Neutra, and others.