Are you having deja vu? We’re having deja vu. But it’s understandable; Spanish Colonial Revival architecture is awfully similar to Mission Revival architecture, which we covered in our Los Angeles Architecture 101 series last May. And somewhere, an architect is fantasizing about strangling us for the oversimplification. In our defense, experts will surely agree that […]
Featured image credit: Los Angeles In our ongoing series about LA’s diverse architecture, we’ve focused on clear styles that have been fairly easy to identify through their distinction. Georgian Revival architecture allows us no such luxury. Not only is it a callback to a pre-defined architecture style (as is the case with any of the […]
Featured image credit: Carol M. Highsmith The speed of architecture may not be exactly whiteknuckle. Especially from our point of view in modern Los Angeles where construction for even a modest building can take ages. But an offshoot of Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, was all about architecture in motion. Streamline Moderne architecture pared down Art […]
Featured image credit: Jennvirskus When transplants come to Los Angeles with stars in their eyes, community is rarely what they’re after. But some still find it in the city’s dwindling numbers of bungalow courts. These multi-family structures took an already popular design, the California bungalow, and made it more affordable. And, in many cases, more […]
Even those with the most casual of interests in architecture will likely recognize the Victorian style. It’s an architecture that takes its name from the era in history that spawned it, which in turn took its name from the reigning monarch crowned in 1837. But the Victorian era is perhaps best remembered for its breakthroughs […]
Featured image credit: Keizers In our Los Angeles Architecture 101 series, we’ve yet to cover any of the “revival” styles. Yet revival architecture was a major part of a time popularly referred to as the Eclectic Movement. Revival styles involved contemporary resurgences of European and American (typically from the colonial period) architecture. Today, we’re specifically […]
Featured image credit: Antoine Taveneaux The Roaring Twenties didn’t just get their name from the din of the jazz bands. Everything was louder: the personalities, the fashion, and even the architecture. A lot of that visual flair can be attributed to a style that had been gaining popularity in France since around 1910. Today, we […]
Featured image credit: Geographer And you thought Googie sounded exotic. Try wrapping your tongue around Churrigueresque! Believe it or not, this somewhat obscure architectural style is just as overwhelming on the eyes as it is the mouth. Subscribing to the “more is more” philosophy of the Baroque aesthetic, Churrigueresque is a highly decorative sub-style of […]
Feature photo credit: Daniel L. Lu For the third chapter in our Los Angeles Architecture 101 series, we’re examining one of LA’s oldest forms of architecture. Unfortunately, it’s also among the least unique to the region. However, the Greater Los Angeles area still exhibits its own distinct relationship to Beaux-Arts. People across the U.S. celebrated […]
Featured photo credit: Crafty In our second edition of Los Angeles Architecture 101, we ask ourselves: “Where do you go from Googie?” And after the fast-paced, forward-thinking, white-knuckle progress of Googie architecture, we feel like you’re ready for something completely different. So, we’re trading the neon arrows and retrofuturism for a design classic that prioritizes […]
