Los Angeles Houses
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Los Angeles Houses
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Architecture is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Los Angeles, but there’s no doubt that the city has its own unique style. Large in scale, its rolling, densely lit nightscape suggests the pockets of heavy population that spread out from downtown. In fact, most people from LA don’t actually live there, but in a suburb.
The result of all this suburban living is a hugely diverse residential area with spectacular houses in the hills and canyons, surrounded by trees and stunning views of the city. This book examines some of the highlights of domestic living around Los Angeles, and points out some of the major influences: Art Deco, Spanish, and contemporary architecture; spacious, light-filled rooms; and plenty of wood, steel and concrete. It examines how the city’s flamboyant past has shaped the landscape, as well as how cutting-edge architects and interior designers continue to create exciting new styles and structures. Acclaimed architects such as Richard Meier are featured here along with firms such as Bobrow Thomas & Associates, Legorreta and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. Filled with photographs, floor plans, sketches, and informative text, this collection of stunning houses proves that the City of Angels is making its mark in the world of home design.
From the Publisher
Splendid look at Los Angeles interiors Perfect compliment to New York Apartments (3-8238-5557-3), London Apartments (3-8238-5558-1), and Berlin Apartments (3-8238-5596-4), all published by teNeues Attractively designed at an affordable price
Robin Benson | 
27/02/2005
27/02/2005
Re-LAX at home
The forty houses featured in this thick chunky paperback are no doubt representative of the best of contemporary Los Angeles living (some older residences are featured though, Austin Ayers 1946 Elliot House and the stunning Pierre Koenig 1960 Stahl House) and this is only to be expected, for years an area with plenty of money and creative talent who wanted to live in the best that world famous architects could create.
The tradition lives on in these pages but I must say I was rather disappointed with the title. It annoyingly can't decide if it is a collection of lifestyle or architectural photos. I think it tends towards lifestyle. Each house just has the architect and photographer named, no dimensions or date and the few plans are far too small to be useful. The hundred words or so of text that describe each house is remarkably vague, for instance, this sentence comes from the Rosenthall House 'The two bodies that make up the structure create an attractive play on volumes, lending the project a suggestive rhythm that is accentuated by the tonality of the fa?ade.' Similar text applies to each house.
I was also disappointed by the quality of the photography, so many of the interiors have a dull cast and this could possibly be in part due to the thick matt paper. If it were printed on lightweight gloss perhaps the images would have a lot more sparkle. Finally, the thick paper bulks out the book and because of the small size makes it rather unwieldy to handle.
These interesting houses deserve a better book than this but it is priced very reasonably for the over four hundred color photos included.
bern hugo |
25/05/2004
25/05/2004
ITS REALLLLY GOOD.
this book i thought was gonna be big. instead it looked like a travel guide, but dont let this fool you. the inside is really great. great houses. great builts. great interiors. it has three other translations of languages. the main pictures somewhat looked smaller than they should have been, but this book is definitely worth having on your shelves. along with other great architecture books. dont expect most of the pictures to be big enough for details though.
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