Los Angeles
Reyner Banham’s 1971 study of Los Angeles, written in praise of a city most architects despised. He divides it into four ecologies, the beaches, the foothills, the plains and the freeways, and argues that the city makes sense on its own terms.
Recommended by 1 Person
Andy Beckett
Banham celebrates Los Angeles much more than Davis. But, like Peter York, this book’s appeal to me is as much to do with its style as its content. It’s freewheeling and observational about the texture of life: he jumps from very grand, famous buildings to petrol stations. I often try to do that in my own writing – to be quite intensely descriptive and dart between high and low politics regardless of the barrier.
Interview · February 2013
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