La Forum Reader: From the Archives of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design - Tapa blanda

The "LA Forum Reader" brings together three decades of discursive writings and publications on architecture, urbanism, and Los Angeles culled from the archives of the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. Published under thematic sections: Experiments, Detours, Hunches, and Santa Anas, with interludes dedicated to Art and Architecture, Downtown, and the long-running LA Forum Newsletter, the collected essays and interviews track an uneven and lesser-known history of experimental architecture, postmodern geographies, and alternative urbanism in L.A. as told by the city's key designers and thinkers. Today, Los Angeles is a major architectural and urban player, but for decades the city was dismissed suburban and centerless. In republishing three decades of material on architecture and design in Los Angeles, the "LA Forum Reader" reclaims and reconsiders the city's architectural and discursive histories. It establishes, or reestablishes, a textual context for critical experimentation and urban investigation. This anthology includes essays, interviews, and reproductions of publications that have long been out of print, including pamphlets by Craig Hodgetts and Margaret Crawford, as well as early writings by Aaron Betsky and John Chase. A critically important and unique contribution to the subject, "LA Forum Reader" is an impressively informative and unreservedly recommended contribution to professional, college, and university library Architectural History collections and supplemental studies reading lists. --Midwest Book Review

"As as well as assembling articles from the 30 years of the Forum, the Reader offers character studies on the complexity of Los Angeles. The 27 articles cover experiments, detours, hunches, and Santa Anas. Among specific topics are Los Angeles and the L. A. School, the giant revolving (winking) chicken head and the doggie drinking fountain, cathedrals of the culture industry, on Broadway: downtown Los Angeles, on anything but the an interview with Mike Davis, and mock up: the persistence of beige." --ProtoView

"The LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design has offered a critical look at the city of Los Angeles since the late 80's. The nonprofit has been providing public programming, exhibitions, and publications through its ever-shifting board of directors and volunteer contributors. To celebrate this 30-year milestone, the Forum has carefully selected a collection of pieces published from its origin to today, and has published these in a book under the themes of Experiments, Detours, Hunches, and Santa Anas." --Archinect

"Driving across Los Angeles can be a surreal experience. For miles and miles, you pass the same gas stations, supermarkets, and mini-malls--have you even moved at all? Then, without warning, you come upon the Pacific Ocean, oil fields, Walt Disney Concert Hall, or some tiny airstrip. The LA Forum Reader is a similarly surprising and eclectic experience: It strings together some 26 essays and articles sourced from the 30-year-old nonprofit's publication. These thoroughly academic writings (generally no more than 10 pages each) cover taco trucks, crime-influenced architectural design, sprawl urbanism, and everything in between. Contributors include Aaron Betsky, Sylvia Lavin, Mimi Zieger, and Craig Hodgetts, just to name a few." --Metropolis Magazine

The Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design is an independent nonprofit organization that instigates dialogues on design and the built environment through public programming, exhibitions, and publications. L.A. is a catalytic place for architecture and design, offering lessons that extend globally. Our curatorial stance frames and challenges what architecture means in an evolving city. A critical voice in L.A. since 1987, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design's activities bring together architects, artists, designers, urban thinkers, and the public. Through each decade the Forum has vigorously interrogated the culture of architecture and urban design in L.A. A dedicated, working Board of Directors -- members of L.A.'s architecture and design communities -- produces our public programming and publications. Our events, newsletters, books, and competitions speculate on urbanism and create dialogues around contemporary design. Our programming routinely features the work of emerging and boundary-pushing designers. Ideas fomented include the codification of The LA School and the development of "everyday urbanism." Over the decades, Forum research has included typological analyses of boulevards, dead malls, and dingbat housing. Influential publications originated with the Forum include Experimental Architecture in Los Angeles (1992), Everyday Urbanism (1999), The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles (2008), and Dingbats 2.0 (2106). With Contributions of Robert Adams Rachel Allen Rob Berry Aaron Betsky Central Office of Architecture Marco Cenzatti John Chase Margaret Crawford Chava Danielson Joe Day Steven Flusty Russell Fortmeyer Todd Gannon Alan Hess Craig Hodgetts Victor Jones Ted Kane Sylvia Lavin Douglas MacLeod Tom Marble Michael Sweeney Christopher Tandon Kazys Varnelis