Lectures

Retro LA – Part 1

Speakers: Professor Neil Jackson, former Trustee of C20 Society and author of many books on California architects and architecture and John East the Society’s ‘unofficial photographer’

In 2004, the C20 Society promoted a tour of southern California architecture visiting, in addition to Los Angeles, San Juan Capistrano, La Jolla, San Diego, Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs. Using John East’s excellent photographs as a starting-point for the discussion, Neil and John revisit the buildings and places the C20 Society saw. Ranging from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House in Hollywood to Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute at La Jolla and Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown LA, the presentation demonstrates the remarkable originality of southern California’s modern architecture and reflect upon what can be achieved, architecturally, in climate where it rarely rains and the only real threat is from earthquakes.