I hope you’re doing well in the middle of this rough year for LA, which now has Playboy (and other businesses) heading for the exits, and some suggesting we should back out of hosting the Olympics.
The generalized gloom perhaps contributes to the interest in a past moment for LA architecture and design, as captured in Rebel Architects: From Venice to the World Stage, a film directed by Russell Brown for Friends of Residential Los Angeles. The film features four of seven architects — Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, Frank Gehry, Frederick Fisher, Coy Howard, Craig Hodgetts, and the late Robert Mangurian — who were captured in a 1980 image by street photographer Ave Pildas.
"Rebel Architects" in Venice, 1980. Photo courtesy Ave Pildas
Then they were clad more like rockers than bespectacled architects, and seemed to be just chilling on the sand at Venice Beach. Even though there was no rad building in the picture, the photo morphed into a kind of visual shorthand for a design period when young, rebellious talent broke from Modernism and international trends, set up studios in bowtrussed warehouses and collaged rough materials and off-kilter forms into playful houses, restaurants, workspaces and furniture (like Gehry's cardboard sofa, below).
Rebel Architects consists of a conversation with Mayne, Moss, Hodgetts, and Fisher, book-ended by the 1980 photo and a restaged version of it (top of page). The four reflect on the photo (and the joint offered by Pildas to loosen them up), Gehry and the other talents in their orbit, the role of media in shaping history, and, centrally, the art and architecture scene in a Venice that was cheap, grungy, and great fun.
Frank Gehry sits on a cardboard sofa in his Venice studio. Photo by Tim Street-Porter for The Architectural Review, 1987, edited by Frances Anderton.
Fast forward to now, and a fire-torn LA is prohibitively expensive. Art and architecture have been subsumed into global juggernauts, and it has become mind-numbingly complicated to get even small structures built. There are startling levels of homelessness, and yet constant resistance to big solutions.
So for all the imperfections of that time (and there were many), Rebels is a feel-good throwback to an LA with a strong sense of itself. I look forward to us recapturing that mojo.
To date, the film has been released in bite-sized segments monthly to FORT members, but it’s going to be screened in its entirety at Ojai Playhouse on August 31st. If you are in the area on Labor Day Weekend, come join us. Find all the details below, along with many more Design Things To Do.
Design Things To Do
The Wedge Revolution: Cars on the Cutting Edge Petersen Automotive Museum, 2nd Floor Design Gallery, 6060 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036 Through September 26th, opening daily, 10:00 AM–6:00 PM (Check-In closes at 5:30 PM)
Among the (other) gifts to the world from the 1970s were wedges — wedge shoes, haircuts, and cars! Think the gull-winged Delorean DMC-12, the time-traveling car in Back To The Future.
Now the Petersen Museum has unveiled a display of these overlooked hot wheels from 1965-1985, when designers “emphasized angular silhouettes and faceted planes, with body triangulation from front to rear." The show is curated by Tesla's Chief Designer and "wedge" enthusiast Franz von Holzhausen. It includes such gems as the 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero, the 1974 Lamborghini Countach LP400 “Periscopio,” the 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog, and, of course, the Delorean DMC-12.
If you'd ever wondered what inspired the kitschy, angular design of the Tesla Cybertruck, now you know. That vehicle will be displayed along with other modern variants on wedge design, such as the 2016 Lo-Res Car.
But the wedge car will always be associated with its cultural moment. As fan hubby Robin Bennett Stein puts it, “put pedal to the metal on that flux capacitor and hyperspace back to your dream Prom Night. May the flashiest driver revise your glory days to back when the whole world was 18.”
Room 8: A Cat in the Classroom Through January 11th, 2026, Open daily, various times LA Public Library, Central Library (History & Genealogy Department ) 630 W. 5th Street. Los Angeles, CA 90071
One day in 1952, a stray cat wandered into Elysian Heights Elementary school and spent the next 16 years living in its classrooms and hallways, bringing delight to many a schoolkid. A decade later, Look magazine sent photojournalist Richard Hewett to document "a day in the life of L.A.’s most famous feline,” named Room 8.
Hewett’s extensive photographic archive was acquired by LAPL in 2019, and 30 of his 297 images of Room 8 have been put on show in an exhibit curated by Brenda Rees. Check out the entire set at tessa.lapl.org. This is not a design story per se, but it is adorable in every way. Why can't we have more pets in the classroom?
Room 8 snoozes during class. Photo by Richard Hewitt, courtesy LAPL
Looks Like a Home to Me: Inside the Progressive Art Studios Through December 7th, 2025 Central Library (Getty Gallery), 630 W. 5th Street. Los Angeles, CA 90071
This exhibit displays the work of over 80 artists, including Andrew Duncan (below) from various California Progressive Art Studios, nurturing artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities since the first one opened in 1974 in Oakland.
Schindler Space Architect Screening followed by Q&A with Director Valentina Ganeva Wednesday, August 20th, 7:30 PM Laemmle NoHo, 5240 Lankershim Blvd, North Hollywood Additional screenings, through August 25th, at multiple Laemmle locations
Viennese-born Rudolf Schindler transformed Los Angeles architecture with buildings shaped by space, light, and interconnection with nature. In the feature-length documentary, Schindler Space Architect, director Valentina Ganeva draws on rich archival material, new cinematography, and a voice-over by Meryl Streep, to vividly tell the story of Schindler's ideas, life, loves, and his complicated relationship with L.A.’s other founding Austrian Modernist, Richard Neutra.
The film will screen as part of Laemmle's Culture Vulture series at multiple venues, with a Q&A with Galena at the Noho screening on August 20th.
The Oliver House, designed by R.M. Schindler. Still from Schindler Space Architect, courtesy Valentina Ganeva.
Obscure Landmarks of Los Feliz Sunday, August 24th, 3:00–4:30 PM Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Longtime Los Angeles pop culture tour guide Adam Papagan (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills Tour and The Curb Your Enthusiasm Tour), and author of the new book Behind The Scenes in Los Angeles: A Pop Culture History Tour, will enlighten people about the Obscure Landmarks of Los Feliz, at a talk taking place in a Los Feliz landmark: the library of the Philosophical Research Society, designed by Robert Stacy-Judd.
Expect to hear about obscurities from “long forgotten adobes to the mansion occupied by the '60s rock group Love.” While there, experience an exhibit and presentation of "bizarre pop culture artifacts" by Culture Dumps podcast host Ryan Lichten.
Adam Papagan and a "forgotten adobe." Courtesy Philosophical Research Society
Rebel Architects: From Venice to the World Stage and Truth Be Told – Gloria Henry Ojai Playhouse – 145 E. Ojai Ave, Ojai, CA Sunday, August 31st, 3:30 – 6:00 PM
Rebel Architects: From Venice to the World Stage (see top of this newsletter and in this review) will be screened in full at Ojai Playhouse, followed by a conversation between director Russell Brown, yours truly, and Fred Fisher, one of the "rebel" architects who also lives in Ojai.
The screening, presented by David Berger, owner of the fully restored Ojai Playhouse, and Jennifer Siegal, founder of the Ojai Design Posse, will open with an interesting short film: TRUTH BE TOLD - Gloria Henry. Erin Ellwood, daughter of Craig Ellwood, and Gaszton Gal, captures her late mother, the famed TV mom on the CBS sitcom “Dennis the Menace,” in the mid-century modern home designed by her husband.
Click here for details about the free, public screening.
Learn more about houses by the "rebel" architects from the 1970s and '80s on this FORT Trail by Robert Thibodeau and Tim Bonefeld.
One of LA's treasures is St. Elmo Village in mid-city, a complex of ten cottages, a shared studio and an apartment building and house, knitted together by art and community-centered creative programming and political activism. It was created in 1969 by two Black artists, Rozzell Sykes and his nephew, Roderick Sykes, and has just received Historic-Cultural Monument (HCM) status as part of African American Historic Places Los Angeles, led by Getty and the City of Los Angeles’ Office of Historic Resources. Joining it in this honor are other Black cultural landmarks, the Tom and Ethel Bradley Residence, Jewel’s Catch One, StylesVille Barbershop & Beauty Salon, the California Eagle offices, and New Bethel Baptist Church.
Driveway at St. Elmo Village. Photo by Frances Anderton, 2021.
"New negotiation, new look"
I am not quite sure why Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's outfit garnered seemingly more column inches than the substance of his White House meeting, but of those who wrote about it, the NYT's Vanessa Friedman delivered, as always, with sardonic wit. "Whether the ensemble was actually a suit or rather a suit-like jacket-and-slacks combination caused some debate in the betting market, but either way, and despite the fact it was still dark, as if to signal the dark days, it was unquestionably more formal than Mr. Zelensky’s usual attire; a sort of fashion DMZ situated between the two sides of combat and classic. No tie, but no cargo pants either." She makes clear why clothing matters.
And while on politics... I never thought I’d look to an action-comedy starring hottie Idris Elba and wrestler John Cena for a defense of NATO, but that’s what you get from Heads of State, when misfits — Elba as world-weary UK prime minister; Cena as chipper but naive US president — turn buddies as they extricate themselves from disaster in this caper with a wry script and ludicrous violence. This is summer fun that is oddly moving.
John Cena and Idris Elba star in 'Heads of State'. Credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
That's it for this week. Thank you as always for reading.
Yours, Frances
P.S. Subscribe to the KCRW Design and Architecture newsletter here, get back issues here, and reach out to me at francesanderton@gmail.com.
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