Word: banham
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...marble foyers and 100 Sheetrock offices, their eggbox planning, insipid detail and graceless proportions. The International Style expended itself in these shallows, not in its masterpieces. But what is the alternative? Not the culture of Vegas casinos and duck-shaped roadhouses beloved of Pop architectural theorists like Reyner Banham and Robert Venturi; trash may be language, but it remains trash. The desire for an architecture that is grand, exemplary, responsive and practical still exists. And general expectations of such an architecture have to a large extent converged on Kahn...
...turn, the people were shaped by the city's topography. To the west lies the splendor of 70 continuous miles of white sandy beaches. This coastline enhances transcendental (as opposed to commercial) values. Says Banham: "A man needs only what he stands up in-usually a pair of frayed shorts and sunglasses." In contrast are the foothills, where grand houses perch precariously on steep, lush gardens, the perfect incubators of the "fat life" of affluence and privacy...
Glorious Spontaneity. Between ocean and mountain stretches the broad, featureless plain whose uninspired development Banham calls "Anywheresville/ Nowheresville." But soon freeways stamped man's imprint on this heartland too. Each great road had the potential to become "a work of art, both as a pattern on the map, as a monument against the sky, and as a kinetic experience." Of course, the roads bred more cars, and cars bred what Banham calls "a coherent state of mind." One symptom: the emphasis on driving everywhere, a "willing acquiescence in an incredibly demanding man/machine system." Another: the customized...
...Banham sees it, Los Angeles' hall-mark is a glorious spontaneity. Certainly the city fostered a self-confident new architecture unlike any other elsewhere. A good example is Simon Rodia's famous Watts towers, which are "unlike anything else in the world." A true Southern California building recognizes the outdoors to such an extent that it has five entrances, Banham notes, "none of which is the main one." He also celebrates the riot of commercial structures that have sprouted under the hot sun like exotic weeds: restaurants shaped like hats, milk cans or owls, and squat concrete structures...
...Corbusier once said that a dream x 1,000,000 = chaos. Banham believes that Los Angeles disproves the equation. To him, the city embodies the reality of the American Dream to combine an urban homestead with suburban good living. Does the city thus seem a bit too eager and guileless, therefore comic? In answer, Banham quotes another Los Angeles observer, Nathanael West: "It is hard to laugh at the need for beauty and romance...