Art Deco Gems Of Los Angeles.
Before it was famous for its eccentric and highly influential mid-century commercial design, Los Angeles was already a treasure trove of elegant architecture in the Art Deco style. Thanks in part to a movie industry that burgeoned during the Deco Era, lending a sophisticated and optimistic elegance to popular film musicals, Los Angeles is one of the world's most thoroughly Art Deco towns. Products of the streamlined style of the 1920s and New Deal building efforts during the 1930s, many of these buildings fell into disrepair or were marred by ill-fitting facades in later years; at one point their style was considered passe. Recently these buildings have become the focus of intense regional preservation efforts. This glorious survey features hundreds of colour photographs from across the Southland, with dazzling detail and majestic and sometimes whimsical elements that define Art Deco style. The result is a unique reference book for Deco buffs and Los Angeles aficionados alike, with a foreword by Bevis Hillier, the critic who coined the term art deco.
