Some of the stars of Golden State architecture
From pioneering African-American architect Paul R. Williams, who fought against segregation before becoming the architect to the stars, and designed 3,000 houses between 1920 and 1930, to the iconoclastic deconstructivist forms of Frank Gehry's extravagant buildings, let's take a look at some of the architects who left their mark on the eccentric, sometimes futuristic urbanism so characteristic of California:
Julia Morgan (1872-1957). An emblematic figure of Californian architecture, she was the first woman to graduate in architecture from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1902. A pioneer in the use of reinforced concrete to prevent earthquake risks, Julia Morgan's 50-year career saw her complete over 700 buildings, a third of which were commissioned by women at a time when feminism was emerging in America. She is particularly famous for the construction of the Hearst Castle, a sumptuous palace perched on San Simeon Hill between Los Angeles and San Francisco. This incredible mansion, which looks as if it has stepped out of antiquity, is the former home of billionaire William Hearst, a sulphurous newspaper boss. Now a museum (classified as a national historic monument), "the most expensive house in the world" blends all architectural styles. It took 28 years to build. There are 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 lounges and indoor and outdoor swimming pools. The 51-hectare garden includes tennis courts, a cinema, an airstrip and the world's largest private zoo. After her death, Julia Morgan's work was swept aside by the modernist movement. It's only been a few years since her visionary work has been recognized. In 2016, Julia Morgan was posthumously awarded the AIA Gold Medal, the highest honor of the American Institute of Architects, in recognition of her significant work and seminal influence on architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). A fervent advocate of organic architecture, open plans and the abolition of boundaries between interior and exterior, Frank Lloyd Wright permanently altered the relationship between architecture and nature. During his 70-year career, he completed over 300 projects. Rejecting verticality, he theorized the Usonian house, built on a concrete slab with no foundation, simple and elegant, to enable the middle class to become homeowners after the stock market crash of 1929. The inventor of the waterfall house in Pennsylvania, Frank Lloyd Wright is also the father of New York's fantastic Guggenheim Museum, his ultimate masterpiece. In California, the prolix architect designed 26 buildings that are still standing. In Los Angeles, you can see his famous patterned concrete-block textile houses. He designed just four of them with a strong Mayan aesthetic in 1923, and wanted to prove that with an inexpensive material, something beautiful could be created. All are located in the L.A. area: Ennis House, Storer House, Millard House/La Miniatura and Freeman House. In San Francisco, the V.C. Morris Gift Shop in Union Square is the only building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1949, he experimented with a multi-storey circular design around a central atrium, which would become definitively iconic 10 years later with the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Richard Neutra (1892-1970). A native of Vienna, nourished by the Bauhaus, he arrived on the East Coast of the United States in the early 1920s and worked for Frank Lloyd Wright before moving to vast California and its wealthy inhabitants. A pioneer of modern architecture, Richard Neutra founded his work on a new architecture based on man's biological knowledge and the need to be in touch with nature. He developed the theory of biorealism, a lifestyle defined by man's relationship with his natural environment, his fluidity of movement in space and the importance of a healthy living environment. Light is omnipresent in Richard Neutra's work, while his architecture is intended to be discreet, its primary quality being to disappear from the way of life, to become transparent in order to offer superb views of nature. In Southern California, a fertile land blessed by the star Ra, Richard Neutra quickly became a favorite of wealthy Californians, who praised his elegant style and his play with light. At the height of his career, the owners of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Villa on the Cascade commissioned Neutra to build a vacation home for the winter months. It was to be in Palm Springs, 2 hours from Los Angeles, an oasis of greenery in a radical land, the darling of movie stars. The stone, glass and steel Kaufmann House, built in 1947, perfectly embodies the rules of modernism. With its unadorned beauty, it quickly became iconic. Immortalized by photographers Slim Aarons and Julius Shulman, their images of The Kaufmann House toured the world and established the apotheosis of Neutra's modernist style, international in spirit and local in inspiration.
Other architects who left important works in California include Jack A. Charney and his Sierra Tower, the tallest skyscraper in West Hollywood, and Pierre Koenig and his Case Study House n°22 (the Stahl house), an avant-garde glass-and-steel construction in the Hollywood hills that offers an incredible view of Los Angeles. Elrod House, a modern grotto with a bold aesthetic designed by John Lautner, a pioneer of "Desert Modernism", is easily visible from the heights of Palm Springs. Last but not least, what would California's modern architectural signature be without the original creations of Frank Gehry, the iconic, avant-garde architect now 93? When he bought an ordinary colonial-style bungalow in 1977, his neighbors had no idea that he would transform it into a deconstructivist house. Unusual materials and odd shapes are exploited, such as sheet metal, plywood, wire-mesh fences and scaffolding. Neighbors weren't thrilled (euphemism) by the look of this avant-garde construction, but for Frank Gehry, a future pop culture figure, the objective was achieved: to attract the eye of onlookers and thus potential buyers. From the 1980s onwards, the unconventional lines and organic undulations of his "twisted" creations, influenced by the deconstructivist and post-structuralist movements, became an international authority. Frank Gehry's world-famous creations include the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (1997), the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (2003) and, more recently, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris (2014). In 2010, Vanity Fair magazine named him "the greatest architect of our time".
Los Angeles : architectural laboratory
Los Angeles is home to a multitude of architectural styles that help define the "American" style. In barely two centuries, the city has forged its own architectural identity and a unique visual aesthetic closely linked to its development. In the late 17th century, Los Angeles was little more than a dusty pueblo, a modest Mexican outpost with a pioneer encampment by the Los Angeles River. But under the Victorian era, from 1837 to 1901, thousands of houses were built, and Los Angeles was booming. Its rugged, hilly terrain complicated the builders' task. Unlike New York on the East Coast, Los Angeles has very few skyscrapers except in a few neighborhoods such as Downtown, Warner Center, Hollywood... Whether you're looking for a Victorian mansion, post-war mid-century modern or Art Deco buildings, the City of Angels is full of architectural treasures.
What to see in Los Angeles :
Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Los Angeles Philharmonic on Grand Avenue in Downtown L.A. is the city's architectural and cultural landmark. Designed by superstar architect Frank Gehry and inaugurated in 2003, it is one of four concert hall complexes in the Los Angeles Music Center. Of its $274 million price tag, the building was the subject of an initial donation of $50 million in 1987 by Lillian Disney, the widow of the famous producer. Beneath its stainless steel waves, which reflect differently depending on the angle, the sun and the time of day, the auditorium seats 2,265 people. Its particularly sophisticated acoustics were supervised by the renowned acousticians from the Japanese company Nagata Acoustic.
The Getty Center in Brentwood, an all-white masterpiece of modern art by star architect Richard Meier, which, like the Getty Villa, is also visited for its magnificent garden overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) on Miracle Mile, which has been modified many times by different architects over the past 50 years and boasts an immense interior courtyard. It's also the largest museum in the Western U.S., tracing the history of art from antiquity to the present day.
Griffith Observatory in Los Feliz. Built in 1935, this singular architectural gem can be described as Art Deco/Egyptian in style. Perched high above the Hollywood Hills, it offers a marvellous view of Los Angeles and the Hollywood sign.
The Broad, a contemporary art museum opened in 2015 founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who financed the $140 million "honeycomb" building. Designed by Diller Scofidio+ Renfro, the museum is built on the idea of a veil and a vault.
San Francisco, the cosmopolitan city with eclectic architecture
From Spanish colonization, to the gold rush that led to a population boom, to the earthquake and fire that devastated 80% of the city in 1906, but did nothing to halt its meteoric economic rise. "The City by the Bay has a rich, fascinating and turbulent history. The unbridled growth of this remote outpost lost in the scrubland into a prosperous cosmopolitan city by the 19th century complicated the city's urban planning efforts, leaving a legacy of narrow streets that still prevail in many neighborhoods. Known for its Victorian architecture, bow windows and modern style, San Francisco's eclectic architecture has no dominant style, but perfectly reflects the region's history, geography and diverse population. As the epicenter of radical social change in the '60s (women's liberation, civil rights and the sexual revolution), the progressive spirit of SF and its people can be felt in the mix of styles in its urban planning. What to see
The Fine Arts Museums, a collection of buildings in a variety of styles. 1) De Young Museum, SF's Fine Arts Museum in Golden Gate Park. Opened in 1895, its design blends hyper-modernity, nature and raw materials, and is a real curiosity. 2) The Legion of Honor, directly inspired by the 18th-century Legion of Honor Museum in Paris, is a scaled-down replica. The Beaux-Arts-style museum in Lincoln Park was built in memory of the 3,600 Californian soldiers who died in northern France during the First World War .
The Golden Gate Bridge, built 80 years ago, this Art Deco-style steel suspension bridge is one of the tallest in the world at 2.7 kilometers long and 227 meters high. Considered one of the seven wonders of civil engineering in the United States by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Golden Gate and its iconic international orange color is the symbol of the city of San Francisco.
The Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Built in Art Deco style, it was inaugurated in 1933 to honor the city's firefighters. It was designed by architects Arthur Brown Jr. and Henry Howard.
Mission Dolores. Built in 1776 by Spanish missionaries (led by Father Junipero Serra, controversial founder of numerous Franciscan missions in California), this is San Francisco's oldest church. Its adobe walls (a mixture of dried earth and grass) are four metres thick. The original redwood beams are still in place, supporting the ceiling. The Mission Dolores basilica is built in the churrigueresque style (18th-century Spanish ultra-baroque characterized by an abundance of ornamentation)
The 260-metre-high Transamerica Pyramid in the Financial District was one of the city's landmarks for over 40 years. When it was built in 1968, its futuristic shape drew fierce criticism. Some feared it would ruin the skyline of the business district. However, the pyramid shape was chosen to address environmental concerns and allow light to reach down to the base of the building, unlike conventional skyscrapers. Since 2018, the tower has been supplanted in size by the 326-metre Salesforce Tower. This slender 61-storey glass skyscraper, which resembles an obelisk, is the main building in SOMA of the vast redevelopment plan of San Francisco Transbay, the local transport authority.
The Painted Ladies. Between 1849 and 1915, some 48,000 modest Victorian and Edwardian houses were built in booming San Francisco. They were painted in bright colors to accentuate their architectural details. Many were destroyed by fire in 1906, but others survived in the West and South Quarters, including the Seven Painted Ladies at 710 and 720 Steiner Street. Built between 1892 and 1896 by Matthew Kavanaugh, they are among the oldest houses in SF.
The postmodern red-brick SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) building is also a must-see. It reopened its doors in May 2016 after extensive renovations that tripled its exhibition space thanks to an extension, a huge 10-storey "annex" with a white facade marked by striations and undulations that seems to cling to the original building.
In Las Vegas: stroll along the 5 km Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as the strip, and you'll discover the architectural extravagance of some of the world's finest casinos, such as Caesar's Palace, with its decor inherited from the Roman Empire; the Bellagio, with its famous fountains celebrating Italy and a recreation of the canals of Venice; or the Mandalay Bay, with its atmosphere of the South-East Asian seas.
In Phoenix, the main architectural attraction is the modern Palo Verde Library and Maryvale Community Center, built in 2006 and honored with numerous awards in the years that followed. Its clean rectangular shapes, transparency and green spaces make it an ideal place to relax in Phoenix.
Scottsdale is home to another Arizona landmark: Taliesin West. This low, wide and comfortable complex was built in 1937 by Frank Lloyd Wright as his winter residence and a place of learning for his students. Wright wanted to use only locally available materials for this organic, Prairie-style architectural project. The structure is built using the "desert masonry" process. The walls are made of desert rock, stacked in wooden forms and filled with concrete. The plaster on the interior walls has been mixed with sienna, giving the building a rustic feel. Taliesin features many of the architectural elements that became Wright's trademark: cantilevered roofs, large windows and an open floor plan. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Taliesin West is home to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and the Taliesin School of Architecture.
Last but not least, Salt Lake City's Abravanel Hall is home to the Utah Symphony Orchestra. Designed in 1979, its triangular shape and sharp edges evoke the bow of a ship. Its large windows allow you to observe the constant activity inside. In the concert hall, admire the 6 sparkling chandeliers. Each is composed of 3,000 hand-cut crystals imported from Austria and Czechoslovakia. To eliminate echoes and distribute sound evenly, the walls and ceiling are made of convex surfaces: there are no 90-degree angles.
