Ansel Adams’s Perspective on Los Angeles Architecture to be Discussed at Westmont College
Dennis Doordan, an architectural and design historian, will analyze Los Angeles architecture through the lens of photographs taken by Ansel Adams during a 1940s assignment. The lecture, titled “Looking at Ansel Adams Looking at LA,” will be held on Tuesday, February 24, at 4 p.m. At the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art.
Lecture Details
The hour-long lecture is free and open to the public. No RSVP is required, and light refreshments will be served.
Adams’s Views on LA Architecture
Doordan, professor emeritus of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, noted that Adams was critical of “duck” architecture – buildings designed to resemble the product or service they house – which gained popularity during the postmodernism movement in the 1960s. Adams, while on assignment for Fortune magazine in the 1940s, expressed his dissatisfaction with much of the architecture he encountered in Los Angeles, writing that he drove “hundreds of miles in pursuit of” what he considered “awful examples,” such as the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood. Westmont College News
About Dennis Doordan
Doordan holds a doctorate in the history of architecture from Columbia University and is a commissioner for Santa Barbara’s Historic Landmarks Commission. He is the author of “Twentieth Century Architecture” and a co-editor of the journal Design Issues. Westmont College News
Exhibition Information
The exhibition “Beyond the Wilderness: Ansel Adams in 1940s Los Angeles” is currently on view at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art through March 28.
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