Los Angeles: Deluxe this question feed

asked by samoan on November 8, 2006 11:14 PM
Like its spectacular predecessors, New York, New York and These United States, this elegant volume is a brilliant presentation of all that is L.A. It takes us from Venice Beach to Rodeo Drive, from high culture to pop, and over freeways and flashing past billboards. Los Angeles captures the essence of the constantly evolving city: from palm-lined avenues to hip hotels and art deco theaters, Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall to the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels. Not just for L.A. residents and connoisseurs, this book is for anyone interested in architecture, design and, of course, the iconography unique to Southern California. The book's format allows us to revel in the marvelous landscape. From mountain peaks to desert oases, beautiful beaches to redwood forests, Los Angeles literally envelops us in the city's grandeur in stunning spreads and impressive gatefolds, each more than five feet wide.
Acclaimed architecture and design photographer Tim Street-Porter showcases the fascinating cityscape-by day and by night. A long time resident with exceptional access, Street-Porter takes us from the most coveted homes of Hollywood and Beverly Hills to the best examples of contemporary architecture for which the city is famous, featuring the full spectrum of residences from seminal modernist houses to baroque mansions and California Mediterranean homes in their lush settings.


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This books takes what many feel is an ugly, spawling city and shows it the way I have always seen it. Gorgous, bright, colorful and diverse. A hot bed of new and unusal design. This is a new city in regards to the East, but it has a very rich Architectual history. It is a city alive and thriving.

I do wish more attention had been payed to the eastside and more of south central or south L.A. as it is now called. Then again who could have lifted such a heavy book had Tim Street-Porter done that.
reviewed by borat on November 17, 2006 2:58 AM

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I can't tell you how much I love Los Angeles and yet I live in Australia, so I obviously bought this up as soon as I saw it released. It is like one gigantic souvenier for me to look back at each time I get 'home sick'. The book is absolutely beautiful and the work involved in it is spectacular. The buildings and streets seem to come alive in here and it's a book for anyone who loves LA or wants to see it but hasn't been yet, or for someone into beautiful buildings etc. It's a costly purchase, but something you'll have for a lifetime. I really highly recommend this book as a luxury treat for yourself or someone you love.
reviewed by bigdv on November 18, 2006 10:14 PM

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Weighing in at nine pounds and a huge lap full at 18" X 15" X 2" LOS ANGELES, the book, is as spectacular and huge as the city it emulates! This is a splendid spectrum of photographic views of all that is Los Angeles.

Diane Keaton provides the spunky introduction to this lavish volume and few could have better summarized what makes Los Angeles unique. What then follows are Tim Street-Porter's photographic explorations of the idiosyncratic homes that span the gamut of style and period, the boulevards with the trademark palm trees, the landscapes that touch this city at the mountains, the desert, and the ocean perimeters, and the architectural wonders that continue to sprout and blossom here. Space is generously given to Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall, to the Mineo Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, to the early Hollywood art deco theaters, and to the various neighborhoods that make Los Angeles a city of cultural miscegenation.

As is standard for Rizzoli Books the paper and color reproductions are of the highest quality. There are many fold out pages which, in a book this size, result in panoramas beneath the sun and the stars that spread for sixty inches! There are no holds barred at making this hefty tome a true homage to the City of the Angels and will surely build the city's reputation as a place of beauty wherever it is sold. A high end but gorgeous gift! Grady Harp, October 05

reviewed by imtheboss on November 19, 2006 10:00 PM

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