Review: Overdrive: L.A.

Constructs the Future, 1940–1990

Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940–1990
Review by: Adnan Morshed
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 73, No. 4 (December 2014), pp. 588-
589
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2014.73.4.588 .
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 After Tel Aviv achieved UNESCO “one of the most populous and influential fascination with automobiles, its  fluid
World Heritage List status, 1,600 of the industrial, economic, and creative capitals sprawl, and investment in aerospace, one
buildings in the old part of the city were in the world” and its iconic image popular- must also pause to consider Dorothy Parker’s
listed for conservation. The conservation ized by the celluloid glamour of Holly- characterization of L.A. as “seventy-two
plan sets out several requirements. A cer- wood, the city’s architectural and urban suburbs in search of a city.” The exhibi-
tain amount of infill building is permitted, histories have remained relatively under- tion’s five sections—“Car Culture,” “Urban
following specific guidelines. Preserving studied, compared to other global cities Networks,” “Engines of Innovation,”
the “modernist heritage” of Tel Aviv has such as London, Paris, and New York. “Community Magnets,” and “Residential
required this and other inventive approaches This, of course, does not mean that there Fabric”—organized a vast body of material
to planning. This exhibition, promoting has been a dearth of worthwhile architec- into an alluring narrative of a city’s dogged
the architectural and urban values repre- tural and urban happenings in L.A. Among pursuit of a hopeful future.
sented by Israel’s capital city, can be seen other books, David Gebhard and Robert Cocurators Wim de Wit and Christo-
as both celebrating and reinforcing the Winter’s A Guide to Architecture in Southern pher James Alexander presented the
importance of that heritage during a time California (1965); Reyner Banham’s Los ­exhibition with tickling nostalgia. “Los
of change. Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies Angeles’s identity is inextricably linked
(1971); Charles Moore, Peter Becker, and to the automobile,” the inaugural “Car
aino niskanen Regula Campbell’s The City Observed, Los Culture” section informed visitors, pro-
Aalto University, Helsinki Angeles: A Guide to Its Architecture and viding them with a cultural platform from
Landscapes (1984); and Mike Davis’s City which to appreciate “Googie” coffee shops,
of  Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los drive-in restaurants, and other architec-
Angeles (1990) reveal a city that has been at tural typologies suitable for motorized
Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the the forefront of twentieth-century America’s lifestyles.2 With an imposing Disneyland
Future, 1940–1990 pioneering experiments in architectural poster, “Autopia at Tomorrowland,” the
Getty Center Exhibitions Pavilion, design and infrastructure planning. “Urban Networks” section portrayed the
Los Angeles Some observers, including Banham, city’s “daring expansion” of water and power
9 April–21 July 2013 presume that L.A. possesses unique qualities infrastructures, “pioneering freeways,”
in terms of how its urban growth and vari- and transportation hubs, which collec-
National Building Museum, ous cultural myths (such as the city’s fabled tively enabled L.A.’s octopus-like urban
Washington, D.C. “car culture”) intersect, to the point where growth. “Engines of Innovation” outlined
20 October 2013–10 March 2014 its architecture and urbanism could not the influence of various emerging indus-
be sufficiently analyzed with conventional tries (such as aviation) on architectural
Overdrive: L.A. Constructs the Future, 1940– art historical frameworks. This is one city, materials and construction techniques.
1990 was an ambitious exhibition that for instance, where “mobility outweighs The “Community Magnets” section
drew on an earlier initiative by the Getty monumentality.”1 The notion of mobility argued that architectural innovations—
Research Institute and the J. Paul Getty implied a discursive space for futurist self- including those dedicated to culture, sports,
Museum, chronicling the transformation representation on the part of L.A.’s movers shopping, and even faith—had played a
of Los Angeles from a “fledgling pueblo and shakers. In the 1960s, the Theme crucial role in Southern California’s unique
in the mid-1800s to a vibrant urban center” Building at the Los Angeles International ability to galvanize different communities.
in the mid-twentieth century. There has Airport (LAX) sought to simulate the fast- Herbert Ryman’s 1963 drawings of Disney­
not been any major exhibition on South- track life of jet-age modernity. And its land, as well as architectural models of
ern California’s architecture and urbanism ­restaurant, suspended from two intersect- various entries for the Walt Disney Con-
since Architecture in California, 1868–1968, ing parabolic arms, masqueraded as a crystal cert Hall competition, were highlights of
the groundbreaking retrospective curated ball for those who could not afford an this section. Finally, “Residential Fabric”
by David Gebhard and Harriette Von ­airplane journey. In many ways, Southern proposed that “more than any other build-
Breton in 1968. Thus, Overdrive shoul- California’s landscape-defining freeways, ing type, the private house has made Los
dered a huge burden of expectation. its Disneyland, and the architectural con- Angeles famous for innovation in modern
Los Angeles, America’s second-largest sortium L.A. Ten’s pathbreaking residen- architecture.” Southern California’s com-
city, has not been as lucky as the Big Apple. tial designs, among other contenders, were fortable climate and “surfurbia” landscape
When we think of a quintessential twentieth- efforts to anticipate, represent, and shape attracted many prospective homeowners,
century American city that embodies exu- a particular brand of future that would while motivating architects to rethink
berant architectural visions for the future be uniquely suited to L.A. the conventions of domestic architecture.
and provides a dynamic urban theater for The task of Overdrive was to map this Here, John Lautner’s Buckminster Fuller–
Horatio Alger–type “rags-to-riches” stories, city. It was not easy, however, to tell L.A.’s inspired Malin Residence (Chemosphere,
we unconsciously conjure up images of gigantic and conflicted story of moder- 1960), “levitating” on a steep slope, and the
New York. Despite L.A.’s claim of being nity. While observing the city’s peculiar Romanian émigré Haralamb Georgescu’s

588    j s a h / 7 3 : 4 , D e c e m b e r 2 014

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unrealized, ecology-driven Skyloft (late accelerated growth exacted an environ- and “car culture.” James M. Cain’s narrative
1960s) were presented as apt commentar- mental cost. The problem, however, was austerity in portraying a “paradise” with-
ies on L.A.’s robust investments in archi- that this cautionary tale was not forcefully out embellishing it with palm trees and
tectural innovations. developed throughout the exhibition. eucalyptus, artificial sunshine, and preten-
An assortment of photographs, maps, A heavily choreographed history of the tious optimism could have informed the
historic video clips, animated diagrams, future appeared to have stymied the type examination of hyperurbanization’s envi-
and architectural models (for example, of urban narratives—both nuanced and ronmental dilemmas.
Grinstein/Daniels Inc.’s Googie-style conflicted—that make L.A. such a fasci- Overdrive is a satisfying show, a visual
KFC and Frederic P. Lyman’s Las Flores nating city. feast of engrossing historical materials.
House) provided visitors with a synoptic Overdrive perhaps warranted a more That said, one is left contemplating how
view of L.A.’s multifaceted architectural balanced reflection on the two sides of best to mesh “standard” and “revisionist”
and urban developments. The overall L.A.’s story, or what Mike Davis has called histories credibly for both specialist and
impression of the exhibition was that of an the city’s “sunshine” and “noir.”3 Although nonspecialist audiences.
enthralling journey into history—though, Overdrive included a small number of envi-
perhaps, too much of a heroic history. ronmentally challenging items, such as adnan morshed
The main shortcoming of Overdrive Smog, Los Angeles (photograph, 1949), the Catholic University of America
was that its curators offered a somewhat exhibition’s hyped atmosphere seemed
airbrushed history of L.A., calcified in to be incompatible with stories that are Related Publication
a blend of nostalgia and optimism. The socially uncomfortable. The city’s popula- Wim de Wit and Christopher James
curatorial challenge lay in articulating a tion, social polarization, and racial ten- Alexander, eds., Overdrive: L.A. Constructs
credible return to a historical era with suf- sions grew simultaneously. Market-driven the Future, 1940–1990 (Los Angeles:
ficient intellectual caution against impulses real estate development often uprooted Getty Research Institute, 2013). (For a
to glorify it. How does an exhibition infuse the city’s native vegetation—such as the review of this publication, see JSAH 73,
documentary narratives of the past with Joshua tree, the region’s natural marker— no. 2 [ June 2014], 291–94.—Eds.)
the introspection of hindsight? The poli- when a particular landscape element did
tics of a “golden age” often tends to sani- not fit into the developer’s upscale vision
tize history, masking any anomalies that of picturesque homesteads.
would blemish the very premise of an age The show indeed needed a tinge of Notes
being golden. To their credit, the curators self-doubt that turning to literary L.A. 1. Reyner Banham, Los Angeles: The Architecture
of Four Ecologies (New York: Penguin Books,
of Overdrive indeed considered the usual might have supplied. Nathanael West’s
1971), 23.
conceptual fallacies that taint valorized nonheroic social appraisal of Southern
2. Alan Hess, Googie: Fifties Coffee Shop Architec-
histories, reminding visitors that the term California’s backstage and its underclass ture (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986).
“overdrive” refers to a hazardous condition workers, explored in The Day of the Locust 3. Mike Davis, City of Quartz: Excavating the
in which “an engine churning at top speed (1939), would have provided fodder for Future in Los Angeles (New York: Vintage Books,
may overheat.” In other words, L.A.’s new insights into the intersection of class 1990), 15.

exhibitions    589

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