It came as quite a surprise, while perusing the last sizzling issue of LARA, to find my name mentioned in the same breath as Reyner Banham (“City of Memes,” LARA #1). My beard may not be as magnificent, nor my bicycle so small, but for a few months I shared his pleasure and pain of attempting to decipher architectural goings-on in LA, and report back to the outside world, as a visiting Brit.
Thanks to the always perceptive Shane Reiner-Roth (compiler of the mind-boggling surrealist compendium @everyverything) for perusing the highs and lows of my brief missives from the Southland. Seeking out the best contemporary architecture is sadly not the reason a European critic would ever come to the US, so I found my interests instead drifting to phenomena unique to the region—from theatrical cannabis consumption parlors to gargantuan cathedrals sprouting from the Central Valley’s nut orchards to LA’s fertile history of high density multifamily housing, before zoning changes outlawed such common sense.
Reiner-Roth is right that we fly-by-night visitors can have a tendency t…