The LA Forum Reader brings together three decades of discursive writings and publications onarchitecture, urbanism, and Los Angeles culled from the archives of the Los Angeles Forum forArchitecture and Urban Design. Published under thematic sections: Experiments, Detours,Hunches, and Santa Anas, with interludes dedicated to Art and Architecture, Downtown, and thelong-running LA Forum Newsletter, the collected essays and interviews track an uneven and lesser-known history of experimental architecture, postmodern geographies, and alternative urbanism inL.A. as told by the city’s key designers and thinkers.
Today, Los Angeles is a major architectural and urban player, but for decades the city was dismissedsuburban and centerless. In republishing three decades of material on architecture and design in LosAngeles, the LA Forum Reader reclaims and reconsiders the city’s architectural and discursivehistories. It establishes, or reestablishes, a textual context for critical experimentation and urbaninvestigation. This anthological volume includes essays, interviews, and reproductions of publicationsthat have long been out of print, including pamphlets by Craig Hodgetts and Margaret Crawford, aswell as early writings by Aaron Betsky and John Chase.
