Abstract In the twentieth century, Los Angeles developed an ambitious vision of architecture revolving around its novel sprawling urban configuration. Inspired by the channelization of the L.A. River and the contemporary freeway system, iconic works of midcentury modern architecture explored the possibilities inherent in a horizontal metropolis. But that midcentury urbanism was also deeply imbricated in systems of exclusion and segregation. Amidst that social and architectural landscape, several quite different creative and defiant expressions of modernity emerged in midcentury Los Angeles, suggesting an alternative way to understand the artistic and democratic potential of the era.
Jeremiah B. C. Axelrod (Thu,) studied this question.