In the late ‘70s architect Frank Gehry closed his successful locally-known commercial practice. Influenced by a close group of artist friends Chuck Arnoldi, Billy Al Bengston, Richard Serra, Ed Ruscha and Larry Bell he decided to metamorphose into an artist/architect. This was a brave uncompromising move. His large and successful office was nail-bitingly reduced to just three people, and he had a family to support. From then on he accepted only those clients who gave him full creative freedom to … Read More

Richard Neutra arrived in Los Angeles in 1923 from Austria, via a brief stint in Frank Lloyd Wright’s office in Chicago. Encouraged by his friend and fellow Austrian Rudolph Schindler, he arrived in Los Angeles, initially sharing Schindler’s Kings Road duplex residence. In 1931 his first project, the radical Lovell Health House for Dr. Philip Lovell in the Hollywood Hills, immediately attracted attention. It was included in the celebrated 1932 International Style “Modern Architecture” exhibition at the Museum of Modern art in … Read More

The young Viennese architect Rudolph Schindler arrived in Los Angeles in 1920, hired by Frank Lloyd Wright to supervise the construction of his Hollyhock house. Schindler had emigrated to America in 1914, and found work in Wright’s Chicago office. In 1921 he built his own residence on Kings Road in West Hollywood- a remarkable laboratory promoting new ideas in design and living. This is where he remained until he died in 1953. Lovingly restored, it now serves as the MAK … Read More

During the 1930s, LA’s decorator to the stars was William Haines. A leading MGM actor himself in the 1920s, Haines made a smooth transition to the world of decorating in the early 1930s helped by his movie star contacts and sparkling personality. He entered the LA decorating scene at the top and remained there throughout his career. Haines’ early style was Classical. “I loathe cozy cottages,” he once said. “they were made for farmers and peasants, not ladies and gentlemen.” … Read More

John Lautner was affable and charming. My several meetings with him were brief and towards the end of his remarkable career- which was sadly unheralded until well after his demise. I visited him in his Hollywood design office, and in the tiny walk-up apartment at La Brea and Franklin in Hollywood that he shared with Francesca, his Mexican wife- who had been his previous wife’s caretaker before she died. Lautner seemed just as comfortable in this nondescript 1950s apartment surrounded … Read More

This month I’m focussing on the remarkable Tony Duquette, who became a personal friend of Annie and myself in the last decade of his life, and helped me to document his entire still-existing oeuvre. It was a privilege and constant inspiration to spend time with Tony. He was endlessly inquisitive, attracted to anything fresh and new, and a huge inspiration for both of us. It was with his enthusiastic help that I documented all his surviving projects, and these are now uploaded onto the … Read More