Sometimes it’s what’s outside that counts.
When you think of the Charles E. Young Research Library, books
are probably the first thing to come to mind. The Bruin Theater
inspires thoughts of movies, and music and concerts are the
immediate association with the Hollywood Bowl.
However, one UCLA professor is trying to change the common
associations with popular venues such as these.
Today at 4 p.m. in the Young Research Library, Thomas Hines,
UCLA professor emeritus of history and architecture, will give a
lecture titled “The Other Hollywood: Modernist Architecture
and the Los Angeles Film Community.”
For the last three months, the library has hosted the exhibition
of the same name, featuring sketches and photographs of these and
other Los Angeles landmarks.
Representing both the rationalist and expressionistic side of
20th-century modernist architecture, the exhibition specifically
follows the work of four historic modernist architects: A. Quincy
Jones, S. Charles Lee, Richard Neutra and Lloyd Wright, who are
responsible for a large portion of the works of modernism found in
the city.
As a history of American architecture professor and a student of
architecture for many decades, Hines is incredibly familiar with
the architects responsible for this movement in the field.
“These are old friends in a sense,” Hines said.
Jones, who was an architecture professor at USC, for example,
designed buildings for USC and many of the University of California
campuses. And with the revival of an appreciation for modernist
architecture, homes designed by Neutra in the 1950s are hot
commodities for the Los Angeles Hollywood elite.
The exhibition and lecture purposely coincide with the opening
of the Eli & Edythe Broad Art Center this fall, largely because
of the new building’s obvious modernist features.
“The Department of Special Collections has so many
wonderful drawings,” said Hines, who is also the exhibit
curator. “They just don’t have enough room to show them
all.”
The exhibit features both old photographs of the modernist
buildings in their original conditions as well as sketches from the
architects during the planning process.
In the case of one project, a penthouse for 1950s film actor
Tyrone Power, only one sketch of Richard Neutra’s design
exists since the venture never came to formation.
The exhibit and lecture also cover modernist architecture in
both the private sector (including the homes of Hollywood players
such as Anna Sten and Gary Cooper) as well as the public arena,
such as old Universal Headquarters, the Oasis Hotel in Palm Springs
and the Bay Theatre in Pacific Palisades.
“I think the collection they have is really
intriguing,” said Laura Bieger, a cultural studies student
from Berlin who visited the gallery per a friend’s
recommendation. “The exhibit is small but they have a lot of
little treasures.”
Many of the buildings and homes themselves, which are now
considered to be “treasures,” along with drawings,
provide a counterpoint to preconceived notions of the
“shallow” taste of Hollywood, according to Hines.
While tonight’s lecture will focus on the development of
modernist architecture, particularly through the
rationalist-modernist works of Neutra and the expressionism of
Wright, the Hollywood association creates an added intrigue.
“Since many of the buildings were for prominent stars,
they helped spread the word on modern architecture and make it more
accessible,” he said.
Free and open to the public, the lecture and exhibit are
intended to shed light on the links between Hollywood, modernism
and American architecture.
“Each person will take away something different and
that’s what we hope for,” Hines said.