Robert Inman, ”AN ARCHITECTURAL GUIDEBOOK TO LOS ANGELES”

The map may not be the territory, and the word may not be the thing, but An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles is as close as it gets. Originally authored over fifty years ago by renowned architectural historians Robert Winter—described by Los Angeles Magazine as both the “spiritual godfather” and “father” of L.A. architecture—and the late, great David Gebhard, this seminal vade mecum of Los Angeles architecture explores every rich potency of the often relentless, but sometimes—as captured here—relenting L.A. cityscape.

From its first publication by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1965, this veritable “Bible” of built L.A. has been revised and edited extensively for a sixth edition by award-winning L.A. urban walker and Winter’s trusted collaborator Robert Inman. Nathan Masters, historian and Emmy award-winning host, producer, and managing editor of KCET’s Lost L.A., writes the foreword.

More than an effort of exploration, the guide is an outfit of discovery. The much-anticipated revision, long since a classic standard of the Los Angeles architecture, has been updated rigorously with more than 200 new entries cataloging every crease, region, and style of Los Angeles County’s metropolitan sheath, from the missions of Spanish California to present day.