The Public Realm | Los Angeles Conservancy
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

As Los Angeles County's growth exploded after World War II and neighborhoods and cities sprang up where there were none before, architecture became critical in creating a sense of community and meeting the needs of everyday life.

Museums, schools, churches, libraries, civic centers, banks, hospitals, parks, and entertainment venues were important symbols of place and identity. Architects had the rare opportunity to help create the building blocks of life for a booming population.

Lakewood Center
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Lakewood Center

A. C. Martin & Associates
Upon its official opening in 1952, Lakewood Center became a well-known shopping destination touted for its ultramodern style and easy automobile access.
Lokrantz School
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Lokrantz School

Sidney Eisenshtat
Calling it the "Happy School," the architect noted for his dazzling Sinai Temple aimed to make this special-needs facility for children a pleasant experience.
Los Angeles County Hall of Records
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Los Angeles County Hall of Records

A rare example of a Neutra high-rise, this T-shaped wonder projects an elegant sense of bureaucratic diligence, monumental in scale.
Loyola Law School
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Loyola Law School

Frank Gehry
Little known at the time and having never designed a campus, Frank Gehry drew on classical settings like the Roman Forum to visually evoke the history and weight of the legal profession.
Macy's
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Macy's

Wurdeman & Becket
Engineered to meet the precise aspirations of residents of Pasadena, Bullock's Pasadena (currently Macy's) is a sublime example of a post-World War II department store.
Marina del Rey
Photo by ravitch on Flickr

Marina del Rey

Victor Gruen Associates
Architect Victor Gruen was hired to create the master plan for Marina del Ray, a 780-acre area which includes one of the largest manmade small craft harbors in the world.
Midtown School
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Midtown School

John Lautner
Just over the southern edge of Los Feliz's historic Shakespeare Bridge is an unusual group of tent-like buildings on a small private school campus, the Midtown School.
Photo by Michael Locke

Museum of Contemporary Art

Arata Isozaki
With only four of its seven floors above street level, its sunken, red sandstone-clad design is a welcome contrast to the extreme heights of the Bunker Hill glass-and-steel high rise towers.
Photo by Michael Locke

North Hollywood Masonic Lodge

Robert Stacy-Judd
Combining Mesoamerican-inspired motifs with the clean lines of Art Moderne to create a thoroughly modern presence and one of North Hollywood's most eye-catching modern buildings.
Photo by Michael Locke

Norton Simon Museum

Ladd & Kelsey
Inspired by Pasadena's Craftsman residences, its Beaux Arts City Hall, and Streamline Moderne and Late Moderne commercial buildings, the museum was designed to blend into and reference its urban surroundings.
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Norwalk Civic Center

Kistner, Wright & Wright
William Allen
Architectural firm Kistner, Wright and Wright designed Norwalk City Hall as a one-story square steel box clad in tinted glass and panels covered with vibrant blue and green mosaic tile.

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Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. - An Initiative of the Getty

Curating the City: Modern Architecture in L.A. is part of Pacific Standard Time Presents: Modern Architecture in L.A. This collaboration, initiated by the Getty, brings together seventeen cultural institutions from April through July 2013 for a wide-ranging look at the postwar built environment of the city as a whole, from its famous residential architecture to its vast freeway network, revealing the city’s development and ongoing impact in new ways. Major support for this project has been provided by the Getty Foundation. pacificstandardtimepresents.org.