I LOVE LA

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (dir. Julian Cooper) is a charming 1972 BBC documentary led by architectural historian, critic and funny man Reyner Banham. A gas-fitter’s son from Norwich, Banham fell for the City of Angels and its bold typologies as a child. The year before filming, he’d published his seminal book of essays, Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies. In the documentary he takes us for a ride (fittingly) through those four ecologies: Surfurbia (the beach), the Foothills (the mountains), the Plains of Id (the flatlands) and Autopia (the freeways). His central argument is that the city’s greatest architectural monuments are private residences, and so are closed to the public. Its staggering contributions to public architecture are its gas stations, mini-marts, drive-ins and carwashes.

Watch it here: