MEGAN KATHARINE KEITH GRADUATE THESIS 2022 LA: REDUX
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MEGAN KATHARINE KEITH GRADUATE THESIS 2022 LA: REDUX
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CONTENTS 6 Thesis GlossaryCaseResearchArchiveInheritedTheorists11Statement14Archive21in20222427Studies34 5
Los Angeles, in a constant state of flux, provides a dynamic architectural subject. From the Tongva and Chumash to Spain to Mexico to the United States, the land has been violently claimed by different people. The seasonal flooding of the Los Angeles River destroyed homes. Freeway construction destroyed neighborhoods. Redlining perpetuated segregation and economic disparity.
The field of architecture expands by finding new ways of seeing, reading, and interpreting the built environment. Walter Benjamin observed the human effect of the development of the Parisian Arcades. Reyner Banham gave us a new vocabulary for Los Angeles: the ecologies of Surfurbia, the Foothills, the Plains of Id, and Autopia. Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi introduced us to the duck and the decorated shed and reframed the way we talk about modern architecture.
The idea of an archive in 2022 expands to include multiple, connected platforms. The analog negatives were scanned. The sites were pinned in a personalized, updatable Google Map with corresponding Minox photos attached. Notion, an interactive, cloud-based site, has been the primary database for storing the images, information specific to each image, and links to related research.
The research is multi-disciplinary and ongoing. An ekphrastic reading of the Minox sites produced a list of research topics. A partial list of the categories includes architectural styles, construction trends, midcentury signage, zoning and property value history, social movements and uprisings, infrastructure development, and water acquisition. The research is layered and inter-connected.
LA: Redux focuses on six unique typologies, supermarket, strip mall, department store, low-rise office building, apartment building, and skyscraper, that are definitive of Los Angeles. Combining elements from the Minox archive with elements from sites today creates a way of seeing the web of histories that are definitive of Los Angeles.
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STATEMENTTHESIS
The inherited archive, or Minox archive, is a collection of 124 rolls of Minox film taken between 1955 and 1970. The Minox Camera, also known as the “Spy Camera”, was the first widely available camera to fit into one’s pocket. The commercial sites depict the quotidian architecture of midcentury Los Angeles: strip malls, department stores, office buildings, grocery stores, and apartment buildings.
Unlike the first-hand accounts of Benjamin, Banham, Scott Brown, and Venturi, LA: Redux enters the conversation with an inherited archive. My grandfather was a mortgage banker who facilitated the selling and leasing of commercial property throughout Southern California. He carried a Minox B camera in his shirt pocket, and I imagine him using it the way we use our iPhones: quickly capturing photos on the run, sometimes with a compositional eye and sometimes not.
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Robert Venturi Learning from Las Vegas 11
Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies Denise
Reyner Banham Scott Brown and
Walter Benjamin The Arcades Project THEORISTS
ARCHIVEINHERITED Minox B Camera 9.5 x 2.75 x 1.5 cm. Negative Strips (200 rolls) Negative dimensions: 8 x 11 mm. 14
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INARCHIVE2022 Cloud-based,Notion interactive, collaborative Local Digital Programs Excel, Word, PS, AI, etc. 21
RESEARCH Parking Lots La WattsSuburbsPuenteUprising: 1965 Public/Private Conflation LosMidtownAngeles Aqueduct Indigenous History Apartment Buildings Long Zoning:BeachHistory and Trends Freeways:SkyscrapersHistory and Impact DepartmentRedlining Stores Private vs. Public Banking Union ChineseBankMassacre: 1871 Materiality Trends Spanish History Bunker InternationalHill Tower Los Angeles River Demographics:Downtown Then and Now Market BlackConstructionBasketTrendsLivesMatterMarches: 2020 Air Quality: Changes Signage: Midcentury vs. Now Construction,WaterStripFullertonMallsAcquisitionDemolition, and Preservation Orange PropertyCountyValues 24
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STUDIESCASE 6 Sites -01 Market Basket -02 Unnamed Office -03 May Company -04 Orangefair Marketplace -05 International Tower -06 Union Bank 6 Typologies-01 Supermarket -02 Low-rise Office Building -03 Department Store -04 Strip Mall -05 Apartment Building -06 Skyscraper 6 Neighborhoods-01LaPuente-02Koreatown-03RedondoBeach-04Fullerton-05LongBeach-06Downtown27
-01 BASKETMARKET 28
-02 (NAMELESS)OFFICE 29
-03 COMPANYMAY 30
ORANGEFAIR-04 31
-05 TOWERINTL. 32
-06 BANKUNION 33
Town-watching - coined by Denise Scott Brown for her 1966 syllabus at UCLA; a multidisciplinary means of analyzing a city to have a broader understanding of the form of a city 1965 Watts uprising - August 11-16; the Second Great Migration in the 1940s brought many people to Los Angeles; over 20 years the Black population in Los Angeles County grew from 63,700 to 350,000; while spurred by an arrest, the uprising was a response to systematic segregation
Black Lives Matter - a political and social movement to demand justice for black people, particularly in response to police brutality; first started in 2013 in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin, gained global support in 2020 when marches were held around the world in response to the murder of George Floyd Minox - founded by Walter Zapp in 1945; company is famous for its subminiature camera known as the “spy camera”
ArchiveBacklashBlackLives Matter PublicMinox 19921965Town-WatchingRedliningBankWattsUprisingL.A.Uprising GLOSSARY 34
Public Bank - a bank, a financial institution, in which a state, municipality, or public actors are the owners; an enterprise under government control Redlining - a discriminatory practice in which services (financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as ‘hazardous’ to investment; prevalent in the development of Los Angeles neighborhoods
Archive - a collection or preservation of original material; typically analog, but digital archives are becoming more prevalent Backlash - a sudden violent backward movement or reaction; Susan Faludi documented the intense backlash to feminism in her aptly titled book, Backlash; currently there is intense political and cultural rejection of Black Lives Matter ideas that had significant support less than two years ago
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MEGAN KATHARINE KEITH GRADUATE THESIS 2022 LA: REDUX 38