Moby Los Angeles Architecture Blog

for some reason i’ve always loved utilitarian public architecture from the 20’s and 30’s.
i (probably mistakenly) call it w.p.a architecture, even if a lot of it was built before the wpa period.
oh, wpa. here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

a lot of public architecture from the 20’s and 30’s was utilitarian and austere but sort of accidentally ornamented and modern at the same time.
and l.a seemingly has a lot of wpa architecture (even if it pre-dated the wpa).
today’s pictures are of a wpa dam (that probably pre-dated the wpa, i just like pretending it was built by well intentioned and out of work lefties) that is, as are most things here, hidden in plain sight. it’s about 1/2 a mile from grimy hollywood and about 1/4 mile from one of the busiest freeways in america.
but yet it’s bucolic and quiet and beautiful and hidden away.
if you’ve visited l.a you’ve most likely been stuck in traffic 1/4 mile away from this dam and reservoir, cursing other drivers while ducks and mountain lions were running around in the woods and on the reservoir just a few hundred feet away. oh, and i’m guessing the ducks spend most of their time on the reservoir whereas the mountain lions probably spend more time in the woods.
i love this little dam building, especially, as it looks all boxy and utilitarian from the front but then has a bizarre curving wall cantilevered out over the water.
‘cantilevered’ is one of my favorite words in the english language, by the way.
and ‘clerestory’.
architecture gets all the cool words.

moby