Mid-20th Century Architecture

[Darren Bradley]

While in Long Beach (adjacent to Los Angeles) the other day, I stopped by the former office of the architect Edward Killingsworth, who is very well known among architecture geeks and pretty much nobody else. This building won national awards for design in 1955 and is carefully preserved and protected today. I shot these hand-held with a TS-E 17mm and 24mm (I forgot my tripod).


Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 200


Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/7.1
Focal Length 17 mm
ISO Speed 200


Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Exposure 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 24 mm
ISO Speed 200

 

[Hamish Gill]

Interesting building!
Where does the staircase go though??

There is something very satisfying about your photos with there consistently vertical verticals ...
Does a lot to make me want to persue the idea of a 5d and a tse!
It's all well and good being inspired by peoples photos to take photos ... But to buy kit is another matter

 

[Pete Askew]

Very nice again Darren. I'm pretty sure I have some pictures of this place (or a very similar one) in an old book of my father's from the 1960's. I'll try to find it.

And Hamish, I'm pretty sure that staircase goes up!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Hamish - it's your destiny, just give-in to the Canoness - it's surrounds and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together...

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Darren - very nice - actually reminds me a little of that place in Phoenix for Frank Lloyd Wright?

 

[Darren Bradley]

Luke... I am your father...

 

[Darren Bradley]

Thanks, guys!

That FLLW house in Scottsdale is Taliesin West. It's beautiful and worth a visit. Both Wright and Killingsworth were modernist architects and there are certainly a lot of similarities. But in architecture circles, they are from very separate schools of thought. Wright's approach is very organic and he believed in embracing nature and creating buildings that adapted to theiir surroundings in very unique ways- each solution was different and therefore so was each design.

Killingsworth's approach is known as "International Modernism", and has its roots in the European designers - mostly Bauhaus. Their idea was to boil down architecture into form following function, largely devoid of ornamentation. And the idea was that a design that works in Los Angeles also works in Paris or Tokyo.

OK, sorry to geek out on architecture. I'll shut up now

Oh, and that staircase doesn't go anywhere. It's just a model for a project, I think.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Taliesin West - That's the place - spent a few hours there the other summer, interesting stuff.

 

[Pete Askew]

Please feel free to go on about architechure, I find it very interesting. Before diverting to science my original dream was to go into architecture / interior design and it is still a passion of mine although interestingly I don't take many photos in an architectural style. So please, any extra details, thoughts etc will be read by at least 1 member of the forum!

 

[Hamish Gill]

we have just been oggling ts-e lenses in the office ... the idea is that we will indeed be getting a canon and a 24mm ... ... ... when money permits ...

Oh, and that staircase doesn't go anywhere. It's just a model for a project, I think.

how odd!!

Please feel free to go on about architechure, I find it very interesting.

me too ...

there is a member here called robert bishop ... he works for an architects in worcester im sure he would find it interesting too . im sure he reads even when he doesnt post

in fact ... see if you can spot him ... he will kill me for this http://www.oneltd.com/about.html

 

[Pete Askew]

That'll be 4th from the left then! No need to be shy now we know what you look like Robert!

 

[Tim Pindar]

I love modern architecture so would also appreciate the chat on this.

Good photos too. That house is right up my street. (It isn't, but you know what I mean...)

 

[Darren Bradley]

Thanks, guys! Glad to hear there are others here who are interested, too. Always happy to go on about architecture, and I hope Robert chimes in.