Overview

"California is rare among states and nations in having two cultural capitals--Los Angeles and San Francisco--and San Luis Obispo is smack in the middle. In the middle of nowhere or equidistant from everywhere, its architecture is a riot of variety: samples of practically every 19th- and 20th-century form; experiments by local builders; and one-offs by nationally known architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, Julia Morgan, Richard Neutra, Edla Muir, and Warren Leopold (""Not A Licensed Architect"" engraved on his tombstone), all without anxiety of influence from the outside. Where Santa Barbara, rebuilt after an earthquake during the City Beautiful movement, celebrates Spanish, Mission, and Moorish Revival, and Palm Springs embodies Mid-Century Modern, San Luis Obispo is California's capital of the eclectic. Wright's one Usonian office; Morgan's biggest and smallest commissions: Hearst Castle and her cab driver's daughters' playhouse; the world's only Greek Revival Streamline Moderne movie theater across from the Roman Revival PWA Moderne County Courthouse, like Ginger and Fred; the world's first industrial desalinization plant in a power plant modeled after an Egyptian Temple and sheathed in aluminum; Art Beal's bricolage Nitt Witt Ridge: all have an extraordinary story. Author James Papp is an architectural historian and writer of walking tours as well as a principal with Historicities, a cultural resources consultancy in San Luis Obispo. He is a member of the Oceano Economic Development Council Advisory Board, the Education Committee of the California Preservation Foundation, and the City of San Luis Obispo Cultural Heritage Committee."

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9781467160049

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James Papp, an architectural historian based in San Luis Obispo, served for five years on the city's historic preservation commission, including three terms as chair. He also works on the California Preservation Foundation's education committee. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles; he also did a postdoc at the Freie Universit�t Berlin, served in the Peace Corps in Slovakia, and--for many years--gave architecture tours of New York City and, later, San Luis Obispo. The History Center of San Luis Obispo County generously provided most of the photographs included in this book.

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