A native Angeleno with a background in feature and documentary filmmaking, Brown conceived of the concept after a chat with architect Robert Thibodeau, co-founder of Venice-based DU Architects. After a deeper dive into the image with Anderton, the idea for a reunion was born.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, why don\u2019t we restage the photo and then use that as an excuse to get the guys together?\u201d Brown explains.<\/p>\n
He preferred a spontaneous, lighthearted group discussion to the typical documentary, with its one-on-one interviews and heavy production.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Frances Anderton, from left, Frederick Fisher, Craig Hodgetts, Thom Mayne and Eric Owen Moss catch up for \u201cRebel Architects,\u201d a 12-part series. <\/p>\n
(FORT: LA)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about the chemistry between creative peers,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThe real legacy of these architects isn\u2019t just in the buildings. It\u2019s in the conversations they started \u2014 and are still having.\u201d He added: \u201cThere\u2019s a spark that happens when they\u2019re together … They talk about failure, competition, teaching, aging. It\u2019s a very human exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n
Episode 1, titled \u201cCapturing a Moment in L.A. Architecture,\u201d opens with four of the surviving architects \u2014 Fisher, Mayne, Moss and Hodgetts \u2014 recreating that seminal photograph for Pildas and sitting down for an interview. (Howard was interviewed separately, Gehry declined and Mangurian died in 2023.) The group dissects the photo\u2019s cinematic, informal composition, in which Pildas aims down from a berm, the neglected buildings behind the eclectic crew shrinking into the horizon, merging with the sand. And they remember a time in which the city\u2019s messy urban forms and perceived cultural inferiority provided endless creative fuel, and liberation.<\/p>\n
Pildas recalls how the original shoot came together at the request of British design editor Beverly Russell, who was looking to capture \u201cFrank Gehry and some of his Turks.\u201d (The international design press was gaga for L.A. at the time. Anderton notes that her move from the U.K. resulted from a similar assignment, on the \u201csubversive architects of the West Coast,\u201d for the publication Architectural Review in 1987.)<\/p>\n
At the time, most of the architects were working in garages and warehouses, forming their studios and collaborating with equally norm-busting and (relatively) unheralded artists in the scrappy, dangerous, forgotten, yet exploding Venice scene. In a later episode, the architects start listing the art talents they would run into, or befriend, including Larry Bell, James Turrell, Ed Ruscha, Fred Eversley, Robert Irwin, Robert Rauschenberg and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to name a few.<\/p>\n
Basquiat was then living and working in Hodgetts\u2019 building. \u201cIt was a spectacular fusion of all this creative energy,\u201d Hodgetts remembers. \u201cThere was no audience, there were no guardrails, and one did not feel constrained.\u201d He adds, later: \u201cWe all felt like we were marooned on a desert island.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pildas, who had studied architecture before switching to design and, eventually, photography, was uniquely suited to capture the group. He had shot some of the small, quirky experiments of Mangurian and Mayne, and knew most of the others through social and professional circles. (He even knew Hodgetts from high school back in Cincinnati.)<\/p>\n
The first attempt at the photo seemed stiff, says Pildas, so he took out a joint, which all except Hodgetts accepted, he says. The icebreaker worked. In a later image, says Pildas, Fisher is hugging Gehry\u2019s leg, the others huddled around. \u201cIt got pretty friendly in the end,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n
Pildas argues that the photo is much more layered with meaning (not to mention nostalgia) now than it was at the time. \u201cBack then, it was just another magazine shoot. Now, it\u2019s history,\u201d he says. Adds Moss: \u201cIts relevancy, or not, is confirmed by the following years. Otherwise it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Frederick Fisher, from left, Thom Mayne, Craig Hodgetts and Eric Owen Moss recreate their famous 1980 photo.<\/p>\n
(Ave Pildas)<\/p>\n
Each episode explores the image\u2019s layers, and the unfolding stories that followed \u2014 the challenges of maintaining originality; crucial role of journalists in promoting their work; maddening disconnect between L.A.\u2019s talent and its clients, along with the mercurial, ever-evolving identity of Los Angeles. The tone, like the photo, is unpretentious and playful, heavy on character and story, not theory. This was not always an easy task with a group that can get esoteric quite quickly, adds Anderton. \u201cI was trying to keep it light,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI don\u2019t think I even have the ability to talk in the language of the academy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re cracking jokes, interrupting each other, reminiscing about teaching gigs and design arguments,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThere\u2019s real affection, but also a sense of rivalry that never fully went away.\u201d Hodgetts doesn\u2019t see it that way, however. \u201cIt was really about the joy of creating things. We wanted to jam a bit, perform together; that\u2019s really life-affirming,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
There are some revealing moments. Mayne, whose firm Morphosis is known for bold, city-altering buildings such as Caltrans HQ in downtown L.A., reflects on teaching as a way of \u201cbeing the father I never had.\u201d (His father left his family when he was a young boy.) He tenderly discusses the seminal role that his wife Blythe \u2014 a co-owner of Morphosis \u2014 has played in his career. Fisher reveals that Gehry was the chief reason he dropped everything to come out to L.A. (At the time, he was working as a display designer at a department store in Cincinnati.) \u201cI remember seeing this architect jumping up and down on cardboard furniture. I could see there was something going on here. Something percolating,\u201d he says. Moss opens up about his struggles to negotiate the demands of the practical world, while Hodgetts performs brilliant critiques of the others\u2019 work, sometimes to broad smiles, others to cringes.<\/p>\n
Notably absent from the reunion is Gehry himself, who is now 96. \u201cHe\u2019s at a point in his life where trudging through sand for a photo wasn\u2019t going to happen,\u201d says Brown. \u201cBut his presence is everywhere. He\u2019s still the elephant in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n
One episode explores how Gehry, about a decade older than the others, both profoundly influenced and often overshadowed the group \u2014 a reality that was perhaps reinforced by his nonchalant dominance in the photo itself. \u201cFrank takes up a lot of oxygen,\u201d Mayne quips. Still, all admire Gehry\u2019s unwillingness to compromise creatively, despite often heavy criticism.<\/p>\n
Another prevailing theme is the bittersweet loss of that early sense of freedom, and the Venice of the 1970s, with its breathtakingly low rents and abandoned charm. Today\u2019s architects \u2014 wherever they are \u2014 face higher stakes, infinitely higher costs and tighter regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Venice we grew up with is completely gone,\u201d says Fisher. \u201cBut maybe it\u2019s just moved,\u201d noted Moss. Distinguishing L.A. as a place whose energy and attention is constantly shifting, he wonders if creative ferment might now be happening in faraway places like Tehachapi \u2014 \u201cwherever land is cheap and ambition is high,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
While Pildas was capturing the seven architects 45 years ago, he was also busy chronicling the city\u2019s street culture \u2014 jazz clubs, boulevard eccentrics, decaying movie palaces and bohemian artists. All were featured in the 2023 documentary \u201cAve\u2019s America\u201d (streaming on Prime Video) directed by his former student, Patrick\u202fTaul\u00e8re, exploring his six decades of humbly perceptive, deeply human work.<\/p>\n
After reviewing the recreation of the photo \u2014 the architects are still smiling this time, but their scrappy overconfidence feels eons away \u2014 Pildas wonders who the next generation will be, and how they will rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it\u2019ll happen that they\u2019ll have another picture someday with a bunch of new architects, right?\u201d he says. \u201cThis is a fertile ground for architecture anyway, and always has been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exposing that \u201cfertile ground\u201d to Angelenos of all kinds is FORT: LA\u2019s overarching goal. Founded in 2020, it offers architecture trails, fellowships and a surprising variety of programming, from design competitions to architecture-themed wine tastings. All, says Brown, is delivered, like \u201cRebel Architects,\u201d with a sense of accessible joy and exploration \u2014 an especially useful gift in a turbulent, insecure time for the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuddenly, you kind of think about the city in a different way and feel it in a different way,\u201d says Brown. \u201cThis is a place that allows this kind of vision to come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a wide, empty stretch of Venice Beach in 1980, seven Los Angeles architects \u2014 Frank Gehry, Thom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[19566,228,226,227,12228,57526,229,88,57529,57527,57530,23665,26085,57525,8385,57524,41822,57528,2384,57531],"class_list":["post-82364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-architect","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-brown","tag-craig-hodgetts","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-frederick-fisher","tag-gehry","tag-group-portrait","tag-image","tag-l-a","tag-new-photo","tag-other","tag-pildas","tag-sense","tag-thom-mayne","tag-time","tag-venice-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}