For its 45th anniversary, Taschen is repackaging several of its best sellers, including this compendium of California’s most outlandish buildings through the years. The “compact” edition is a small thick volume that works well in the hand and calls for in-depth viewing necessary to see the details in the hundreds of archival photos. The content matches the 2018 revised and greatly expanded edition, which updated and added to the 1980 original. Whatever the lineage, the book is a delightful romp through the most eccentric structures in the most eccentric state. Actually, most of these examples are in the LA area, with some in the deserts and just a few farther north. Shops, theaters, gas stations, eateries, and an inordinate amount of ice cream parlors proclaim their purpose through the buildings’ declarative shapes and outsized objects. Especially fun is documentation of the same building through the years. My favorite is an ice cream shop with four large cones at each corner, which went through at least four iterations in seven years before winding up as a health juicery with the cones turned into carrots. The places are primarily historic—meaning gone—with a couple more contemporary (1990s!) spots, such as Chiat Day “Binoculars” Building (Gehry Partners with Claes Oldenberg an Coosje van Bruggen, 1991), Century City Mall’s Dive! Restaurant featuring a yellow submarine (Cunningham, 1994), and Team Disney with the Seven Dwarfs pediment (Michael Graves, FAIA, 1990) and Disney Animation Building with the Sorcerer’s Apprentice Hat (Robert A.M. Stern, FAIA, 1994). Heimann’s several essays —and one by David Gebhard—place the structures in context. Amble through the years in the alphabetical section taking you from Airplanes to Zeppelins—and most everything in between.
Taschen, 2025, 480 pages, hardcover, $30.
