Santa Monica Public Library presents Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment
March 7, 2016 2:46 PM
Santa Monica, California – The Santa Monica Public Library is proud to present the lecture and discussion Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment on Saturday, March 26 at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library’s MLK, Jr. Auditorium, 601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Co-sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, this event explores the uniquely L.A. architectural phenomena: the dingbat apartment. The dingbat grew out of Los Angeles’s rapid postwar expansion period, and for more than half a century has been vilified, praised, studied, and often misunderstood—as much for being ugly and ordinary as for being innovative, iconoclastic, and distinctly “L.A.” As a housing type, the dingbat has enabled the sprawl for which Los Angeles is infamous while simultaneously creating a consistency of urban density achieved by few other 20th century cities. The book Dingbat 2.0: The Iconic Los Angeles Apartment as Projection of a Metropolis (2016, DoppelHouse Press) is the first critical study of the dingbat apartment, perhaps the most ubiquitous and mundane building type in Los Angeles. This program features a moderated panel discussion with several of the book’s contributing authors and photographers including architect Thurman Grant, architectural historian Steven Treffers, Barbara Bestor and Josh Stein. A book sale and signing follows the program.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and on a first-arrival basis. The Santa Monica Public Library is wheelchair accessible. For special disabled services, call Library Administration at (310) 458-8606 at least one week prior to event. For more information, visit smpl.org or contact the Santa Monica Public Library at (310) 458-8600.