|
World Hotels - Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister, The
|
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $13.57
Your Save: $ 6.38 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
|
Average Customer Rating: 
|
|
Binding: Perfect Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 720.92
EAN: 9781586856991
ISBN: 1586856995
Label: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 160
Publication Date: 2007-03-09
Publisher: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
Studio: Gibbs Smith, Publisher
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
The work of late commercial architect Wayne McAllister (1907-2000) is responsible for much of the character of Southern California today. His Fred-and-Ginger nightclubs and glinting-steel-and-blazing-neon circular drive-ins brought Hollywood to life. His Sands Hotel in Las Vegas became the home of the Rat Pack; the mythology of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. owes a great deal to the swank glamour of the Copa Room and the Sands Hotel, one of McAllister's finest.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Book, Superb Pictures!
Comment: If you love the architecture of post-war America, then this is the book for you. I am a huge fan of Wayne McAllister's work and this book gives you the lens with which to view the progression of his buildings which began early on and literally exploded in the 1950's.
We all remember restaurants and hotels and some homes with this man's 'signature' all over them: rock exteriors, large sheets of glass, inset lighting, and brick planters. Some decry this look as cheap and tasteless. But in reality it wed form and function with a certain aesthetic quality that will never be duplicated.
Today, everything from buildings to cars all look alike. That 'certain something' is missing. Still, it is great to look back to a time when restaurants, hotels, motels, and cars looked cool. This book is a walk down memory lane and I return to it often. Well done, Chris Nichols!
Customer Rating:
Summary: THE LEISURE WRITTING OF CHRIS NICHOLS
Comment: This book was a delight to read. The illustrations are beautifull and informative. The research that has been put into this book is of great value. This book is of great lasting value for Baja California history as well as California and Nevada.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cool Book about Postwar architecture
Comment: If you are into architecture books, books about Vegas, 1950s car culture, or anything retro, this book will be one you enjoy. I really like it as a coffee table book, because it has great pictures, but it is also a great read and seems well researched.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Well researched and thorough
Comment: Nichols presents an interesting look at many of the historic landmarks of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, painting the picture of times since forgotten. Being in my 20s, many of the landmarks I knew in name only, although I have seen and been to some, but in both cases, Nichols' book manages to evoke feelings of nostalgia and longing. The book is obviously painstakingly researched, and the sheer number of rare and hard-to-find photographs are enough to make any architecture or food history buff go ga-ga.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: bittersweet tinge
Comment: Nichols gives a nostalgic retrospective on the long live and prodigious output of Wayne McAllister. In no small part, the book walks the reader back through the last 60 years of urban commercial architecture in the southern California region. McAllister lived a very long time, and he was responsible for designing iconic landmarks that at least in the hazy afterglow of memory, epitomise a classic time.
The book is replete with many photos and illustrations, the cover being an example of the latter. The most common image, if not exactly the most enduring, is Bob's Big Boy. I remember in the early 80s, when I arrived in Los Angeles, how these fast food restaurants and their mascots were everywhere. Even getting a cameo role in Terminator. Alas, as the years wore on, the Bob's Big Boys got steadily deprecated. Not many left.
Another type of McAllister's work has also fallen into the tar pits of history. He designed many of the drive-ins that dotted Los Angeles. And which were an indelible part of many teenagers' experiences. Sadly, most are long gone, brought down by the VCR and its successors. At least in the book, you can see several as they once were, at the peak of their glory. Actually, no matter how pretty the architecture, the sound was often bad, the food dreadful, the movies second rate and the nearby cars often had loudmouths.
Great book. But for some readers old enough, there is a certain bittersweet tinge to all this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|