July 13, 2010
Three August L.A. Architecture Tours follow in the steps of critic Reyner Banham
WHAT: Esotouric presents three tours in the "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles" architecture and urbanism series
WHEN:
Tour #1 - South L.A. (Sunday, August 1, 11am-3pm),
Tour #2 - The New Chinatowns (Saturday, August 7, 11am-3pm)
Tour #4 -The Lowdown on Downtown (Saturday, August 28, 11am-3pm)
COST: $58 each, or save $40 with a three-tour discount series Banham Bundle ticket ($134), http://www.esotouric.com/banhambundle
WHERE: Tours depart from Philippe the Original, 1001 N. Alameda, LA CA 90012
VIDEO: Preview The New Chinatowns tour at the link below
http://newchinatownspreview.notlong.com
"Reyner Banham was as smart and sassy as any critic in the postwar period. What made him distinctive was his passion for the edgiest expressions of his technological age, not only in avant-garde architecture but in anything designed - Cadillacs and transistor radios, custom hot-rods and painted surfboards, gadgets and gizmos." –Hal Foster
LOS ANGELES- No city has so fascinated scholars of urban and cultural studies than L.A., that sprawling, self-referential zone of mystery and glamour. And for all the films, books and flim-flam, there is no American city that's harder to understand. That's where Esotouric, L.A.'s most ambitious tour company, comes in. Esotouric's REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. architectural tour series is dedicated to exploring the city's infrastructure, history, the built and natural environment, transportation corridors, drive-ins, attractions and oddities
This August, get on the bus to explore the real Los Angeles, as no one but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it. Richard's unique expertise on unknown L.A. has seen him as a featured guide on television's "Globe Trekker" (Grand Central Market) and "Cities of the Underworld" (downtown's prohibition-era tunnels) and speaking at the Canadian Centre for Architecture and Hammer Museum. And all through August, he'll be exploring different sections of Los Angeles, following in the footsteps of his mentor Reyner Banham—in a luxury coach class bus.
British writer and architecture professor Reyner Banham was the first to love L.A.'s ugliness as well as her beauty. In the early 1970s he abandoned his academic preconceptions to revel in freeways, foothills, beaches and suburbs, discovering extraordinary spaces that were often overlooked for being too remote, too industrial, or simply occupying invisible "flyover country" beneath the great freeways. Banham saw that behind the urban sprawl was a pattern, almost a language, which could not be understood through old modes of architectural criticism, but which required new ways of seeing and of thinking.
Two decades after his death, Banham's one-time student, Esotouric's Richard Schave, leads a series of provocative bus tours that take urban explorers deep into uncharted downtown L.A., across mysterious Vernon to the mysterious flatlands of South L.A. and through the thriving New Chinatowns of the San Gabriel Valley, to explore how Southern California has changed since Banham mapped it and reveal the secret wonders that survive.
ABOUT THE TOURS:
SOUTH L.A. (8/1) is a provocative bus adventure that works its way south through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and through the past two centuries, exploring seldom-seen gems. Turning the West Side-centric notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its head, the bus goes into areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the evolution of the city. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and reach of the Southern California Dream. Featured stops include the county's oldest adobe structure The Gage Mansion which is set in the midst of an historic trailer park, tilt-slab concrete architect Irving Gill's exquisite lost masterpiece The Clarke Estate (1919), the abandoned East Los Angeles Train Station (1932), the stunning and recently-restored Johnie's Broiler drive-in (1958/2008), Downey's exquisite Colonial Revival Rives Mansion, and a restorative snack stop at Downey's beloved Cuban bakery Tropicana.
THE NEW CHINATOWNS (8/7) is an illuminating historical and cultural tour celebrating significant people, remarkable places and delicious delicacies. Come discover the San Gabriel Valley's fascinating history, from the land and oil booms of the 1920s, halcyon postwar days as a suburban outpost for lower middle class Angelenos and birthplace of the Hula Hoop, to the "white flight" of the 1970s which created the vacuum that facilitated fresh waves of migration from China and a new type of suburban American "Chinatown." Significant sites include: Divine's Furniture, decorating Monterey Park homes with fine antiques since the 1920s; The Venice Room (Monterey Park), a groovy grill-your-own-steak bar, still family-run after fifty years; Browning Realty (Monterey Park), site of the 1920s oil mania; El Encanto (Monterey Park), exquisite showplace of the failed 1920s luxury housing development intended as the Beverly Hills of the East; Mission Superhardware (San Gabriel), still run by the Fabriano family after seven decades, where Howard Roach built some of the Southland's first television sets; site of the original Laura Scudder potato chip factory (Monterey Park); and pioneering purveyors of high quality Asian herbs, teas and notions Wing Hop Fung, where we will enjoy a tea tasting.
THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN (8/28), a bus tour with quite a bit of walking, is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. This is a tour about the real Los Angeles, the city even natives don't know. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center—this tour explains why. The tour offers a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown, and the challenges ahead. Learn about the Art Walk, a grassroots social movement which transformed one lost neighborhood (the Historic Core, AKA Skid Row) through the energies of artists and art lovers—get the inside scoop from your host Richard Schave, the non-profit's founding Director. Come explore Downtown's invisible neighborhoods and great historic public spaces which managed to escape the wrecking ball. Featured locations include Angels Flight Railway, Grand Central Market, Mercantile Arcade Building, St. Vincent's Alley and a private studio tour with sculptor David Caldwell in the Arts District.
Each of these provocative Esotouric bus adventures provide fresh ways of seeing the Southland and an opportunity to mingle with fascinating fellow travelers. They are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, curious locals, daring tourists, and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath.
Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule:
Sat July 24 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sun July 25 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sun Aug 1- Reyner Banham Loves LA: South Los Angeles
Sat Aug 7- Reyner Banham Loves LA: The New Chinatowns
Sat Aug 28 - Reyner Banham Loves LA: The Lowdown on Downtown
Sun Aug 29 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)
Sat Sept 11 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour
Sat Sept 18 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour
Sat Sept 25 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour
Sat Oct 9 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's So. Cal Nightmare
Sat Oct 16 - John Buntin's L.A. Noir
Sat Oct 30 - Maja's Mysteries: Rapture & Release
Sat Nov 6 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat Nov 13 - Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's L.A.
Sat Dec 4 - Pasadena Confidential with Crimebo the Clown
Sat Dec 11 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour
For more info on Esotouric, please visit http://www.esotouric.com
For discount tickets for all three tours, http://www.esotouric.com/banhambundle
For a video preview of The New Chinatowns tour, see
http://newchinatownspreview.notlong.com
For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham
And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com
Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles tour host Richard Schave is available for interviews. Contact Kim at amscrayATgmailDOTcom, 323-223-2767.
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