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Contact: Shane McKeague
805-756-1316; smckeagu@calpoly.edu
Architect, Professor to Present
‘History of Electric Urbanism in Los Angeles’ Nov. 4 at Cal Poly
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Architect, professor and author Sandy Isenstadt will present "L.A. After Dark: The Incandescent City" at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, in the Rotunda of the Business Building (Building 3, Room 213) at Cal Poly.
The talk explores the history of electric urbanism in Los Angeles, from blazing movie premieres and sparkling holiday displays, to flashing neon signs, rivers of automobile headlights, and sweeping searchlights -- creating a city unique to the night. It is a luminous geography that coincides only partly with its daytime layout, according to Isenstadt.
Isenstadt is a professor of the history of modern architecture in the Art History Department at the University of Delaware. He is the author of “The Modern American House: Spaciousness and Middle-Class Identity,”published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. The book describes the visual enhancement of spaciousness in the architectural, interior and landscape design of American domestic architecture.
His writings center on postwar reformulations of modernism, contemporary architecture, and the spatial implications of material culture. Currently he is writing about the novel luminous spaces introduced by electric lighting in the early 20th century.
Isenstadt’s talk is free and open to the public. His appearance at Cal Poly is sponsored by the College of Architecture and Environmental Design as part of the Hearst Lecture Series, made possible through a grant from the Hearst Foundation.
For more information about the series, contact the Architecture Department at architecture@calpoly.edu or 805-756-1316.
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San Luis Obispo, California 93407