Times Critic Reviews New West Hollywood Library

Los Angeles Times architecture critic, Christopher Hawthorne, recently reviewed the new West Hollywood Library, which also contains new chambers and meeting space for the West Hollywood City Council. Hawthorne' full review can be read here.

Source: Los Angeles Times

Hawthorne begins his review with a decidedly positive summary: "The new West Hollywood Library, set to open to the public Saturday on a curving stretch of San Vicente Boulevard across from the Pacific Design Center, is a building that offers a freewheeling tour through centuries of architectural history. Explicitly or implicitly, it points back to the work of Charles Moore, Pierre Koenig, Frank Gehry and even Michelangelo...Whatever you want to call its style (the first local stirrings of a postmodern revival, maybe?), it sounds altogether too busy and too stuffed with architectural influences to succeed. And yet it does succeed — beautifully."

Source: Los Angeles Times

Rarely does Hawthorne offer such a glowing review of public works projects. He concludes his review with a poignant observation that resonates well beyond the walls of West Hollywood's newest civic achievement: "But after many decades of existing as an essentially privatized metropolis — with mostly residential architectural landmarks to match — our region is being forced, as it grows denser, to relearn the art of civic architecture and to reengage the public realm. And in that sense the library is a tremendously encouraging achievement."