Pretty Vacant: The Los Angeles Dingbat Observed

By Clive Piercy

The only thing better than one boring building is hundreds of them. Far from the glamorous and avant-garde architectural features that make Los Angeles justifiably famous are the humble apartment buildings known as "dingbats." But Pretty Vacant dares to elevate the low-rise, the boxy, the not remarkably well-constructed to the architecturally sublime. In this inexpensive brick of a book, through scads of photographs of these underappreciated gems, their boundless surfacey charms are soon obvious. Combining funky textures, streamlined sconces, and future-retro ornamentation, these buildings practically define LA vernacular in their optimistic mix of mid-century modishness and darling details. Clive Piercy's photographs provide a streetside glimpse into the curious lives of these buildings, with charming names that range from the regal (Kings Studios) to the space-age (The Galaxie). Assembled in a compact but weighty package with more than 480 images, Pretty Vacant provides a snapshot tour and kitschy homage to this underdog architectural form.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811840247
• ISBN13: 9780811840248
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 1.0" x 1.0"

Customer Reviews

A brick of a book.

The publisher's trade catalog for this book says 'The only thing better than one boring building is hundreds of them' and the photographer Clive Piercy says of his images 'This is not a book about architecture-or photography. It is a visual poem, a love letter and a simple attempt to help preserve these fantastic, quirky characters'. Well, maybe and this chunky little book delivers 480 photos of them. Piercy was struck by the LA apartment that has the design characteristic of having an open to the street ground floor parking space the width of the building. Flicking through the pages you get the impression that maybe the local builders have formed a cartel to make sure their efforts look as identical as possible, so to add a little bit of individual flavor to their apartments many owners have fixed large numbers or names to the buildings (set in appropriate typestyles: Atomic Bold Italic or Googie Casual Cursive) Piercy photographed many examples of this building detail and being a designer I found these fascinating. A thing I found rather disappointing though, was that nearly all the photos are in black and white and the reproduction makes them look rather grey (I wonder if they were originally transparencies?) so to break up this greyness color graphic elements are scattered through the pages, mostly type dingbats, how appropriate! Piercy is not the only photographer to celebrate the 'Pretty Vacant' style, Jeff Brouws in his lovely book of color photos, Readymades: American Roadside Artifacts has a chapter devoted to ticky tacky homes in Daly City, California, especially interesting because he sought out homes that were painted in bright colors. Lewis Baltz photographed pretty vacant commercial units in his famous The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California. I bet a copy of 'Pretty Vacant' will be popping up on the coffee tables of architects, designers and those interested in pop Americana. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.