Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving: Reflections on Building Production in the Vernacular City
“Setting aside costume jewels such as the Getty Center, Los Angeles architecture—think reckless Spanish-tiled mansard genre mixing, mammoth doughnuts and L-shaped mini-malls—gets little respect in highbrow circles. Thankfully John Chase is around to defend it. Every page of hisGlitter Stucco &amp; Dumpster Divingexhales affectionate architectural populism and a refreshing disdain for art snobs.”—LA Weekly“His findings reveal a fiercely democratic, ifad hoc, urbanism in which developers, homeowners, renters, retailers, pedestrians and the homeless all demarcate, and thereby create, civic place ... he spouts infectious prose and incendiary theories as easily as Dave Hickey or Mike Davis do to explain LA’s ever-proliferating landscape.”—Loud Paper“Chase’s arguments are refreshing and challenging ... They have the advantage of understanding contemporary architecture without the pitched crisis and naive celebration which postmodern theorizing tends to provoke.”—Fuse Magazine“An interesting argument for further legitimizing popular architecture.”—I. D. Magazine“Chase’s affection for the modern city (even its trash) makesGlitter Stuccoa real treat to read.”—Paper Magazine“An architect by training, Chase is also gaining long-overdue accolades as a historian, critic and often very funny writer.”—Los Angeles Times“Chase adeptly probes the intersecting principles that affected Los Angeles’s building design, showing for example, how the bungalows built by developers in the 1920s aped the large period revival houses of the same decade.”—Publishers Weekly“Chase, who has been a ‘journalist, architectural designer, critic, and Disney Imagineer,’ puts all of his skills on display in this sprawling and enjoyable tour of the Los Angeles landscape.”—Interiors Magazine