Posts tagged Los Angeles History
The Glorious Getty: Art + Architecture

Sparano + Mooney Architecture loves art and culture – and as contemporary architects in Los Angeles, we also adore examples of institutions in this great city that combine these passions and pursuits. Which is why we are crazy about the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center and the treasure trove it offers throughout its sprawling California campus. Housing an expansive collection of European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, photography, textiles and decorative arts created from antiquity to the present, the museum serves diverse local and international audiences and continually offers groundbreaking exhibitions and programming to the public. The Getty Center’s overriding mission is to “inspire curiosity about, and enjoyment and understanding of, the visual arts by collecting, conserving, exhibiting and interpreting works of art of outstanding quality and historical importance”. Now that’s a mission we can support!

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SMAGetty, Los Angeles Architects, Los Angeles Art, Los Angeles Architecture, Los Angeles Design, Los Angeles Culture, Los Angeles History, Los Angeles Arts + Culture, Los Angeles Museums, Arts + Culture, LACMA, Photography, Exhibitions, Architecture, J. Paul Getty Museum
California Cool: The Met Archive goes Digital, Online, and Free

Smooth aesthetics, a razor sharp cultural focus, and the cutting edge of art, architecture and design – for those who call Los Angeles home, it might be all bright-lights-big-city, the epicenter of California cool and an endless vista of sophisticated whimsy, but we rarely stop to ponder from where this wellspring of American popular culture was sprung. As contemporary Los Angeles architects, we are constantly influenced by the legacy of SoCal pioneers such as Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra, and John Lautner. But what about those who came before? Those who laid the ground work, built the infrastructure of architecture we now enjoy, and first realized the potential of this light and languid landscape; who saw a future in the mountainous backdrop and promoted a substance of architectural style to the masses who might want to go west and prosper? Thanks to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which has recently digitized a large portion of its photographic design archive, we can now glimpse the nascence of the metropolis and its surrounding territory.

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SMALos Angeles Architects, Los Angeles Photography, Los Angeles Art, Los Angeles Architecture, Los Angeles Design, Los Angeles Culture, Los Angeles History, Los Angeles Arts + Culture, Los Angeles Museums, Arts + Culture, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Getty, LACMA, Photography, Photography Online, Architectural Photography, Archives
A Phoenix Rises in Los Angeles: Architects Restore the Ft. Moore Pioneer Memorial

What do a London-born sculptor, Connecticut-based/German-native artist, the Mormon Battalion of Salt Lake City, Mormon Battalion of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and our firm of Los Angeles architects have in common? The answer might surprise you: the Ft. Moore Pioneer Memorial in Los Angeles, California. As reported on the front page of the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, January 28th, 2017, thanks to generous support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and with the technical and design team at  Sparano + Mooney Architecture, the “forgotten memorial” is undergoing critical restoration to return the monument to its original civic glory. 

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SMALos Angeles Arts + Culture, Los Angeles History, Los Angeles Design, Los Angeles Architecture, Los Angeles Architects, Sustainable Architecture, Monuments, Architecture, Los Angeles, Murals, Memorials, Urban Art, Urban Design, Sparano + Mooney Architecture Los Angeles