A Confederacy of Heretics

Edited by Todd Gannon and Ewan Branda

A Confederacy of Heretics examines the explosion of activity associated with the Architecture Gallery, the first gallery in Los Angeles devoted exclusively to architecture and urban design. Launched by Thom Mayne in 1979, the gallery staged ten path breaking exhibitions in as many weeks by such blazing visionaries as Eugene Kupper, Roland Coate, Jr., Frederick Fisher, Frank Dimster, Frank Gehry, Peter de Bretteville, Thom Mayne, Michael Rotondi, Craig Hodgetts, Robert Mangurian, and Eric Owen Moss. In an unprecedented move by the popular press, the events were even chronicled in weekly reviews by the critic John Dreyfuss in the Los Angeles Times. These were heady times.

Gathering an array of original drawings, models, photographs, video recordings, and commentary alongside new assessments by current scholars, A Confederacy of Heretics explores the early works of these rebel architects, charts the development of their most potent design techniques, and documents a crucial turning point in Los Angeles architecture—a time when architecture in LA shifted from working local variations on imported themes to exporting highly original disciplinary innovations with global reach. Generously illustrated with 300 full color images, A Confederacy of Heretics lifts a veil on a pivotal moment in the development of late twentieth-century architecture.