4:00 pm
An Afternoon with
Stephen Gee
discussing his book,
Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon
Live Talks Los Angeles HQ
Maker City LA/The Reef/LA Mart
1933 S. Broadway
Suite #1156
Los Angeles, CA 90007
FREE EVENT, RSVP HERE
The talk is at 4pm, but join us from 2-6pm for our summer Pop Up Book Sale and Party
Stephen Gee is a writer and television producer based in Los Angeles. A graduate of City, University of London, he began his career as a newspaper reporter in Norfolk, England. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1995. He is the author of Iconic Vision: John Parkinson, Architect of Los Angeles (Angel City Press), and co-author, with Arnold Schwartzman, of Los Angeles Central Library: A History of its Art and Architecture (Angel City Press), which won the 2015 Glenn Goldman Award for Art, Architecture, and Photography, presented by the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association.
“So much history has been made beneath these muraled ceilings. So many people have walked these marble floors and transformed our city with their ideas, energy, and passion. And that work continues today….” — Mayor Eric Garcetti
Marking the 90th Anniversary of the building, Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon is the first comprehensive history of Los Angeles City Hall.
Los Angeles City Hall is among the most iconic buildings in America; some say, the world. A bold symbol of the ambition of America and its people, City Hall graces California as one of its most enduring landmarks. Stephen Gee’s Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon is the definitive book chronicling its history.
When it opened its doors in 1928, the new Los Angeles City Hall was the tallest building in the city and undeniably beloved by its people—and they hadn’t even been inside yet. More than a half-million people lined the streets to celebrate the dedication of the monolith that symbolized Los Angeles’s transition from West Coast outpost to world-class metropolis. President Calvin Coolidge pressed a gold telegraph key in the White House, sending the signal to officially switch on the Lindbergh Beacon atop Los Angeles City Hall, its brilliant beam of light shooting an equally brilliant message into the night sky: Los Angeles City Hall was complete. The news spread round the world.
In the pages of Los Angeles City Hall: An American Icon, author Stephen Gee shares the dramatic saga of the building’s creation and showcases the architecture, artwork, and details that define City Hall in more than 200 lavish images, blueprints, and drawings—many of them never-before published. Gee also chronicles the effort to restore the building and the political fight that preceded its return to glory.