Ansel Adams' Lens Captures LA Architecture

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Dennis Doordan, an architectural and design historian, will analyze Los Angeles architecture through photographs Ansel Adams took on assignment there in the 1940s in a free public lecture titled 'Looking at Ansel Adams Looking at LA' on Tuesday, Feb. 24, at 4 p.m. at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art.

Why it matters

Ansel Adams is renowned for his iconic landscape photography, but his work also captured the architecture of Los Angeles in the 1940s, providing a unique historical perspective on the city's built environment during that era.

The details

Doordan, professor emeritus of the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture, said Adams did not appreciate the 'duck' architecture, or buildings shaped like the product or service sold inside, that later became popular during postmodernism in the 1960s. On assignment in Los Angeles in the 1940s, Adams wrote that Fortune magazine 'wanted pictures of the exotic (local) architecture such as the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood' and that he 'drove hundreds of miles in pursuit of them.'

• The lecture will take place on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 at 4 p.m.
• The 'Beyond the Wilderness: Ansel Adams in 1940s Los Angeles' exhibit is on view at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art through March 28, 2026.

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What’s next

The 'Beyond the Wilderness: Ansel Adams in 1940s Los Angeles' exhibit will be on view at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art through March 28, 2026.