Ashok Sinha's profile

Gas and Glamour

Ashok Sinha
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Lightroom
Architecture Photography
GAS AND GLAMOUR
Car Culture & Architectural Advertising 
in Greater Los Angeles
I love cars and I love Los Angeles for being a city of cars. Over the last decade or so, I have been intrigued by LA's love affair with the automobile, tracing back to a time when cars themselves were objects of beauty. Those cars are no longer on the streets today but the buildings from that era remain. My interest in this story is primarily about this car culture's manifestation within the city's built environment, especially its 'surface streets' (ordinary city streets), where there was once a time when the car and the act of driving was celebrated, and these streets once allowed a unified mental image of an urban texture to be retained - a sense which is now improbable and destroyed by freeway architecture, which has reduced entire communities to a name on the exit sign. 



design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
The Donut Hole, La Puente. Built 1968
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Mc Donald's, Downey. Built 1953.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Union 76, Beverly Hills. Built 1965.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
George's 50s Diner, Long Beach. Built 1950.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Fleetwood Center Mall, Tarzana. Built 1987.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Driftwood Dairy, El Monte. Built 1961.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Chips, Hawthorne. Built 1957.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Bowlium, Montclair. Built 1958,
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
National Car Wash, North Hollywood. Built 1960.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Norms, Los Angeles. Built 1957.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Flamingo Motel, North Hollywood. Built 1961.
design architecture Advertising car culture Los Angeles Landmarks preservation roadside optimistic flamboyant
Idle Hour, North Hollywood. Built 1941.
Gas and Glamour book cover
Gas and Glamour
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Ashok Sinha's profile

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Ashok Sinha's profile
New York, NY, USA

Gas and Glamour

Car culture and architectural advertising in greater Los Angeles during America's golden age of the automobile

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