Monday, February 7, 2011

Compton anyone?

Church.  A place of peace and prosperity.  These are a couple of words that one might think of a church.  Somewhere people can gather and pray.  What happens when people abandon their church?  The best example is Rudolph Schindler's Bethlehem Baptist church in Los Angeles.

Rudolph Schindler was a master mid-century architect who designed a wide variety of buildings and homes.  One building still standing, Bethlehem Baptist church, is a historical-cultural monument in South LA, or at least should be.  According to the Cultural Heritage Commission, this church is the only mid-century modern building in South LA...

I have driven through South LA and I beg to differ because I have certainly driven through South LA and have seen quite a few mid-century modern structures.

Schindler is one of my heroic architects of modernism, and to see this building in shambles is hard to bare.

I have recently taken on a personal project for myself to photograph churches such as this one that are "modern" from mid-century to the present modern style of architecture today.  

This church of Schindler will certainly be one of the many churches LA has to offer in front of my lens.

Does anyone want to volunteer to repaint this church?


Rudolph Schindler Bethlehem Baptist Church, 4901 Compton Ave, Los Angeles, CA

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