Interview With an Author: Robert Inman

Dr. Robert W. Winter (1924–2019)—lauded as "Guru," "Father," and "Godfather" of Los Angeles architecture—was a renowned historian of fabricated California, claiming a rich bibliography of various guides and histories on California architecture, including Craftsman Style (2004), Batchelder Tilemaker (2000), and The California Bungalow (1980).

Robert Inman is the author of A Guide to the Stairways of Los Angeles (2008) and Finding Los Angeles by Foot: Stair, Street, Bridge, Pathway and Lane (2013). A native son of Los Angeles, he is an award-winning urban walker and frequent collaborator with his mentor, Dr. Robert W. Winter. Robert Inman resides in Los Angeles.

He recently talked with Daryl Maxwell about the updated edition of An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles for the LAPL Blog.

The last edition of An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles was published in 2003. What inspired you to begin work on this updated 6th edition?

At age 91, Robert Winter ached to have the 2003 edition updated. He did not say it in so many words, but it was kind of a bucket list ambition for him to have an up-to-date guidebook displayed in shops and on library shelves. He took my breath away when asking me if I would join him to help get that done. I had known both the man and the guidebook for almost 50 years. Protecting the legacy of each was all the inspiration that I needed. Further inspiration came from my wife Barbara, who was there at the meeting. When Bob asked me to team with him, Barbara whispered in my ear, "Say yes!"

Can you tell us about your work on this latest edition? How long did it take you to complete this updated edition?

It took three years from enlisting with Bob Winter in fall 2015 to the launch of the new book in 2018. We dedicated ourselves to doing a cover-to-cover reconsideration and double-check. Were the entries that Gebhard-Winter had been including for decades still intact? Could a guidebook user still see them from the street? Were there new entries that we could substitute into the guide as better examples of a particular architect, style, or period? What long-established icons of our architectural legacy had been passed over by Gebhard-Winter in the past but simply demanded to have a place in our guidebook? What was new since the 2003 edition?—a lot, of course. We blew up and then rebuilt the geographic organization of the book with attention to the correct neighborhood names. We rewrote our listing information to adjust to a new reality where users find locations with their devices, not with a Thomas guide. We did not even have a digital copy of any of the previous editions. "Bob Jr." (as he sometimes referred to me) retyped or adjusted every word in the 540 pages from the 2003 book. We had to locate a new publisher; we struck gold with Angel City Press. They know the territory and the preservation issues very well, and they produce beautiful books.  

How did you first meet Dr. Robert W. Winter? How did that meeting lead to your working on the revised edition?

Dr. Winter was a history prof at Occidental College when I entered as a freshman in 1968. I was a good student, not brilliant. Bob and I stayed in touch, long after each of us left Occidental. It seems extraordinary even to me that I might be his collaborator. OXY is the type of college where that sort of thing happens.

Did you know, and ever work with, Dr. David Gebhard?

Sadly, I never met David Gebhard. He passed twenty years before Bob Winter invited me into the guidebook team.

You have worked on several walking guides for Los Angeles, including guides to the stairways located around the city. Do you have any favorite walks? A favorite staircase? 

I have many favorites, but the hills of Mt. Washington and Glassell Park are my ideal place to walk LA. My favorite stairway is Eldred—196 wooden steps that connect Highland Park with the north slope of Mt. Washington.

How was Nathan Masters chosen to write the Foreword?

I am proud to say that asking Nathan to write the Foreword was my idea. I've known him personally since 2014 when we each participated in a local history get-together circle. In 2016, I asked Nathan to walk me around the USC campus to help me review that section of the guidebook. Nathan's Lost LA TV series debuted that year. He was a natural to ask, and I was thrilled that he said yes.  

I realize asking you for a favorite building included in the guide is probably unrealistic. (Although, if you do have a favorite, I'd love to know what it is!) Do you have a top 10 of favorite buildings in the guide?

I asked Bob Winter that question 6 months before he passed away, but I limited him to 4. He responded, "As of now," Richard Neutra's Lovell House, Simon Rodia's Watts Towers, Frank Lloyd Wright's La Miniatura, Frank Gehry's Disney Concert Hall. I like his choices, so to make 10, I'll add Bullock's Wilshire, Irving Gill's Horatio West Court, the Granada Building in Westlake, Craig Ellwood's bridge/building at Art Center College, Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House, and, of course, Goodhue and Winslow's Central Los Angeles Library.

Do you have a few favorites that, for whatever reason, you were unable to include?

Ha ha, that way, madness lies. Curating a 2900-entry guidebook is a coulda, woulda, shoulda exercise. Better if I don't dwell too much on how I might have done it differently… but of course, I do.

If you could magically restore some buildings from earlier editions of the guide that have been lost, what would it/they be?

Begin with Irving Gill's Dodge House, Stiles Clement's Richfield Tower, and Wurdeman and Becket's Pan Pacific Auditorium.

In his Foreword, Nathan Masters states, "Inclusion has saved more than one building from demolition. Omission has also doomed some works of architecture—surely not the authors' intent, but a fact that underscores the authority this book has earned." If you could save some of the buildings that have been lost that were not included in the guide, what would they be?

Cannery Row in Terminal Island and Pacific Ocean Park in Santa Monica come to my mind. Bob told me once that while he felt honored when the guidebook was called a "bible," he found that some preservation committees were overly influenced by the guide in their arguments about landmarking a building. "They would always ask, 'Is it in the Guide?' I responded, 'It's by two guys; it's their personal feelings. That's all.'"

We lost Dr. David Gebhard in 1996 and Dr. Robert W. Winter in 2019. If you could ask either or both of them something, what would it be?

What was their methodology for compiling the list of notable buildings that would go into their guidebook? In the 60s and 70s, there were so few resources for them to draw on. Yet they populated their first few editions with a wide range of locations, styles, and architects. How in the heck were they able to do that?

Is there something you would tell him about each of them if you had the chance?

Of course, I would thank them for myself and for an appreciative audience of architecture fans, Angelenos, and those far beyond.

What's currently on your nightstand?

D.J. Waldie's Where Are We Now: Notes From Los Angeles.

Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?

Let's say Michael Ondaatje, Barbara Kingsolver, Ed Abbey, Tony Hillerman, and historian Kevin Starr

What was your favorite book when you were a child?

I even looked up what were reputed to be the top children's books from the 1950s, but I never read any of those and cannot recall what my favorites may have been.

Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?

When I came upon the James Bond series at around age 11, I would initially keep something like Dr. No out of sight at home.

Is there a book you've faked reading?

Of course. In fact, I bet there were a few from the course syllabi of Professor Winter that I faked.

Is there a book that changed your life?

There are others, but I will cite two guidebooks. Walter Starr Jr.'s Guide to the John Muir Trail and the High Sierra Region; hiking there was my passion from age 12 on. And, oddly perhaps, Washington on Foot by the Smithsonian Institution. I left my native L.A. at age 30, lived in the Philadelphia suburbs, and returned to L.A. for good at age 34. That 4-year interval turned me on to urban walking, pounding the pavement of NYC, Philadelphia, and D.C.

Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?

Southern California: An Island on the Land by Carey McWilliams

Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?

Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose

What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional art forms) that you've experienced or that has impacted you?

I've made several wonderful visits to the new Geffen Galleries at LACMA in the past two months. I've loved Diego Rivera's "Día de flores" since I was a young adult. It is well displayed in a corridor, and it grabs me every time.

What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?

Enjoying Berkeley is something that I have long shared with my wife Barbara. I love the feel of the place, and I have many go-tos for food, beverage, and vibe. Just north and south of the university campus, I find that walking the hilly streets, paths, stairways, and enjoying the redwoods, gardens, and century-old homes comes pretty close to perfection.

What is the question that you're always hoping you'll be asked, but never have been?

Q: Why do you think that Bob Winter asked you to join him to put out a 6th revised edition when he could have recruited a professional architectural historian?

What is your answer?

A: Bob Winter was protective of the legacy of the guidebook. Bob knew me as a person who venerated the guidebooks and their authors for nearly 50 years. Sure, I had my own opinions about what could be added to make a better guide, but Bob was comfortable that I wasn't going to "go crazy" with changes. He knew me as a student; I was not brilliant, but I was capable and organized enough to work through the grunt stuff that would be needed. (Funny, that kind of reminds me of the tepid opinion that Bob had of architect Myron Hunt.) Bob appreciated the perspective that I had gained of our city by walking so much in it.  

What are you working on now?

My avocation is still plotting, scouting, and then leading urban walks and hikes. I learn a lot with my preparations; I learn from the people who walk with me. Hopefully they also learn while getting in some rewarding exercise. Just in the past twelve months, my new routes have introduced people to places as varied as Sawtelle, Santa Ana, and the Westlake neighborhood. New places, new walks; that's what I am working on now.