California Loves Japan

For more than a century, Japanese design has shaped the way California builds.

California Loves Japan follows that exchange through a selection of iconic buildings raised in California between 1895 and 1990. Japanese ideas weren't simply copied here. They were filtered, adapted, and reinterpreted in a distinctly Californian way, and they changed the course of modern architecture along the way.

Through the work of architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, and Frank Gehry, the exhibition uncovers the references underneath, from the spatial philosophy of the Japanese teahouse to vernacular homes and motifs borrowed from popular culture.

It also brings forward designers of Japanese heritage who brought their own culture and voice to the California table, among them Isamu Noguchi and Arata Isozaki, who was invited to take part in international competitions here.