ABSTRACT
When I arrived in late 1968, the postgraduate Architecture department of UCLA (the University of California Los Angeles) had only been established for two or three years and was animated by Henry Liu – an extraordinary ringmaster who knew how to attract the fast-moving international scene into a famous enough university that had not seen much architectural activity. This fitted well with the ambitions of the Dean of the department, one Harvey Perloff – a former advisor to John F. Kennedy. Its bias was Urban Planning – but Liu, the consummate observer, had other ideas: why not break through the local stranglehold of USC (the University of Southern California) and have a really hip wing riding on the school? Warren Chalk was leaving the faculty to return to Europe, Ron Herron was staying on and despite my fear of flying at that time, I was itching to find out about the USA for myself.
