Late-Modern Mirror Glass Architecture, 1970-1985: A Lecture by Daniel Paul

Daniel Paul explains the architectural origins of mirror glass as a material for office buildings in the US, and highlights its early use in Los Angeles and Orange County.

In March 2018, architectural historian and Orange County native, Daniel Paul gave a presentation on the history of mirror glass architecture at the esteemed Architectural Association (AA) School of Architecture in London, England. Paul is Senior Architectural Historian at ICF in Los Angeles, and is well known in preservation circles in Southern California for his work on the modern period and championing recent past resources in the region.

In the lecture, Mr. Paul explains that mirror glass was used for the first time by Eero Saarinen and Associates for the Nokia Bell Laboratories, but it was Anthony Lumsden and Cesar Pelli who initially developed the reflective glass skin in the mid-1960s in building applications in Southern California. Listen closely, Paul shares his knowledge of the mirror and reflective glass buildings of the business parks of Orange County, like the Koll Center in Newport Beach.