Beverly Hills · Rodeo Drive
Frank Lloyd Wright Architectural Photography in Beverly Hills, on Rodeo Drive
Frank Lloyd Wright architectural photography, and the four problems a fifty foot wide landmark on Rodeo Drive hands an architectural photographer in Beverly Hills.
Chanel and Bulgari storefronts on North Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
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Anderton Court
One Building That Breaks the Line
Rodeo Drive is a canyon of flat facades. Four story boxes of glass and stone, each one impeccable, each one saying the same thing in a slightly different accent. Walk the block and the buildings blur. One of them does not.
Set back from the sidewalk, barely fifty feet wide, is a white plaster wedge with a spire on top. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Anderton Court Shops in 1952. It is the last building he put on the ground in Los Angeles County and the only retail building he built in Southern California. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004. Marc photographed it, along with the flagship storefronts that share the corridor.
Anderton Court Shops at 332 N Rodeo Drive, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
Selected Clients
Trusted by Leading Brands, Owners and Developers
CBRE
Los Angeles commercial assets
JLL
Brokerage assignments
Westfield Century City
Retail and mixed use, Los Angeles
New York Life
Los Angeles offices
Irvine Company
Apartment homes, office space and retail
Greystar
Commercial residential and multi-family
Rexford Industrial
Southern California’s market-leading industrial REIT
Cushman & Wakefield
Commercial brokerage assignments
Lennar
National homebuilder
Clune Construction
Commercial construction and interiors
Charles Schwab
Commercial client
The Facade
Why the Facade Is Shaped That Way
Wright shaped the front elevation as an inverted V, and it was a practical decision before it was a sculptural one. Rodeo Drive lots are narrow and frontage is the whole game on a retail street. Angling the glass gave every shop a piece of the sidewalk on a parcel too small to give any of them much.
Behind it the building climbs around a hexagonal light well on an angular ramp, shops staggered a half floor apart. No lobby, no elevator core, no corridor. You do not walk past this building. You walk up through it. Givenchy occupies it today, which tells you the design still works. A fifty foot wide building from 1952 still draws a flagship luxury brand to the most expensive retail street in the country.
Frank Lloyd Wright, daytime & twilight, Anderton Court Shops at 332 N Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills. Luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
“The angle in that facade is not decoration. It is a retail solution rendered in plaster, and the photograph has to show that.”
The Problem Set
Four Problems, and They Compound
Nowhere to stand. The street is narrow and the neighbors are taller. There is no position that lets a normal lens hold the full facade without tilting up, and the moment the camera tilts, the verticals converge and a National Register landmark looks like a snapshot taken on the way to lunch. Marc shot it with tilt shift optics, a 24mm and a 17mm adapted to a Leica SL2-S, from positions mapped before the day.
Most architectural photographers do not work this way. The common approach is a wide angle lens and a correction pulled in afterward. Years ago a prominent architectural photographer taught Marc tilt shift, and it changed how he sees both exteriors and interiors. You get the building right in camera instead of fixing it later.
A frontal frame kills it. Straight on, the staggered half floors and the angled glass collapse into noise. The inverted V only reads as intent from an oblique. Move a few feet and it resolves. Move a few more and it flattens again.
White plaster and midday sun. The facade blows to paper white and the detail in the tapering piers disappears. There is no recovering it later. Marc covered it in daylight and again at twilight. The twilight frames are the hero frames, because the building changes character once the interior light comes up to meet a deep blue sky and the spire separates instead of dissolving.
It is a working retail block. Valet traffic, deliveries, security, shop hours. Nobody closes Rodeo Drive for a photographer, and the commission stayed exterior throughout so the shops were never disturbed.
“By the time I am standing on the sidewalk with a camera, every decision is already made. The day is execution.”
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The Corridor
The Corridor Counts
The same engagement covered the anchor properties on the surrounding blocks. Louis Vuitton. The new Dior flagship. Chanel. Bulgari. The Beverly Wilshire. That is not name collecting. On a corridor like this the neighbors give the block its character, and imagery that shows a building floating free of its street leaves that out.
The Beverly Wilshire, aka Four Seasons Beverly Hills, luxury hospitality photography by Marc Weisberg
Louis Vuitton, N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
The new Dior flagship, N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
The new Burberry flagship, N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
Louis Vuitton, twilight, N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, LA, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
Bulgari twilight, N. Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
Provenance
Why It Matters Beyond This Building
Most buildings are photographed to be documented. A few have to be photographed to be understood. Provenance, scarcity, a name on the drawings that cannot be bought at any budget: none of it shows up in a plan set, and it either appears in the imagery or it does not appear at all.
There is exactly one Frank Lloyd Wright building on Rodeo Drive, and there will never be another. That is what 26 years of commercial and architectural photography teaches. The frame is not the deliverable. What the frame helps people understand is the deliverable.
Frank Lloyd Wright, twilight, Anderton Court Shops at 332 N Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills. Luxury retail photography by Marc Weisberg
“A landmark deserves a photograph that explains it to someone who is not an architect. That is the whole job.”
See more of Marc’s work as an architectural photographer in Los Angeles, from Frank Gehry to mid-century modern.
The full story of this commission, from the Anderton Court facade to the flagships on the surrounding blocks, is on Marc’s commercial real estate site: luxury retail photography in Beverly Hills.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Who photographs Frank Lloyd Wright and landmark architecture in Los Angeles?+
Marc Weisberg is an architectural photographer in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, and Orange County with over 26 years of experience photographing landmark, historic, and commercial architecture across Southern California, including Irvine, Newport Beach, and the greater Los Angeles metro area.
Why do historic buildings need controlled verticals?+
When a camera tilts up to fit a tall facade, the vertical lines converge and the building appears to lean. On a National Register landmark that reads as carelessness. Controlled verticals keep the building standing straight in the frame the way it stands on the street.
What time of day suits a white plaster facade?+
Soft light or twilight. Under a high midday sun a white facade blows out to paper white and the detail in the piers and fascia is lost with no way to recover it afterward.
Who commissions architectural photography like this?+
Architects, developers, property owners, brokers, luxury retail brands, and the marketing teams who present landmark buildings in print, online, and in the press.
Areas Served
Architecture across Southern California
Marc photographs landmark, commercial and luxury retail properties on location. Services are available nationwide for select projects.
Los Angeles
Beverly Hills · Century City · West Hollywood · Santa Monica · Culver City · Downtown Los Angeles · Pasadena
Orange County
Irvine · Newport Beach · Costa Mesa · Laguna Beach · Huntington Beach · Dana Point
San Diego
San Diego · La Jolla · Carlsbad
What Clients Are Saying
Real Client Experiences
★★★★★
“Thrilled is a perfect adjective to describe how we feel about your photography. Across a ten property portfolio, your work consistently stands out. Good content with good weather always helps, but the different vantage points, ground level, drone and aerial, along with images taken at different times of day, is a real differentiator.”
Kurt Altvater
Senior Vice President, Capital Markets, CBRE
★★★★★
“Marc is a consummate professional photographer. He always meets our deadlines and exceeds expectations. His attention to detail and open communication provides us with confidence that we have elected the right photographer for every assignment.”
Tanya von Marschner
Executive Marketing Broker, HFF
★★★★★
“Marc is an exceptional architectural photographer. He has a strong ability to understand a project’s intent and translate it into clean, compelling imagery that elevates the asset. His attention to detail, professionalism on site, and consistency across large projects make him a go-to partner for architectural and commercial work. Highly recommended for anyone looking to present their properties at a high level.”
Terence Truong
Production Manager, IG1 Communications
★★★★★
“We have worked with Marc on commercial photo shoots, and he always maintains a sense of professionalism within our client spaces. He is very responsive with our various scheduling needs. Marc’s images are top-notch. Highly recommended.”
Alison Kermode
Clune Construction Company
★★★★★
“These are incredible. Our marketing team actually used the word ‘incredible.’ We are super excited to get these out there and get some tenants in this space.”
Rexford Industrial Properties
Commercial Real Estate
★★★★★
“Marc Weisberg has photographed over fifty interior remodeling projects for Sea Pointe Home Design and Construction across Orange County, and his real estate photography is at a level you rarely see outside of national design publications. His experience shooting luxury real estate photography for top Orange County agents shows in every frame, from the lighting to the angles to the finished detail. We recommend Marc without hesitation to any contractor, designer, or agent in Southern California.”
Sea Pointe Home Design & Construction
Interior Remodeling & Construction
Orange County · Los Angeles · San Diego
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Magazine quality photography for landmark buildings, flagship retail and the streets they stand on.
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Marc Weisberg is an Orange County-based architectural photographer with over 26 years of experience serving luxury residential, commercial, and multi-family clients throughout Southern California. A former Sony Artisan of Imagery, Marc’s work has been published in over a dozen books and featured by Adobe, Sony USA, Christie’s International Realty, CBRE, Irvine Company, Cushman and Wakefield, Clune Construction, Berkshire Hathaway, and Rexford Industrial. Commissions range from $5 million luxury estates to $1 billion commercial developments across Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Learn more about Marc.
