August Sarnitz’s “R. M. Schindler” (Rizzoli:...

August Sarnitz’s “R. M. Schindler” (Rizzoli: $35; 224 pp.; 0-8478-0921-8) documents the career of one of the most influential and innovative architects who ever practiced in Los Angeles. Born in Austria in 1887, schooled at the legendary Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and apprenticed under Frank Lloyd Wright, Rudolf Michael Schindler opened an office in Los Angeles in 1921 to champion the simple, functional and well-detailed designs of the so-called International Style. While dutifully tracing Schindler’s work and philosophy, Sarnitz, in this dry, awkwardly designed, academic monograph, unfortunately fails to convey the pioneering spirit of the architect and how he adapted his rationally conceived designs to the varied landscape and life styles of Southern California. Nevertheless, the book is valuable, if only for the cataloging of Schindler’s wealth of projects here with plans, drawings and photographs (many--like the one above, of the Falk apartments--by Julius Shulman) and extracts from Schindler’s extensive correspondence.