LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Californian landscape wouldn’t be the same without the photogenic, iconic buildings of architect John Lautner; his soaring glass and concrete mansions, imbued with playfulness and optimism of the mid-century spirit, are as much a part of the state’s architectural heritage as the Golden Gate bridge. The celebrated designer, who lived from 1911 to 1994, would have turned 100 this week, and to mark this milestone, the John Lautner Foundation is organizing a series of film screening, tours, and exhibitions, on his actual birthday, July 16. Michigan-born Lautner was trained by the father of American modernist architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright. Like his mentor, the progressive, even space age forms of Lautner’s buildings fuse drama with functionality and a humane ethos. After seeing the architect’s first solo project, a house for his own family, in 1939 the architecture critic Henry-Russ