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Loyola Law School. Southern California's Frank Gehry -- whose buildings are tough, peculiar, playful and often brilliant -- became the architectural avatar of the last half of the decade. His campus for Loyola in Los Angeles (1985), a dense little complex of rough stucco and plywood and cheap steel, is a thoroughly apt, gratifyingly civilized work.
Mazda MX-5 Miata. The Japanese were already building more reliable, cheaper cars than American automakers; suddenly, they are also producing a more splendid-looking car. Designed in Mazda's California R.-and-D. center by Mark Jordan, son of General Motor's design chief, the 1989 Miata is the first production car to share the decade's penchant for alluding to other eras: not just a convertible, but the sweet, plump, rounded lines of '50s-style sports cars.
And, also featuring . . .
black, the voguish color for '80s objects. The background of these pages, black matte, is an homage to that design enthusiasm.