After an introduction by Todd Gannon and Ewan Branda, Jeffrey Kipnis moderates a discussion with Eugene Kupper, Frederick Fisher, Frank Dimster, Peter de Bretteville, Thom Mayne, Craig Hodgetts, Eric Owen Moss and Coy Howard.

Kipnis begins the discussion by asking about the circumstances that led to the 1979 Architecture Gallery lectures and exhibits, which evolves into a discussion about the wider cultural context of the late 1970s. Panelists stress the hunger for new ideas, new architecture programs, increasingly international architectural publishing, plus a collegial communication between younger architects.

When Kipnis mentions Reyner Banham's representation of Los Angeles, the panelists respond by describing how the freedom of working a city without an established design intelligentsia encouraged intensive experiment with the process of building, especially with regard to materials and modes of architectural representation.