City of Los Angeles, Dept. of Building & Safety often has copies of construction documents on file that reveal a structure’s history. Get the street name and number, and perhaps the property parcel number (in Los Angeles County, the Assessor Identification Number (AIN) available via the Property Assessment Information System)
Cuff, Dana, The Provisional city: Los Angeles stories of architecture and urbanism, MIT Press, NA7238.L6 C84 2000 (Housing, real estate, development and redevelopment)
De Wit, Wim & Christopher Alexander, Overdrive: L.A. constructs the future, 1940-1990, Getty Research Institute, NA735.L55O95 2013
Gebhard, David & Robert Winter, An Architectural guidebook to Los Angeles., Gibbs Smith, NA735.L55G44 2003 (Still the most comprehensive & authoritative guide)
Hines, Thomas S., Architecture of the sun: Los Angeles modernism, 1900-1970, Rizzoli, NA735. L55 H56 2010
Kaplan, Wendy, et al., Living in a modern way: California design, 1930-1965, MIT Press, NK835. C3 C35 2011 (Survey of all design arts)
Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS, et al. have been documenting U.S. structures (photos, drawings and texts) since the 1930s. See L.A. County prints & photographs in HABS.)
Los Angeles chapter, American Institute of Architects, A Map of Featured Los Angeles Buildings by African American Architects (AIA-selected works by Black architects in the Los Angeles area)
Los Angeles Conservancy (L.A.’s main historic preservation advocacy group)
Los Angeles Dept. of City Planning, Office of Historic Resources, SurveyLA Field Survey Findings and Reports (updated August 2016)
Los Angeles Dept. of Historic Resources, HistoricPlacesLA (Just-launched database of a massive effort to document historic sites in L.A. Content constantly updated.)
Moore, Charles W., et al., The City observed, Los Angeles: a guide to its architecture and landscapes, Random House, NA735.L55M66 1998 (Originally published 1984, but the analytical essays are still relevant)
Tigerman, Bobbye, et al., A Handbook of California design, 1930-1965: craftspeople, designers, manufacturers, MIT Press, NK835 .C3C35 2011
Vox Media, L.A.Curbed (“The Los Angeles neighborhoods and real estate blog” since 2005)
Culbertson, Margaret, American house designs: an index to periodicals 1850-1915, Greenwood Press, NA7207.C85 1994
HABS/HAER/HALS, The Historic American buildings survey, Historic American engineering record, and Historic American landscapes survey, administered by the National Park Service
John Burchard & Albert Bush-Brown, The architecture of America; a social and cultural history, Little, Brown, NA705.B8 1966
Nabokov, Peter & Robert Easton, Native American architecture, Oxford University Press, E98.D9N33 1989
Pierson, William H., American buildings and their architects, Oxford University Press, NA705 .P5 1970, vol.s 1-4
Roth, Leland M., America builds: source documents in American architecture and planning, Harper & Row, NA705 .A48 1983
Upton, Dell, Architecture in the United States, Oxford University Press, NA705.Y78 1998
Whiffen, Marcus, et al., "United States of America, Architecture" (HTML full text via Oxford Art Online)
AFRICA
Architectures of Africa, Kappe Library Research Guide
Garlake, Peter, Early Art and Architecture of Africa, Oxford University Press, N7380.G37 2002
Herz, Manuel, et al., African modernism: the architecture of independence, Park Books, NA1580.A37 2015
AMERICA (outside the USA)
Baylon, History of South American colonial art and architecture, N6620.B3913 1992
Bergdoll, Barry, et al., Latin America in construction: architecture 1955-1980, Museum of Modern Art, NA702.5.B47 2015
Brillembourg, Carolos, Latin American architecture, 1929-1960: contemporary reflections, Monacelli Press, NA702.5.L38 2004
Kalman, Harold, A History of Canadian architecture, Oxford University Press, NA740.K35 1994, volumes 1-2
AUSTRALIA & THE PACIFIC
“Australia,” Olivier, Paul, et al., Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, Cambridge University Press, Reference NA208.E53 1997 v.2, p. 1069
Jackson, Davina & Chris Johnson, Australian architecture now, Thames & Hudson, NA1600.2 .J33 2000
Morgan, William N., Prehistoric architecture in Micronesia, University of Texas Press, GN875.M625M67 1988
Zellner, Peter, Pacific edge: contemporary architecture on the Pacific Rim, Rizzoli, NA1559.7.A46 1998
CHINA, JAPAN, KOREA
Bognár, Botond, The new Japanese architecture, Phaidon, NA1555.B54 1990
Gibbs, Moira, et al., "Korea; Architecture," Oxford Art Online
Guo, Qinghua, Chinese architecture and planning: ideas, methods, techniques, Edition Axel Menges, NA1540.G857 2005
“Japan,” Olivier, Paul, et al., Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, Cambridge University Press, Reference NA208.E53 1997 v.2, p. 990
“Korea,” Olivier, Paul, et al., Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World, Cambridge University Press, Reference NA208.E53 1997 v.2, p. 877
Mason, Penelope E., History of Japanese art, Abrams, N7351.M381 2005
Rawson, Jessica, et al.,"China; Architecture," Oxford Art Online
Ruan, Xing & Patrick Bingham-Hall, New China architecture, Periplus, NA1544.6.R83 2006
Watson William, The Arts of China after 1620, Yale University Press, N7343.W38 1995
Watson, William, The Arts of China 900-1620, Yale University Press, N7343.W382 2000
Watson, William, The Arts of China to AD 900, Yale University Press, N7343.W38 1995
EUROPE
Conant, Kenneth John, Carolingian and Romanesque architecture, 800 to 1200, Penguin Books, NA365.C6 1973
Curtis, William J. R., Modern architecture since 1900, Phaidon, NA680.C87 1996
Drexler, Arthur, et al., The Architecture of the École des beaux-arts, NA1047.5.E34A69
Frampton, Kenneth, Modern architecture: a critical history, Thames & Hudson, NA500.F75 2007
Frankl, Paul & Paul Crossley, Gothic architecture, Yale University Press, NA5453.C77 2001
Heydenreich, Ludwig H. & Paul Davies, Architecture in Italy 1400-1500, Yale University Press, NA1115.H49 1996
Krautheimer, Richard, et al., Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Yale University Press, NA4817.K4 1986
Lawrence, A. W. & R. A. Tomlinson, Greek architecture, Penguin Books, NA270.L36 1996
Middleton, Robin & David Watkin, Neoclassical and 19th century architecture, Abrams, NA600.M513 1987
Ward-Perkins, J. B., Roman imperial architecture, Penguin Books, NA310.W34
Wittkower, Rudolf, et al., Art and architecture in Italy 1600-1750, Yale University Press, N6916.W5 1999 volumes 1-3
MIDDLE EAST
Blair, Sheila, et al., The Art and architecture of Islam 1250-1800, Yale University Press, N6260.B56 1994
Blair, Sheila, et al., "Islamic art; Architecture," Oxford Art Online
Ettinghausen, Richard, The Art and architecture of Islam 650-1250, Yale University Press, N6260.E79 2001
Mateo, Josep Lluis, Middle East: landscape, city, architecture, Park Books, NA1465.M53 2013
Meyers, Eric M., et al., The Oxford encyclopedia of archaeology in the Near East, Oxford University Press, DS56.O9 1996 volumes 1-5
Petruccioli, Attilio, & Khalil K. Pirani, Understanding Islamic architecture, Routledge, NA380.U54 2002
SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Buck, David N., Asia now: architecture in Asia, Prestel, NA1460.B85 2006
Dumarçay, Jacques & Michael Smithies, Architecture and its models in South-East Asia, Orchid Press, NA1511.D86 2003
Goad, Philip & Anoma Pieris, New directions in tropical Asian architecture, Tuttle, NA1462.G63 2005
Harle, James C., The Art and architecture of the Indian subcontinent, Yale University Press, N7301.H23 1994
Losty, J. P., et al., “Indian subcontinent,” Oxford Art Online
Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World by 
