Architecture and Design
Articles about architecture and design in Los Angeles.
Art Deco is an architectural style that is very much associated with Los Angeles. Since the new style first appeared in the 1920’s, at the Exposition des Arts décoratifs in Paris, through the 1930’s there was a boom in construction in LA, and developers immediately turned to the new style for inspiration. Art Deco seemed…
The South Park neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles is undergoing enormous change at the moment, as new apartment and condominium blocks sprout upwards and older buildings (such as the beautiful Herald Examiner Building and the Commercial Exchange Building) are renovated and repurposed, often as lofts or ‘creative’ offices. The crypto.com Arena and the many restaurants,…
Los Angeles is about to become the third city to host the Summer Olympic Games three times, funnily enough (after London and Paris). Perhaps that’s not surprising considering the city’s unique renown, sports-mad population and ability to put on event of this size and magnitude. Still, LA has been a leader in many ways in…
Los Angeles Union Station is to LA what Grand Central Station is to New York. It’s our major rail terminus, designed and built to reflect the history and feel of the city back at us as we pass through. It opened in May 1939 with much fanfare, ironically just as the US was falling out of…
The Hollywood Sign is such an iconic structure that it never needs an introduction or description to first-time visitors who are guests. They know it well, having seen it untold times in movies, TV shows and news pieces. For sure they’ve seen a picture of it many times too. Interestingly if you next ask them…
Historic Preservation in Los Angeles is a much more important thing here than many people realize. Is it important enough, though? That’s another question. It’s such a relevant concern here because so much of the city’s ethos is about reinvention. LA has often been a city that erases, or tries to erase, its past, as…
When we visit the Broadway Theater District on our tours, visitors from outside Los Angeles can get confused. There’s a Broadway with lots of theaters in LA too? Isn’t that New York? Their confusion only increases when we tell them that actually ours has the largest number of historic theaters in the entire U.S. It…
When the TCL Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 it was known as Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and some older Angelenos still call it such. Directly opposite, across the Walk of Fame, is the El Capitan Theatre, now owned by Disney, but when it opened in 1926 it was a Broadway style theatre that was part-owned…