LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[makoy731]

Originally Posted by citywatch

[/b]Thanks for taking those pics! And nothing to apologize for. Your photos are some of the best I've ever seen in this thread, giving views of parts of DT I've never noticed in a pic before.

What did they do to the top of the former new otani Hotel?!! That 🞵🞵🞵 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 border at the top doesn't look too good:

One reason thru the yrs I've often thought of LA as not being as crowded or full of ppl as NIMBYs or others make it out to be is cuz hoods like DT can be so quiet during the day. I notice most of the sidewalks in your photos look strangely empty. I'm guessing you took the pics on the weekend, which doesn't help. But I've been in the hood even during the weekday & noticed how quiet it can be, with not as many ppl out & about as one would associate with almost any major city in the world.

By contrast, I'll drive onto various fwys all around DT & be stuck in the middle of thousands of cars, even traffic jams. To me that's an indication LA isn't set up right.

too many ppl there----way out in the burbs, for instance----not enough here. Too few ppl living in one place, too many ppl living somewhere else. Too many ppl working too far from home, too few ppl living close to work.[/QUOTE]

[makoy731]

Originally Posted by citywatch

One reason thru the yrs I've often thought of LA as not being as crowded or full of ppl as NIMBYs or others make it out to be is cuz hoods like DT can be so quiet during the day. I notice most of the sidewalks in your photos look strangely empty. I'm guessing you took the pics on the weekend, which doesn't help. But I've been in the hood even during the weekday & noticed how quiet it can be, with not as many ppl out & about as one would associate with almost any major city in the world.

By contrast, I'll drive onto various fwys all around DT & be stuck in the middle of thousands of cars, even traffic jams. To me that's an indication LA isn't set up right.

too many ppl there----way out in the burbs, for instance----not enough here. Too few ppl living in one place, too many ppl living somewhere else. Too many ppl working too far from home, too few ppl living close to work.

[/QUOTE]

I did take these pictures yesterday (saturday) and most of the street were pretty empty but I did walk through the Toy District and part of Broadway and those streets were pretty crowded. Little Tokyo was very active too. I also noticed a number of tourists around the neighborhood.

I also agree that LA is way too spread out with no real center... but I do my best in encouraging my friends to spend more time in Downtown and get there via public transit. The friend I had lunch with in Little Tokyo loved the Arts district and Downtown in general so I may have converted one person in spending more time there. We're planning another Downtown weekend. If we all try to get our friends from the burbs to spend time in Downtown, it could actually make a difference... or maybe I'm just too idealistic or naive.

[RAlossi]

The Kyoto Grand has been painted - the top of the tower is painted black and features a new logo, and the Los Angeles Street facade/motor court has been painted black as well.

I think it looks nice (at least the ground floor), though time will tell how much that black paint will fade in the sun...

And that article brings up the whole Wilshire Grand debate. I do support Korean Air building a new hotel, but I'm still unsure about supporting a tear-down.

The last thing I want is another Wilshire/Vermont, where the company tears down a building then loses financing.... leaving an empty lot. As a matter of fact, the Wilshire/Vermont parcel (For some reason I think the South Group/Williams & Dame owns it, but I may be mistaken) would make a great urban park, despite its proximity to LaFayette Park. KTown has so little park space.

[Quixote]

LAPD Headquarters


From Flickr, by lacurbed


From Flickr, by lacurbed

[Mike K.]

Just a quick plug for the upcoming meet in LA on June 24th. We're probably going to head to a bar so unfortunately this is limited to those 21 years and older.

Facebook event page here. SSP Skybar event discussion here.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by makoy731

We're planning another Downtown weekend. If we all try to get our friends from the burbs to spend time in Downtown, it could actually make a difference... or maybe I'm just too idealistic or naive.

I don't know how old you are, but if you were fully aware of the condition of DT 10 or more yrs ago----even as recently as 5 yrs ago----you'd have every reason to be more optimistic today than in the past.

For instance, the pic posted by westsidelife, if it were taken at the exact same spot several yrs ago, would have shown a really depressed hood, full of gaps & deadzones. Now its been cleaned up with the caltrans bldg, the new LAPD bldg, the rising medallion proj off in the distance. Even the motor pool bldg for the LAPD, going up right next door to St Vibiana's, as far as I'm concerned, is better than the big parking lot that once dominated that block.

I remember a time when the Higgins bldg, across the street from the new LAPD bldg, was abandoned & covered with layers of dirt. It looked like a haunted house bldg, left as a trash pile for over 20 yrs. It symbolized what the hood had become: sort of CA's answer to detroit, flint & cleveland, except w/palm trees & more sun.

I'd say the hood is in better shape today than it was definitely 10 yrs ago. Certainly 25 yrs ago. In some ways it's better today than it was over 50 yrs ago, before so many ppl started running to the burbs.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by RAlossi

and the Los Angeles Street facade/motor court has been painted black as well. I think it looks nice (at least the ground floor), though time will tell how much that black paint will fade in the sun...

Since I haven't been directly around the hotel & seen it since it was painted, I'll take your word for it. But I still can't imagine how a mix of walls painted black in one area & the original lighter color elsewhere can look good. I don't know if the new owner thinks the black color will make ppl think of japanese lacquer boxes.

Originally Posted by Mike K.

Just a quick plug for the upcoming meet in LA on June 24th.

I notice SSP has merged the LA forum with other forums of west coast cities. I'm guessing that was cuz of a lack of enough interest & activity.

If so, & noticing alot of regulars from the past no longer posting here or showing as much interest in this subj as before----& not many ppl responding to posts about meetings in LA----& aware that the economic slump has put a damper on things, I don't know if you'll get as much of a turnout as before.

[JDRCRASH]

Originally Posted by citywatch

[/b]I don't know how old you are, but if you were fully aware of the condition of DT 10 or more yrs ago----even as recently as 5 yrs ago----you'd have every reason to be more optimistic today than in the past.

Shocker, seeing as how as of late, your confidence has succumbed to the economic shithole.

[Kingofthehill]

[latennisguy]

^^ interesting projects.

[ethereal_reality]

^^^Kingofthehill...that first photo is killer. What is that building?


Also...here's a pic I have of downtown from 1965.


USC Digital archive: downtown L.A. 1965 (corrected)

I love L.A.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

^^^Kingofthehill...that first photo is killer. What is that building?


Also...here's a pic I have of downtown from 1955.


unknown: downtown L.A. 1955

It's interesting to compare contemporary photos and those from the past.

Actually I believe that pic is from at least the mid-1960s, being that the Santa Monica Freeway, AT&T Bldg. (back then it was Transamerica), the DWP Bldg. and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion are visible.

[RuFFy]

The only thing that picture proves is that a lot of building were demolished to create parking lots.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by RuFFy

The only thing that picture proves is that a lot of building were demolished to create parking lots.

To add to that, contrary to what a lot of people might believe, many old buildings in downtown LA were demolished well before WWII not only for parking lots but also to realign/widen streets to ease traffic, being that many Angelenos by the 1920s were already driving autos. A lot of 19th Century crooked and weird-angled streets in downtown LA were widened, straightened and outright obliterated during the 1920s and 1930s; Wilshire Blvd. used to end/begin west of MacArthur Park but was then extended eastward into downtown LA in the 1930s because of mounting traffic. In the process, blocks of buildings were torn down.

From the LAPL website, here are some shots of downtown LA in the 1930s and 1940s:

Downtown Los Angeles, 1937


1930s


1945


1946



Whole hills were also removed in downtown Los Angeles to create a more orderly street grid and also because of freeway construction.

I find these photos from the LAPL website fascinating:

Sunset and Broadway, 1929


Sunset and Broadway, 1951


Sunset and Broadway, 1971


I think that that same old semaphore traffic signal from 1929 was still in use in 1951. Also notice the change in streetlamp styles.

That old brick building on the corner still exists, with a Mexican restaurant in the corner space. And that stretch of Sunset Blvd. is now called Cesar Chavez Avenue.

[RuFFy]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Downtown Los Angeles, 1937

I hope I was able to quote the right pic. Anyhow, this is perhaps the only pic I've ever seen with the Atlantic Richfield building rather than the Arco Towers. Very nice.

[edluva]

sigh

[sopas ej]

Here's a picture from lapl.org of what is now the Civic Center area of downtown Los Angeles, circa 1924, before the current City Hall was built, and with the old Hall of Justice under construction.


Notice the narrow, angled streets that date from the 19th Century. The current City Hall would be built in what is the right side of this photo, with Spring Street and other streets being being widened and straightened out. By this time, downtown Los Angeles was already clogged with cars and streetcars competing for room.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Actually I believe that pic is from at least the mid-1960s, being that the Santa Monica Freeway, AT&T Bldg. (back then it was Transamerica), the DWP Bldg. and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion are visible.

Yes, ethereal_reality's estimated date of that pic got accidentally pushed back by about 10 yrs. The former transamerica bldg was completed sometime in the early 1960s & was the tallest bldg in DT upon its completion. It was the first structure in LA to exceed the height of city hall.

That pic & the others from sopas remind me why I believe the hood is better today than it was in the past. However, there is the downside of more crime today than in the past, at least before the 1960s. More tagging of walls today too. And way more severe problems with street ppl, including chronic druggies & alchys. OTOH, smog was way worse over 20 to 40 yrs ago.

If ppl have issues with the hood today, they probably would have been even more negative towards DT back in the 1970s, or 1940s or even earlier.

Other than something like the gold & black atlantic richfield bldg, those b/w photos illustrate that the bad ol days were generally pretty bad.

[XLucky4LifeX]

This is what I think the buildings in LA are representing

US Bank Tower is, as everyone knows, the lighthouse.
Gas Company, everyone knows too, the ship sailing towards it.
Those Wells Fargo Towers are like groups or sailers going towards it.
The California Plaza Towers are like the whirlpool or the waves...
The Bank Of America building is like a broken structure or ship?
The 611 Tower looks like another broken ship?
The Westinbonaventure Hotel is something like a starfish.
The AT&T tower or whatever that tall spire building is, it looks like a glowstick-_-"

For the WEST side of the skyline, its like
Aon Center is a large black crystal.
The two Paul Hastings Tower are like the broken pieces of it.
The Figueroa At Wilshire building is like a giant emerald next to it.
The Bank Union Tower is like sand burying them.
The 777 Tower is like a giant creature or w/e its hard to think about this.
While next to it, 801 Tower, is like an emerald.
The TCW is like some mountain or something O.o
Notice how those buildings are brown underneath them, which represent the sand?
The Ritz is weird, but it looks like some weird fish.

Overall, Los Angeles skyline represents a rich ocean with many ships.

Other than that, it has a "gangster" style to it.
The blue neon lights made it happen, and the shapes made it more like it.
In other words, it's like "techno" style, or you can simply say, "cool"

[edluva]

has anyone seen dumb and dumber?


well anyways, i'm sad that downtown lost all these architectural treasures. it's lost a lot of character since the prewar era.