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  #1  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2007, 6:26 PM
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Tour of California - Part One - Los Angeles (90+ photos)

Here is the first in a series of posts I plan to do of the many cities of California. I've lived here my whole life and travelled a lot of places, but, save San Francisco, I never really took a lot of time to look around at my own state and appreciate the many great cities here until I started doing this. Hope you enjoy!

I'll start with the "big" California city: Los Angeles. I went down over the past Memorial Day weekend and spent two days taking pictures of LA and the surrounding areas. And of course! I chose the time of year when it was foggy, so, while the temperature was nice to walk around, I couldn't hardly get any good skyline shots.

To get to downtown, I took the Metro from Hollywood. Despite the auto centric sterotype of LA, the Metro was quite convenient and pretty crowded for a Saturday morning. And only $3 for a one day pass!!


My first sites in downtown...


Brand new high rise living


I first headed south of the financial district to see the architecture of old downtown which contained quite a variety of buildings. First, one last modern one...


A popular spot...







Theatre is not the only form of entertainment in LA...

I really love the green, art deco design of this one



Many of these buildings were run down, but, had great potential if refurbished










Who says Los Angeles isn't dense?


I then started my way back up towards "modern" downtown Los Angeles










I became a bit obessed with this building.






"The smallest railway in the world"



One last look at old downtown





One last tease...

...and, finally, the US Bank/Library Tower up close










I have a thing for red buildings...




These trees with the purple flowers were EVERYWHERE in LA. If anyone can tell me what they are, I'd appreciate it. They have such beautiful color.

I've seen this in the Bay Area as well, I love it!






The famous LA City Hall building

CalTRANS Building (I saw the construction of this on Modern Marvels)


Federal buildings always seem to have really good design



Union Station, which was quite crowded, is connected to not only Amtrak and commuter train, but also two metro lines (here I took the gold line to Pasadena)




On my way back to Hollywood towards the end of the day I stopped at MacArthur park (and survived).


Some urban wildlife



And finally Downtown LA from my hotel in Beverly Hills...damn the fog!!
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  #2  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2007, 7:57 PM
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Fantastic job! hope you enjoyed. Many of those old buildings are being rehabed into condos and Apts, thousands of units. Those classics are my favorite part of Downtown LA.
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Old Posted Jun 18, 2007, 8:33 PM
Buckeye Native 001 Buckeye Native 001 is offline
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Very cool, very thorough tour of Downtown L.A. You really got around!

That $3 all day Metro pass is a steal.
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  #4  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 1:39 AM
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Great photos! Love the green Art Deco downtown. I believe those beautiful purple trees are called Jacaranda Trees.
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 4:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan View Post
Fantastic job! hope you enjoyed. Many of those old buildings are being rehabed into condos and Apts, thousands of units. Those classics are my favorite part of Downtown LA.
So glad to hear that the old buildings are being rehabilitated. I was worried that Trump or Disney would buy them up and rip them down for God only knows what. Great photos and look forward to your future adventures.
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 4:23 AM
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This building is one of my favorites in LA. It's clean, sleek, and exudes that midcentury optimism that LA was famous for. I believe it's a government building and it's a bit west of the Disney.
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 4:50 AM
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Fantastc photos! Los Angeles shines in your photographs!
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 5:06 AM
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That was orgasmic. Can't wait to see what other cities were on your list to visit.
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Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 6:06 AM
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Hmmm...let's see now, which way is Mumbai.

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Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 6:12 AM
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Love it! Great to hear about the rehab of those lovely art deco buildings. They are a treasure.
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  #11  
Old Posted Jun 19, 2007, 6:24 AM
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Originally Posted by soleri View Post
This building is one of my favorites in LA. It's clean, sleek, and exudes that midcentury optimism that LA was famous for. I believe it's a government building and it's a bit west of the Disney.
That is the DWP (Department of Water & Power) building for the city of Los Angeles. A friend of mine lived directly across the street in the Promanade Condos, and it was very nice to look at when its lite up at night. The water fountain was really beautiful at night to view from her balcony.
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Old Posted Jun 20, 2007, 3:19 AM
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One of the best LA threads I have seen.
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  #13  
Old Posted Jun 20, 2007, 7:35 PM
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Originally Posted by seaJ View Post
Great photos! Love the green Art Deco downtown. I believe those beautiful purple trees are called Jacaranda Trees.
Thanks so much for the info on the trees. I looked them up online and you are right. They add such color to the city. And I never would have guessed they are the same trees that are famous in other cities like Pretoria, South Africa.

The public water works building is really cool. I just wish I had been able to get up higher for a better angle to see the building completely surrounded by that water.

Thanks too for all the great comments. I really enjoyed myself and am glad I had the excuse to explore LA more than I have ever done before. I plan to post my other SoCal pics of the surrounding areas in the next few days.
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Old Posted Jun 20, 2007, 9:58 PM
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Stepper, how would you rate the overall urban experience of Downtown LA? I see you really wandered around the Historic Core, one of the most urban areas in LA. If it had more retail, street life, diversity, and traffic, would it truly qualify as being an urban experience, no different from a typical Manhattan neighborhood? As an Angeleno, I have absolutely no clue how an outsider sees it.
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Old Posted Jun 21, 2007, 12:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Westsidelife View Post
Stepper, how would you rate the overall urban experience of Downtown LA? I see you really wandered around the Historic Core, one of the most urban areas in LA. If it had more retail, street life, diversity, and traffic, would it truly qualify as being an urban experience, no different from a typical Manhattan neighborhood? As an Angeleno, I have absolutely no clue how an outsider sees it.
You know, its interesting, I think downtown LA functions somewhat similarly to say downtown San Francisco. I mean, the financial district was pretty empty of people (which would be expected in San Francisco on a Sunday), while the historic area was quite lively with warehouse retailers, shoppers, and with what some might call the "undesirable elements". Again, something you'd see in San Francisco from Montgomery St towards Van Ness. And I saw tourists around Walt Disney Concert Hall and the LA City Hall.

But, I do think that downtown LA is lacking in several ways, from what I saw. There did not appear to be a lot of restaurants in the immediate downtown area, at least not that were open on weekends. And other than in the historic, warehouse area and a relatively crowded farmers market building across from the Angels Flight track, there didn't seem to be the retail/shopping draw needed to bring a lot of people downtown. In SF, you not only have all the brand name and designer stores, but, also, you have the Embarcadero Mall, the new SF Centre, two movie full movie theatres and, of course, the big tourists draws (like the Powell Street cable car).

I do think density plays a role in it, but, the Metro seems to serve downtown LA very well. And I enjoyed the open spaces (like Pershing Square). I noticed a lot of new housing developments, both brand new buildings and renovated old buildings which will bring more people. So, I think the makings are there to bring a lot more vitality. But, it's not quite there yet. Even in the densest and most active areas like the historic/warehouse district, which seemed like it could be in San Francisco or Manhattan, couldn't come close to matching the activity in those cities' most active districts.
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Old Posted Jun 21, 2007, 4:50 AM
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These are all fantastic!
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  #17  
Old Posted Aug 11, 2007, 8:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stepper77 View Post
But, I do think that downtown LA is lacking in several ways, from what I saw. There did not appear to be a lot of restaurants in the immediate downtown area, at least not that were open on weekends. And other than in the historic, warehouse area and a relatively crowded farmers market building across from the Angels Flight track, there didn't seem to be the retail/shopping draw needed to bring a lot of people downtown. In SF, you not only have all the brand name and designer stores, but, also, you have the Embarcadero Mall, the new SF Centre, two movie full movie theatres and, of course, the big tourists draws (like the Powell Street cable car).
Unless you just didnt post pics of it, it looks like you missed the South Park district of DTLA. South Park is where many of the restaurants and entertainment venues are, especially when LA Live opens.

Great pics by the way.
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Old Posted Aug 11, 2007, 9:29 PM
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I love the old buildings downtown and of course LA has a great skyline. I will get there one of these days to see if all for myself!
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  #19  
Old Posted Apr 2, 2009, 6:43 PM
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I love L.A.
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  #20  
Old Posted Apr 2, 2009, 7:01 PM
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Nice! I wanna go.
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