I decided to head downtown LA on Wednesday for a day of adventure. Since I was off from work and we finally had some sunshine, I figure I better take advantage of this great day.

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The Arcade Building is one of many old structures being converted to lofts
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Can you believe this new bar has become a very popular hang out for business folks. I figure the grit would scare them away
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I hope you all see downtown LA in a new light, thanks for checking them out.

Thanks for the pics!

If your goal was to give an outsider a different impression of Downtown LA, you've succeeded. Downtown LA seems vibrant like never before. Great pics!

I responded in the thread at SSP, but I can also say as a former LA resident and frequent visitor to LA, I have never seen downtown like this before. thanks for the pics. There is just something about warm cities with great color at groundlevel.

Nice pics! Vibrant.

We need more threads like this that show downtown LA at street level. These should go in the city v. city "Is LA underrated?" thread to shatter misconceptions. Great photos. Downtown looks alive and clean and well.

Awesome pictures, there's so much vibrant activity on the streets. One of the best LA threads I have seen.

Detailed stuff. Pretty much what I remember seeing on my last visit to LA. And TB is right; DT LA has many vibrant colors and a very underrated streetscape

If your goal was to give an outsider a different impression of Downtown LA, you've succeeded. Downtown LA seems vibrant like never before. Great pics!

You are correct, that was my goal. Its just too bad many forumers on SSC would rather stick with their stuborn views than click on a photo thread that defies the stereotype of LA not having a real downtown.

Anyway, I am really appreciative of all of you who has viewed this thread. A special thanks for you all who comments are always welcomed.

Great pics! Downtown LA is so much more urban than it gets credit for.

Only one question... where is everybody? The streets look so empty!

Wickedly awesome and bitchen great pictures!

Wow, great pics. A lot of people underestimate the urbanity of LA. Some really great buildings there.

Vibrant and Ugly. San Francisco and NYC are much nicer

Vibrant and Ugly. San Francisco and NYC are much nicer
Judging from your screename, I expected that.

I went to Downtown a few days ago, man it looks freaking crazy. LA doesn't look much different from NY now. And they're building 100+ things all over LA right now, it's gonna be VERY dense in a minute.

Judging from your screename, I expected that.

I went to Downtown a few days ago, man it looks freaking crazy. LA doesn't look much different from NY now. And they're building 100+ things all over LA right now, it's gonna be VERY dense in a minute.
It's nice but it's not as pedestrian-friendly as NYC or SF.

It's nice but it's not as pedestrian-friendly as NYC or SF.
Are you serious? LA in general may not be, but Downtown most definitely is. Walking or using the bus/rail. The only reason why is because in the 50s and 60s more and more people were moving out in the open suburbs to get that urban feel and not be packed in. Now that everythings full, they're building up, so soon LA will definitely be very pedestrian friendly. Maybe not all of it, but the buses will take care of that.

ChrisLA

Great photos!!

It's nice but it's not as pedestrian-friendly as NYC or SF.


are you kidding? The scene in downtown LA is IDENTICAL to the scene in Manhattan only it's much smaller and more vacant. Pedestrian friendliness is identical! There's just much fewer vendors by comparison.

you guys have some phenomenal relics in there....goes huge in parts....nice...:uh:

is it true that you can't get by in L.A. without a car? another misconception or really a necessity?

you can get by without a car, but a car certainly helps. LA is such a large place, so may depend where you live and where you work.

Best DT LA pics I have ever seen. In fact.. I haven't really seen any.. so so far you're winning!

thanks again everyone for the support.

The one thing that is similar in all the pictures is a LACK of people! 17 million in metro, and NO ONE downtown! Downtown Denver is def. more happening than la!!! The pictures (nice as they are) don't lie! No one is in these pictures!

Great pictures. :)

Great pictures!!!

Los Angeles has some wonderful older buildings downtown. I'm glad to see that you were able to capture some of that grandeur. Well done. :applause:

Cheers!!

The one thing that is similar in all the pictures is a LACK of people! 17 million in metro, and NO ONE downtown! Downtown Denver is def. more happening than la!!! The pictures (nice as they are) don't lie! No one is in these pictures!

I don't know how you see no one, there are plenty of people in my photos. The focus wasn't entirely on pedestrians, but yes I did take lots of ground level pictures. I'm sure Denver has a nice downtown, the mall seems to be nice. Yet I'm also sure it has many dead zones as well. I've seen all those parking lots in a few photo threads. One thing for sure, my intentions weren't to say downtown LA had foot traffic like Manhattan. Yet its fairly decent compared to the majority of downtowns in America. I also arrived at a time when it was after lunch when most people in in their offices working. If I wanted to focus on manly just the life of downtown, I could have easily waited and captured the crowd during a game or a concert at the Staples Center, or even went down to the Music Center and Disney Hall during a concert to capture that scene. There isn't a downtown in America that doesn have it down time. Even Chicago and NYC, and no one said a word about this when I featured my Chicago photos in the loop when some of them was taken on a Sunday. There were very few people or cars on the streets as I walked around the Loop.

Anyway you want to see people, well here are a few photos DaveofCali took.
I can confirm that the Fashion District on the weekends are quite busy, and the pedestrian traffic can rival a Manhattan street. The alley is probably the worst. You feel as though you're a sardine in a can, and will be trampled if you don't move with the massive crowd.

Broadway Avenue (not part of the Fashion District)
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i was at santee alley (Fashion District) at 1:00 on a tuesday afternoon and it was apcked to the gills.

is it true that you can't get by in L.A. without a car? another misconception or really a necessity?

You can in most places, but it would take you, in some instances 2 or 3 times as long.

Are you serious? LA in general may not be, but Downtown most definitely is. Walking or using the bus/rail. The only reason why is because in the 50s and 60s more and more people were moving out in the open suburbs to get that urban feel and not be packed in. Now that everythings full, they're building up, so soon LA will definitely be very pedestrian friendly. Maybe not all of it, but the buses will take care of that.

In some places the pedestrian friendliness is very good! However, because the city is still mainly auto-oriented, sidewalks tend to be narrow, and this feeling of two-way traffic makes the streets look wider than they are. That's one of the reasons Manhattan and SF seem to be a bit better.

Los Angeles :D

Packed with people as always !

Cool pics, but where's the theatre designed by Frank Gehry?

Cool pics, but where's the theatre designed by Frank Gehry?

On the other side of downtown, sorry. The downtown area is actually very large in land area, too much to cover in one day.

Those are awesome pics. Just what I like to see.

L.A. is hot!

are you kidding? The scene in downtown LA is IDENTICAL to the scene in Manhattan only it's much smaller and more vacant. Pedestrian friendliness is identical! There's just much fewer vendors by comparison.

To say that the scene in DT la is "identical" to manhattan is quite a stretch. I don't think any other city in the US comes close to comparing to manhattan's energy and liveliness. I will admit that downtown LA gets better each time I go there though, still got a long way to go to becoming "identical" to manhattan though.

^ you are very right about that.

To say that the scene in DT la is "identical" to manhattan is quite a stretch. I don't think any other city in the US comes close to comparing to manhattan's energy and liveliness. I will admit that downtown LA gets better each time I go there though, still got a long way to go to becoming "identical" to manhattan though.

It *is* identical. In built environment there is no difference between downtown LA and much of Manhattan and therefore, the pedestrian friendliness is identical only downtown LA has fewer pedestrians.

I never said that the energy and liveliness match Manhattan's did I?

Good Photos. Downtown Los Angeles is very special.

For people to insist LA doesn't have a downtown is a liar or they just don't know plain and simple.

Nice shots, but i really think downtown needs work, it needs more high-end stores and attractions.

Amazing pics, thanks for sharing. :)

Nice shots, but i really think downtown needs work, it needs more high-end stores and attractions.

Well, its coming

Grand Plan Approved to Give L.A. a Heart
By Cara Mia DiMassa, Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles city and county officials Monday approved plans for a cluster of high-rise towers, parks, shopping centers and entertainment venues around Walt Disney Concert Hall, declaring that the Grand Avenue project would bring an urban heart to a city that has long been without one.

The approval came as developers unveiled for the first time detailed plans for the project, which would significantly alter the downtown skyline and create a 16-acre park linking Bunker Hill with the Civic Center.

The plans call for five new skyscrapers, including a 45- to 50-story building that would house a boutique hotel and condominiums, and four other towers of approximately 30 stories each that would include condominiums as well as affordable housing.

The buildings would be situated around 400,000 square feet of retail shops, including a multi-screen movie cinema and a high-end supermarket designed to serve downtown's burgeoning residential population.

The concept, backers said, would bind the landmarks in and around Grand Avenue — Disney Hall, the Music Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels — into something like a city square.

"In some ways, Los Angeles has always been a divided city, a divided county," said Eli Broad, co-chairman of the Grand Avenue Committee, which is shepherding the project on behalf of the city, county and Community Redevelopment Agency. "That will all change with the creation of a vibrant city center where people can work, live and play."

But while Broad and a host of city and county officials hailed the milestone Monday, some questioned whether the plans really measure up to Broad's famous vow to turn Grand Avenue into Los Angeles' version of the Champs Elysees in Paris. Some critics believe the design shares more in common with a shopping mall than a unique public space.

Robert Harris, a professor of architecture at USC and the former chairman of the city's downtown strategic plan advisory committee, said he was "infuriated" that the plan seems to focus businesses and public attractions inward rather than having them line the main streets, such as Grand Avenue and 1st Street. As a result, the streets themselves would remain void of life, with the action happening inside the confines of the developments, he said.

"The plan doesn't make a fantastic promenade…. It's got to do that," said Harris, who lives downtown. "We should lie down before the bulldozers if it doesn't do that."

The approval, by a city and county joint powers authority made up of top officials, including county Supervisor Gloria and City Councilwoman Jan Perry, came after more than a year of planning and public meetings.

The unanimous vote allows the Related Cos., the project's developer that recently completed Time Warner Center in Manhattan, to hire architects and landscape designers to create the signature look of the development.

Some names being discussed include Disney Hall architect Frank Gehry. But Thom Mayne, the architect of the new Caltrans building, who was listed as a key member of the development team last year, is no longer involved in the effort, officials said Monday.

The project is expected to cost $1.8 billion and would be funded privately. Officials said Monday that they should have no trouble raising the capital.

Bill Witte, president of the Related Cos. of California, said that the developer had paid particular attention to the public spaces of the project, especially after listening to community concerns at a series of public forums.

"We're knitting all of these uses together in a way that works," Witte said. "We've paid a huge amount of attention to the streetscape and pedestrian levels … to make sure that there was great, usable public space."

Planners envision Grand Avenue as the spine of a nearly mile-long row of cultural and religious institutions, with the new development sprinkled around them. The tallest tower, described by Related as "the iconic tower," would rise at the corner of Grand Avenue and 2nd Street, across the street from Disney Hall.

On the other side of the street, two residential towers would be built along with the movie theater, a bookstore, a grocery store and other retail businesses. A 35- to 40-story residential tower would rise a block south near the corner of 2nd and Olive streets. Nearby, the developers plan a 15- to 20-story office building at Hill and 1st streets above a Metro Rail stop and a 25- to 30-story residential building on 1st and Olive streets.

Many of the parcels where development would occur are now either vacant or used as parking lots.

In an effort to help pedestrians navigate the area, Related wants to build a pedestrian bridge over Olive between 1st and 2nd and make major improvements to the look of Grand Avenue. The idea is to better link all the new buildings to the 16-acre park, which would be located a few blocks north, adjacent to the Music Center.

The park would follow the sloping contour of Bunker Hill, providing a dramatic unobstructed view from the Music Center down to City Hall. The park, Witte said, could be used for festivals, farmers markets, political rallies and other public events that now go elsewhere in the city.
Related plans a series of "urban steppes" through the 16-acre park, including what developers have called a Grand Terrace and Great Lawn, as well as public gardens and a civic plaza. They plan to design escalators and steps to take pedestrians through the park, which rises about 80 feet between Spring Street on the east and Grand Avenue on the west.

The Grand Avenue project has been hailed by backers as an effort to bring night life and a sense of community to a downtown that for decades was known for closing down when the sun set.

Since the project was proposed five years ago, downtown has seen an infusion of residents attracted by both high-end condos and lofts. On the south end of downtown, Staples Center has sparked an economic revival, bringing new residential construction and downtown's first new chain grocery store in decades.

But the kind of mixed-use development that Related is proposing for Bunker Hill has met with mixed success elsewhere in Southern California.

Although the Grove shopping center near Park La Brea is booming, other developments such as Paseo Pasadena and Hollywood & Highland have struggled to find the right mix of tenants.

Witte, however, said the unique nature of the Grand Avenue project — with a marriage of retail and resident with existing museums and fine arts centers — sets it apart. "This is also a much larger template to play with here, he said.

The park would be bordered on the north by the county Hall of Administration and on the south by the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, two buildings that Molina, chairwoman of the joint powers authority, said have "significant seismic issues" and eventually may have to be razed.

Witte said that the park has been planned with such a possibility in mind. If those buildings are knocked down, he said, their footprints could be incorporated into a larger park with relatively little cost or effort.

If that happens, one idea that has been bandied about is for the county to relocate many of its core offices from the Hall of Administration to one of the new office buildings.

But Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of "The City: A Global History," called that idea "outrageous" and would lead to a public subsidy of the developer — a prospect that government officials have taken pains to avoid. "We ought to be questioning where the demand is coming from," he said.

Downtown Los Angeles already has a glut of unused office space, much of which was built in the 1980s, Kotkin said. "Why can't we put them in there and cut a better deal?" he asked. "What a bunch of chumps we are."

The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. estimates that the Grand Avenue project would create 5,000 full-time jobs and generate approximately $565 million in annual business revenue to the city and the county.

Officials said that they expect an environmental impact review of the Grand Avenue project to be completed by the end of the year. The first phase of the project's construction could begin as early as December 2006.

Broad pointed out that in the five years since its inception, the project has spanned the administrations of two mayors and is poised to overlap a third's. All three of those men were in attendance Monday, and all voiced their support for the project.

Mayor James K. Hahn sat in the front row; former Mayor Richard Riordan and Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa sat side-by-side in the next.

The plan, Broad said, "is one thing all three of you can agree on."

Downtown L.A is definately rising and becoming more active too.

Great things about DTLA:

1: Lots of splendid older buildings.
2. Swelling interest and new projects.
3. Cutting-edge architecture (Gehry, Mayne, Moneo)
4. Condo/loft boom.

Bad Things about DTLA:

1. Low-end "mercado" retail.
2. Calcutta-like feeling on some sidewalks.
3. Dead zones around newer office buildings, Bonaventure Hotel, etc.
4. Dreadful Pershing Square park.