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Information AboutDowntown Los Angeles |
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Downtown Los Angeles is the center of Metropolitan Los Angeles, California . The sprawling Megacity is so vast that its downtown core is often considered a district like Hollywood , even though it is home to the city and county governments. The area features many of the city's major arts institutions and sports facilities, a variety of skyscrapers and associated large multinational corporations and an array of public art, unique shopping opportunities and the hub of the city's freeway and public transportation networks. Downtown Los Angeles is generally thought to be bounded by the Los Angeles River on the east, the U.S. Route 101 on the north, the 10 Santa Monica Freeway on the south and the 110 Harbor Freeway on the west. History , Bunker Hill]] Most major upscale Department Stores once operated in downtown Los Angeles. Many of them were shuttered in the 1970s and 1980s , and some moved into newer more modern office, hotel and shopping complexes in the Financial District. Macy's Plaza and Robinsons-May are just two examples. With the movement of the city's commercial center westward, downtown Los Angeles was devoid of much nightlife from the 1950s until recent years as the residential population increased. (What little nightlife existed was concentrated in Little Tokyo .) Several developers discovered around 2000 that there was a market for Renovated Lofts and well-secured luxury apartment complexes among workers fed up with the city's notorious traffic Commuting to and from the Suburb s. Another sign of the fledgling downtown renaissance is that the Ralphs supermarket chain recently agreed to open its first downtown store; the opening of which has been pushed back to the spring of 2007 (according to the Downtown Center Business Improvement District ). Subdistricts
Some of the buildings of the Downtown core date from the early 1900s , with the topmost floors of most of the office buildings at mostly 14 and 15 stories. This was enforced because of the Earthquake risk; thus, the Los Angeles City Hall was the tallest building for decades at 454 ft., until the development of Century City , in the western part of the Los Angeles Basin . The unique Bradbury Building was the largest Cast Iron structure at the turn of the century, with a lacy, airy interior. The Grand Central Market somehow captures an early 1900s feel, with customs in distinct contrast to the current supermarkets of the U.S.
Skyline , which makes up most of Downtown's skyline.]] , Bunker Hill]] Despite its relative decentralization, Los Angeles has one of the largest skylines in the United States , and its development has continued in recent times. The skyline has seen rapid growth due to improvements in building standards, which has made some buildings highly earthquake-resistant. Many of the new skyscrapers are housing, especially in Downtown - what the office tower rush in the 1970s and 1980s added to the skyline is now occurring again in the form of residential. Some recent examples of skyscraper construction include:
This is a brief list, and there are many more. The recent "rise" of South Park , the low-rise district of downtown south of Bunker Hill (roughly south of 8th Street and north of the Santa Monica Freeway ), is bringing skyscrapers that will be high enough in quantity and height to create an extended downtown skyline within a few years from 2005 . Due to numerous films, television, and music videos that are shot in Los Angeles and uses downtown Los Angeles as the backdrop, the Los Angeles skyline is probably one of the most recognizable skylines in the world. The skyline of Los Angeles consists of several different clusters of high-rise buildings; most of these clusters are not directly connected to each other. Century City and the parts of Wilshire Boulevard through Westwood together form a rather busy skyline that is often confused with the downtown skyline. External links
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