Walking Tour Assignment

Built Environment

• New loft and apartment construction to bring people into the city for purposes other than work

• Street Vendors around Santee Alley in the Fashion District

• How wide Broadway is and all of the shops on the first floor with renovated apartments above

• The numerous theaters along Broadway• The recycling of old buildings into apartments and lofts.

Image of LA City• Lynch had noted that people were familiar with Downtown Los Angeles, not

because of residence, but because of their work.  This is beginning to change as many old buildings are being converted into apartments and lofts as well as new buildings being constructed so more people can live downtown.  Also Lynch talked about how there is the central downtown, but there are also several basic cores or cities.  This is still true, but these "basic cores" are becoming connected as the Los Angeles region grows and infill becomes more prominent.  In 50 years the image of Los Angeles will be more focused on density and infill and the reflection by many as Los Angeles being spread out or spacious will not be as common.  50 years ago when Lynch wrote the book, Pershing Square was much more prominent as a landmark, however today as the center of downtown has moved west Pershing Square is not as recognizable of a district or landmark as it once was. The smog and air quality will continue to be noted in 50 years and will most likely be more common of a response when people are asked to describe Los Angeles.

Below grade dining area

John Paul Cisneros

Attractive open space away from street

John Paul Cisneros

Public music on sidewalk

John Paul Cisneros

5 Notable Features • 1. The accuracy and precision of the theories put forth by the film

we watched the class before the final. The most pronounced function I observed taking place was that people want to be seen by other people. Consequently, the public spaces near high-traffic corridors, e.g., the street, were much more vivacious than those areas that were more secluded.

• 2. The idea of public art not necessarily having to be visual, as seen by the amphitheater we visited. I think there is a lot of potential there to create some really cool visual-auditory-sensory public art.

• 3. The goats who “mowed” the grass of the park near California Plaza as a related form of carbon sequestering.

• 4. The mild lack of walkability of some areas, e.g., a narrow sidewalk directly abutting a major rode without any barrier of trees or something of the like.

• 5. The amount of above- or below-grade public space. The below-grade spaces were particularly surprising with Los Angeles’s temperate climate.

John Paul Cisneros

Image of the City: Year 2009

• With the exception of Angel’s Lift as a clearly defined “Lynchian edge” separating two “Lynchian districts,” the space in downtown Los Angeles proper seemed to be consolidated space. Particularly in many of the business parks we visited, e.g., California Plaza, there was a unified movement of space. There were few unmistakably defined separations of ownership or uses, channels, and strategic entrance points. As a result, it strikes me that given the density, physical diversity, and patchwork of many of America’s urban cores, Lynch’s ideas of paths, nodes, and landmarks no longer are as pronounced as they once were central business districts. However, his ideas of major districts and edges, I do believe still do hold weight, particularly for a cities as a whole.

John Paul Cisneros

Jessica Eshaghzadeh

PPD 245

Professor Banerjee

November 12, 2009

•As we came across Disney Hall, the structure of the building really stood out to me than the buildings I see in my everyday life.

• The fountain and benches amused me because in Los Angeles you don’t usually come across an atmosphere like that. It reminded me of different cities in Europe. It seemed like the man in the picture was having a very quiet and peaceful lunch.

•As I came across this sculpture, I was stunned to see how modern and artistic the artist had designed it. What really captured my eye is how unusual it is.

• As we walked up these stairs, it reminded me of Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills. It gave downtown a sense of class and sophisticated.

•As we walked into the church the first thing I noticed were the stained glass window that looked very similar to the temple I attended. Even thought the two religions are conflicting, they looked very similar to one another and gave it a very dramatic look.

•When Lynch wrote his book on downtown, Los Angeles image, it was presented very simple. LA has changed a great deal from what it was decades ago. I believe, the business district has grown tremendously and will continue to grow gradually. Not only has the business district grown, but many families have moved down to downtown, LA to raise a family. Downtown is not the safest place to live but some areas of downtown have grown to be a very attractive and sophisticated place.

Downtown, Los Angeles in fifty years will become a city of dreams and sophistication. As of now downtown’s population is increasing rapidly and in about fifty increase the population will increase even more. The developers are doing a fantastic job making downtown as appealing as it has become. In fifty years more and more apartment buildings, schools, parks, museums, hotels, etc. will be built in many areas of downtown. After taking our tour, I realized downtown has grown rapidly and into a beautiful and very appealing city. After attending USC for a year and a half, I have never seen the areas we walked around and visited that day. I can definitely say that I’ve considered moving to downtown next semester for my last semester at USC.

• 5 things that stood out on the walking tour

• Buildings and shops close together

• Varying types of architecture

• Many sidewalks had areas that were privately owned

• There were trees and other types of vegetation although scarce

• Traffic is busy during the day

• I believe that the image of LA city has changed by having more in the city since the 1950’s. There are more things to do and more points of interest. The older area of downtown is still intact but is not the focal point of the area. LA Live and the Staples Center is more of a focal point. In 50 years I believe LA will be more progressive, a lot smarter and more livable. LA is progressing and I believe it will be a much smarter city in 50 years.

LA Walking Tour

Amy Conway

5 Things that Stood Out• Near almost every building or cluster of buildings there was a huge piece of public art that

created an interesting visual and attracted people into the courtyards in between these skyscrapers. They were usually brightly colored or designed out of an interesting material, which caught the eye of passers-by at least in our walking tour group. It was a great idea for Los Angeles to require every development to allocate one percent of its cost to the creation of public art, since it adds a lot visually to the built environment.

• I noticed that there wasn’t that much green space on the sidewalks, but then as you continued walking, there would be green space in the built courtyards and there was even a huge park that was next to Angel Flight, which I had never seen before. The park had children running all around it and it was a little haven that shows how unique Los Angeles is, since we can have a commercial development site right next door to a luscious park with huge trees and gorgeous green grass.

• I never noticed before how much of Los Angeles is layered and how there seem to be two levels to almost every street. It was evident by the Biltmore Hotel where there were raised sidewalks to get the pedestrians off of the streets. However, I have never walked on those platforms but I have walked on the streets with the cars. Also, nearby there was a small underground shopping mall that was filled with restaurants and it did not seem that many people ventured down underground to have lunch. The entrance to the shopping mall is not easily recognized and most people just seem to walk right past it, which I have done for years. It also wasn’t a very inviting space and seems a little odd to be venturing underground to get food.

5 Things that Stood Out• One of my favorite places that we saw on the tour was the part of the California Plaza that

stretched between the Omni Hotel and the Bank of the West Building, which has a gorgeous fountain and courtyard. The fountain wraps down into a spiral walkway and creates a gorgeous eating venue. The courtyard not only had a gorgeous aesthetic, but also made a great public space that was completely packed with people sitting and talking even though it was past lunchtime. It seemed that almost every courtyard or public area with chairs was mostly vacant was we walked through them besides the California Plaza, which had a nice location that was easy to get to and created a nice environment to sit and chat or eat in.

• The Bunker Hill Steps were built by Lawrence Halprin and were designed to look like the Spanish Steps in Rome. However, these steps in Los Angeles are only used to go up and down on and in Rome these steps would usually have tons of people sitting on them people watching, eating or talking with friends. The Spanish Steps in Rome are used as a gathering place instead of a connective path from one place to another like in the Bunker Hill Steps in Los Angeles.

Image of Los Angeles Today• The ‘Image of LA City’ has changed a lot because of the new developments in the

downtown area, but most of the historical landmarks have stayed the same and are just being refurbished. Therefore, I feel that most of the landmarks have not changed, but that new distinct landmarks have been added, which help people to better get around Los Angeles. However, I do believe that Los Angeles is continuing to change and is in the process of redesigning its built environment and making the districts flow more into each other and more accessible to pedestrians, instead of being dominated by cars. I felt like when Lynch went on walking tours with people, the people he studied felt disoriented because they had not really walked on the sidewalks and that the cars mostly dominated the streets like today. However, I feel that there is a change happening where sustainability is becoming popular and that communities are being redeveloped to be pedestrian orientated, so there is an increase in pedestrian traffic. However, there needs to be more accessible places for the pedestrians and make connective paths for them to enter and exit these landmarks and districts. I feel that the districts used to have distinct ridged edges, but today these edges are beginning to fade and become grey area, since Los Angeles can no longer build outward and therefore is redeveloping the current build environment with infill development. Therefore, the edges are becoming blurred and the paths are being redeveloped to account for pedestrians as well as more landmarks are being built to attract more people and make the built environment more attractive to people. The districts will always be prominent and distinct; however, they may begin to blend into each other on the edges, but this will just help to connect all of the different areas to each other to make Los Angeles more of a whole instead of individual centers.

By Peter Koehler

By Peter Koehler

By Peter Koehler

By Peter Koehler

Features that Stood Out to Me

• The contrast between the old buildings and classic ambiance versus the new environment of the more modern downtown.

• The number of open lots that were dedicated to surface level parking, it seemed unusually high for a downtown.

• Santee Alley -- a makeshift built environment that reflected the vendors and the items being sold.

• The high number of vendors at street level, on the ground floor of high office buildings.

• The scale of the neighborhood. Wide streets, tall buildings, long avenues … downtown has an unmistakable grandiosity.

By Peter Koehler

The Image of Los Angeles. Past, Present, Future

Since Kevin Lynch wrote about the Image of Los Angeles in 1960, a few things have changed, although not all that much in the scheme of things. Lynch describes downtown as being a business center that people knew not through residence but by traveling to for work or shopping. Although that is still largely true today, it has been revitalized as a viable place to live with the expansion of high end condominium and apartment buildings in the neighborhood. Lynch also noted that Pershing square was the most strongest element of all, and that does not seem to be the case today. I figure it would likely be L.A. Live area or perhaps the Disney Hall area.

“When asked to describe or symbolize the city as a whole, the subjects used certain words: ‘spread out.’ ‘spacious,’ ‘formless,’ ‘without centers.’” Descriptions of the subjects commutes became less vivid as they approached downtown -- it think that may be different today, as downtown has added a lot of interesting looking buildings and landmarks. By Peter Koehler

Walking Tour Assignment

Pictures

5 Things That Stood Out To Me

1. Picture 1: The two women eating lunch on steps outside stood out to me because it is not seen often in LA and it is very European.  I like the idea of eating lunch this way.

2. Picture 2: Disney Hall stood out to me because of the structure of the building and how it was build.  Very unusual and modern. 

3. Picture 3: The cable car that is no longer operating: I just could not believe that two people died from the cable car crash.

4. Picture 4: LA Times Building: It looked like very old architecture.

5. Picture 5: Art: There was art everywhere we went.  From a man playing the saxophone, to what is shown in picture 5.

Image of the City• In the book, Lunch studied downtown LA, and ever since he

wrote the book about 50 years ago, it is more than evident that downtown has undergone a lot of change, and I am sure that this change will continue happening in the next few decades.  The new developments of Downtown have made Downtown a more attractive place to be, with the Jewelery, Fashion, and Business districts.  The districts are clearly separated by atmosphere and even by signs posted.  The districts are very distinctive from one another, not only from how clean or dirty the area is, but from the people that are spending their time in those areas.  IN 50 YEARS: I think that the more reconstruction and development there is, the more people will want to visit and even live in Downtown LA.  I think it has and slowly will even more begin to resemble New York City- an area where a car is not always needed, where walking to and from a destination is possible. 

Kelly Cass

Walking Tour Pictures

Five Things That Most Stood Out to Me1. The dense housing stood out to me. There were no single-family

houses, but instead lots of high-rise apartment buildings, specifically mixed-use apartment buildings.

2. LA Live stood out. All of the advertisements and bright colors used for its signs really set it apart from the rest of the places we saw on the walk.

3. The deterioration of once beautiful architecture really stood out. It was apparent that efforts were being made to create new architecture and new high-rise buildings, but the once beautiful architecture of the paste appeared to be dirty and in desperate need of repair.

4. Santee Alley stood out because of the compactness of its stores. The alley was filled with numerous smalls stores and vendors.

5. The designs of the new apartments being built also stood out. The new apartments being built had much larger individual units than those of the past.

Kelly Cass

Image of LA City

The ‘image of LA City’ has definitely changed since Lynch wrote the book. One of the main changes has been the addition of dense housing. Lynch described people as knowing the city due to working there, not living in it. However, today LA is full of numerous apartments and mixed-use housing. The city also now has quite a few more memorable buildings such as LA Live. I think now that the city should be described as having numerous districts with different features, but an overall theme of dense housing.

Kelly Cass

Walking Tour

by Julian Tarula

Points of Interest

• The dichotomy of the city walking past grand and olive street in terms of people

• Additionally the buildings changed as well. New high rise V. old historical

• The clear property lines of some of the buildings, public V. private sidewalks

• Many “bum proof” seats etc. similar to Mike Davis Fortress City

• The use of side walks for vending. Many owners would have their merchandise out on the sidewalk

Image of the City

• The image of LA has greatly changed since Lynch’s observations of the city . Pershing square is no longer a vibrant point of interest. The bunker hill area is now the new business sector for financial elite. However the image is still changing. We saw many new condos being built throughout the city encouraging more people to live there. Also place such as LA live and the Disney Concert Hall are attracting more and more people all the time. Yet there are still some striking similarities such as the existence of skid row, Placita Olvera and the free ways. I imagine that over the next 50 years Downtown LA will be seen a very different manner. I believe there will be a revitalization the downtown and it will no longer be just a place of business and tourism but also a place of residence.

Private property sign on sidewalkMelisa Olivieri

Pershing Square – Armrests prevent homeless from sleeping on bench

Melisa Olivieri

Indoor mall with many cheap items

Melisa Olivieri

Crosswalk with pattern

Things that stood out to me

1. Many sidewalks have private property division lines.

2. Old buildings have beautiful architecture, but they are run-down.

3. Signs and awnings at ground level of beautiful old buildings make

the whole block unsightly.

4. Homeless people were on almost every block.

5. Pershing square was the only quiet outside place.

Melisa Olivieri

Image of LA City

Changes since Lynch’s book– New Pershing Square design

– More pullution

– Older office buildings have been converted for residential use.

– More high-rise buildings

50 years from now hopefully…– Better public transit system and almost no cars

– No homeless people because better social care exists

– Less crime and a feeling of safety that will encourage more people to walk at night

Melisa Olivieri

Matt Wolfrom

PPD245

5 Things That Stood Out to Me

• The gold lines between public and private space.

• The difference in atmosphere between the newer and older downtown.

• The use of space vertically. (ex.stores on the bottom of condo’s)

• The use of buildings for advertisements.

• The modern buildings tended to have more windows while the older buildings contained more details.

Lynch/ 50 Years

• I think that when Lynch wrote his book it was easier for him to distinguish between landmarks, nodes, districts, and paths than it is now. When he wrote his book these points of interest were much more defined than they are today given that the downtown has evolved so much. In 50 years I think that we will have developed so much of downtown that we won’t even recognize it. I predict that high rise buildings will take over much of downtown in order to bring things as close as possible.

WALKING TOUR ASSIGNMENT

CANDICE ASSIL

PROFESSOR BANERJEE

NOVEMBER 13, 2009

1) Add 3-4 pictures that you took from the walking tour to a PowerPoint presentation.

2) Add 5 things that stood out to you during your tour of downtown LA regarding the built environment.

• Camera’s in public areas: “eye’s on the streets.”• Art structures in the middle of a meeting place.• Chairs, tables, and benches in sunlight vs. no sunlight.• Street food in front of business areas.• Using animals to maintain a property: goats take care of the

grass at a local park.

3) In a few sentences, describe how you think the 'Image of LA City' has changed since Lynch wrote the book, and how you think it should be described 50 years later. Try not to repeat what others have added.

• The city of Los Angeles has changed drastically over time. With the advances in technology, the city life experience has come into full effect. The city is now filled with high rise buildings, lights, public transportation, landmarks, and restaurants. I feel as though, throughout the next 50 years, technology will take over the world. Downtowns public transportation system will advance with less use of fossil fuels and become a top priority. It will be the number one means of transportation--subways, trains, and railways. Buses and cars will become extinct, or limited. The city will still carry the same patterns: nodes, landmarks, walls, paths, etc. with even more hopes to more involvement within the community/city.

Walking Tour Pictures

5 things that stood out• Sidewalks – as shown (2nd image) - the use of sidewalks for private/public

use (mentioned in readings) protest/labor disputes/demonstration

• On the first image, the notion and ideas of intended use of surveillance.

• 3rd picture – Shopping center at below grade level is something I think most people are not used seeing often

• The difference in factors relating to diverse places – Certain plazas were more functional and displayed a more vibrant and attractive environment. They differed in their relation to the street, amount of sunlight coming in based on the angles and heights of buildings and the architectural design in general. Those plazas were in result more crowded and more crowded

• The type of art displayed in various locations stood out as being more of a coerced requirement to fill a void rather more spontaneous and artistic emergence of art.

Image of the city• Lynch studies pertained in many cased exclusively to the downtown area of

Los Angeles, which has undergone major structural changes (after the 80’s) since Lynch conducted his research with his book being published in the 60’s. Many landmarks have been maintained and inhibit today s stronger sense of place, together with an effort to improve the distinctive detailing of the boulevards and streets However, the “Lynchian districts” are today more visible than ever with its edges noting a strong distinction/segregation between the new corporate downtown, vs. the public sector and the Hispanic communities in the various areas of downtown. In terms of identity and structure, I believe the city is making a positive development to exhibit a greater sense of place with art, landmarks, developing districts and paths. However, although it is interesting to enter a world with different characteristics, the effort should be to put together the various components of downtown to create the whole. I think that the city being fueled by American ideal of a downtown, will continue to sustain and re-promote it self and become more imageable as a result with its inhabitants and tourists finding it more enjoyable and natural to take a tour in Los Angeles Downtown.