Tit started well on this corner of Spanish land located in the far west of the United States, invested in 1781 by about forty settlers from neighboring countries. Named El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciúncula (the village of our lady the queen of the angels of Porciúncula), the small town grew and came under American control in 1848. New epicenter of local life, the covered market of Grand Central Market opened in 1917. Dive into Downtown Los Angeles.
A booming neighborhood
The front of the Hotel Figueroa, in DTLA. Tanveer Badal Photography
The gold Rush and the development of the railroad network attracted many adventurers and investors, such as the millionaire Lewis Bradbury, who displayed his success by erecting the Bradbury Building. Inside, the gigantic glass roof, an essential asset before the arrival of electricity, lights up a huge atrium surrounded by brick balconies and wrought iron balustrades that span several open floors. Not It isamazing that Ridley Scott set up his cameras there to Blade Runner in the 80s or that the creative members club NeueHouse recently opened a bar there. If Lewis Bradbury never saw the building inaugurated in 1893, his delusions of grandeur will give real estate magnates some ideas…
At the end of the 1920s, Art Deco skyscrapers and buildings with neoclassical accents spring up like mushrooms. Among the most notable are the Eastern Columbia Building mall, The Oviatt and its men’s clothing store, the Southern California Edison, which supplies the city with electricity, and City Hall, the city hall. A few blocks away, the neo-Baroque Tower Theater is home to the world’s first talkies, while the screening room at United Artists Studios (co-founded by Charlie Chaplin) celebrates the Spanish Gothic style.
The Hauser & Wirth contemporary art gallery has complemented its cultural offer with a bar and a restaurant in urban jungle mode. Courtesy Hauser and Wirth
And then, in the middle of the gilding, there’s the Skid Row area. The poorest have been crammed into makeshift tents since the 1930s, the flip side of an American dream where anything is possible. Despite the efforts of the missionaries and the city’s social services, the population of the left behind does not seem to really benefit from the boom phases of the district. Except perhaps in Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral, built in 2002 by 1996 Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo. On the walls of the nave, the realistic portraits of the series of tapestries entitled “The Communion of Saints”, by the artist John Nava, pay an eternal tribute to the inhabitants of the slums.
A former goods depot transformed into a trendy shopping mall, Row is home to the Bodega concept store. Row DTLA / Lizbeth+Amy
The years go by, successive wars and financial crises sank the district. Downtown Los Angeles becomes an empty shell where you only venture to run textile factories and manage the transport of goods, camped in huge depots. Visit the neighborhood today only has real meaning in the light of this turbulent history. An angel many times fallen, he is always reborn, promising a new golden age. A pioneer of the latest wave, the fashion brand Acne Studios took over the Eastern Columbia Building in 2013.
“At the time, there weren’t really any shops in Downtown. The clothes were made in factories in the Fashion District, but no one would have thought of coming all the way here to buy them,” explains Elise Parseghian, stylist founder of April in LA and artistic director of the label Xírena, whose offices have been established in Downtown Los Angeles for more than ten years. Same story for the Ritz-Carlton, opened in 2010, which then looks like a UFO in an environment marked by stories of mores: drugs, gangs and dramas at the Cecil Hotel. The charm operates however and the iconic architectures become the new trophies.
A time-honoured “tallest building in LA”, the Ace Hotel attracts a creative and hip clientele. Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles
The Ace Hotel transforms the United Artists Theater as a concert hall and offers sumptuous rooms next door. In summer 2021, the apple brand unveils a store in the Apple Tower Theater. For its part, the Proper Hotel inaugurates rooms with a refined design in a former YMCA hostel. What keeps Downtown Los Angeles alive is its inexhaustible energy. The young industrial designer Kevin Benito Garcia remembers frenzied clandestine parties in abandoned depots, interrupted in the early morning by police whistles.
Ten years later, these happenings (sometimes more supervised) share hangars with ultra-stylish shopping malls, like at Row DTLA. The private club Soho House, which owns 30 hotels worldwide, accessible to its members only, settles at the beginning of the pandemic in the Art District, in the midst of graffiti, closely followed by Damian, an upscale Mexican restaurant range. From the Italian trattoria Bestia to the confidential Hama Sushi bar, whose address we don’t know, everything is packed. While few people still dare to walk on foot, small concept stores are developing, like Matte Black! a café that stands out with its decor drawn in black and white. In Little Tokyo, the proposals kawaï (“cute”, in Japanese) of Mokuyobi and Poketo blow a colorful wind of freshness.
Spectacular architectures
The interior of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Courtesy of La Phil / Adam Latham
If the role of culture in the economic development of a suburb no longer needs to be proven, it is here one of the keys to the success of Downtown Los Angeles. How not to admire the resilience of MOCA, the art museum created by artists in 1979, which multiplies its exhibition sites? On the walls of the former police car warehouse – reconfigured by American-Canadian Frank Gehry – now MOCA Geffen, are posted the impertinent questions of Barbara Kruger, such as « Who laughs last? » (who laughs last?) or « Who is beyond the law? » (Who is beyond the law?).
Le Walt Disney Concert Hall, also designed by Gehry, is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as well as classical music and jazz concerts. In 2003, few people bet on this program which seems to appeal to a public reluctant to stop in the neighborhood. The project will have cost more than 274 million dollars, including 110 million just for the car park… It now welcomes a varied public and many international stars, attracted by the reputation and the exceptional acoustics of the place. Another notable institution, The Broad museum, a gift from philanthropists Edythe and Eli Broad, offers major exhibitions of contemporary art.
Created by artists
and devoted to art in all its forms since 1979, the MOCA supports committed creation in two (or even three) sites. Elon Schoenholz
Dotted with spectacular historic architecture, conducive to the development of a cultural life supported by a youth overflowing with ideas, the district of Downtown Los Angeles proves that it is still standing and that it has not finished making people dream. Laughs best who laughs last.
> Discover the Proper hotel with its breathtaking view of the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. Properhotel.com
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