The Many Downtowns of Los Angeles

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Last Updated: Jun 23rd, 2008 - 20:07:13

The Many Downtowns of Los Angeles
By Esotouric
Jan 26, 2008, 22:59 PST

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No city has so fascinated scholars of urban and cultural studies than Los Angeles, that sprawling, self-referential zone of mystery and glamour. British writer Reyner Banham was the first to love the city's ugliness as well as her beauty. In the early 1970s he abandoned his academic preconceptions to revel in L.A.'s freeways, foothills, beaches and suburbs.

Image courtesy of Thomas Pintaric

Along the way, he discovered extraordinary spaces in neighborhoods that were often overlooked for being too remote, too industrial, or simply occupying invisible "flyover country" beneath the great freeways. Banham saw that behind the urban sprawl was a pattern, almost a language, which could not be understood through old modes of architectural criticism, but which required new ways of seeing and of thinking.

Nearly twenty years after his death, one of Banham's students, Esotouric's Richard Schave, narrates a bus tour to take urban explorers deep into uncharted downtown L.A., to explore how Southern California has changed since Banham mapped it and reveal the secret wonders that survive.

"Reyner Banham was as smart and sassy as any critic in the postwar period. What made him distinctive was his passion for the edgiest expressions of his technological age, not only in avant-garde architecture but in anything designed - Cadillacs and transistor radios, custom hot-rods and painted surfboards, gadgets and gizmos." Hal Foster

THE MANY DOWNTOWNS is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center‹this tour explains why. The tour will feature visits inside exquisite architectural gems, including some seldom seen by the general public. But the tour also offers a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown. Featured locations include Grand Central Market, Title Guarantee Building (including its landmark Hugo Ballin murals), Angels Flight Railway, Pershing Square (including its tribute to novelist John Fante), Grand Central Market (tour lunch break).

For more info on Esotouric, please visit Esotouric
For more on Reyner Banham, see Reyner_Banham
And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"

Learn more with the help of Google.

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