Tuesday, March 9, 2010

grand avenue + 1st street (southwest), downtown


Despite being known for its innovation, LA can be a pretty monotonous city, with most buildings following a single, odd format: cars park in the rear and visitors enter from behind, causing street-facing facades to become dead spots with disuse. Even the Disney Concert Hall, one of LA's greatest monuments, follows this car-centric layout, creating an eerie lack of street life even on big show nights. This standard "Parking in Rear" layout, however innocent, has the unexpected effect of creating the isolated destinations our city is so famous for -- allowing contradictions like the drama of a sublime architectural wonder juxtaposed to the utter banality of a parking structure directly across the street. Narrowing this scene highlights this paradox; the left side of Grand suddenly begs for cafes, shops, and bars. See it narrowed!
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About the Photographer

Los Angeles, CA, United States
Writer, designer, and urban planning geek.

Got a location idea or photo submission? Send it to hello@davidyoon.com. I'll post it to the blog or even run out to shoot it myself.

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