Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles, California. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers 5.84 sq mi (15.1 km2).[3] A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs.[4] It is also part of Central Los Angeles.
Downtown Los Angeles is divided into neighborhoods and districts, some overlapping. Most districts are named for the activities concentrated there now or historically, e.g. the Arts, Civic Center, Fashion, Banking, Theater, Toy, and Jewelry districts. It is the hub for the city’s urban rail transit system plus the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink commuter rail system for Southern California.
Banks, department stores, and movie palaces at one time drew residents and visitors of all socioeconomic classes downtown, but the area declined economically especially after the 1950s. It remained an important center—in the Civic Center, of government business; on Bunker Hill, of banking, and along Broadway, of retail and entertainment for Hispanic Angelenos, especially immigrants. Now Downtown has been experiencing a renaissance that started in the early 2000s. The Crypto.com Arena anchors downtown’s south end, and along Broadway, pre-war buildings are being restored for new uses, such as a luxury condos, co-working spaces, and high-end retail.
Spanish and Mexican era[edit]
Father Juan Crespí, a Spanish Franciscan missionary charged with exploring sites for Catholic missions in California, noted in 1769 that the region had “all the requisites for a large settlement”.[7] On September 4, 1781, Los Angeles was founded by a group of settlers who trekked north from present-day Mexico. Like most urban centers in the Spanish Empire, the town grew in a grid-like street patern around a central plaza which faced the first church. The area passed to American control in 1847,[8] and the small town grew to 11,000 by 1880,[9] The business district was centered along Main Street between the Plaza and First Street.[10][11]
Victorian-era Downtown[edit]
_to_Third_Street_(l).jpg)
1894 drawing of the Victorian-era business district, now the eastern half of the Civic Center district
Land speculation increased in the 1880s, which saw the population of the city explode from 11,000 in 1880 to nearly 100,000 by 1896.[12] Infrastructure enhancements and the laying of a street grid eventually brought development south of the Plaza: Victorian Downtown Los Angeles in the 1800s and 1890s along Main, Spring and Broadway south to Third Street – all of which was razed to make way for today’s Civic Center. After 1900, larger buildings were constructed along Broadway and Spring from Third to Ninth streets in what is now called the Historic Core.
Downtown’s golden age[edit]
By 1920, the city’s private and municipal rail lines were the most far-flung and most comprehensive in the world in mileage, even besting that of New York City. By this time, a steady influx of residents and aggressive land developers had transformed the city into a large metropolitan area, with DTLA at its center. Rail lines connected four counties with over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of track.[13]
During the early part of the 20th century, banking institutions clustered around South Spring Street, forming the Spring Street Financial District. Sometimes referred to as the “Wall Street of the West,”[14] the district held corporate headquarters for financial institutions including Bank of America, Farmers and Merchants Bank, the Crocker National Bank, California Bank & Trust, and International Savings & Exchange Bank. The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was also located on the corridor from 1929 until 1986 before moving into a new building across the Harbor (110) Freeway.[15]
Commercial growth brought with it hotel construction—during this time period several grand hotels, the Alexandria (1906), the Rosslyn (1911), and the Biltmore (1923), were erected—and also the need for venues to entertain the growing population of Los Angeles. Broadway became the nightlife, shopping and entertainment district of the city, with over a dozen theater and movie palaces built before 1932.
Department stores, most that had grown from local dry goods businesses, moved from Spring and Main streets around Temple and 1st, to much larger stores along Broadway, including The Broadway, Hamburger’s, which became May Co., Robinson’s, Bullock’s, Coulter’s, Desmond’s, Silverwoods, Harris & Frank, and the Fifth Street Store/Walker’s, serving a variety of socioeconomic groups from across the city and suburbs. All but Coulter’s would, in the 1920s–1950s, launch branches dotting shopping centers across a growing Southern California. Numerous specialty stores also flourished including those in the jewelry business which gave rise to the Downtown Jewelry District. Among these early jewelers included the Laykin Diamond Company (later becoming Laykin et Cie [8]) and Harry Winston & Co., both of which found their beginnings in the Hotel Alexandria at Fifth and Spring streets.
The Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (Union Station) opened in May 1939, unifying passenger service among various local, regional, and long-distance passenger trains. It was built on a grand scale and would be one of the “last of the great railway stations” built in the United States.[citation needed]
Decline and redevelopment[edit]
Angels Flight, November 2008
Following World War II, suburbanization, the development of the Los Angeles freeway network, and increased automobile ownership led to decreased investment downtown. Many corporate headquarters slowly dispersed to new suburbs or fell to mergers and acquisitions. As early as the 1920s once-stately Victorian mansions on Bunker Hill were dilapidated, serving as rooming houses for 20,000 working-class Angelenos.[16]
From about 1930 onward, numerous more-than-100-year-old buildings in the Plaza area were demolished to make way for street-level parking lots, the high demand for parking making this more profitable than any other options allowing preservation. The drastic loss of local downtown residents further reduced the viability of streetfront, pedestrian-oriented businesses. For middle- and upper-income Angelenos, downtown became a drive-in, drive-out destination.[citation needed]
In an effort to combat blight and lure businesses back downtown, the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency undertook the Bunker Hill Redevelopment Project in 1955, a massive clearance project that leveled homes and cleared land for future commercial skyscraper development. This period saw the clearing and upzoning of the entire neighborhood, as well as the shuttering of the Angels Flight funicular railway in 1969. Angels Flight resumed operation in 1996 for a period of five years, shutting down once again after a fatal accident in 2001. On March 15, 2010, the railway once again opened for passenger service following extensive upgrades to brake and safety systems.[citation needed]
With Class A office space becoming available on Bunker Hill, many of DTLA’s remaining financial corporations moved to the newer buildings, leaving the former Spring Street Financial District devoid of tenants above ground floor. Following the corporate headquarters’ moving six blocks west, the large department stores on Broadway shuttered, culminating in the 1980s.[citation needed]
However, the Broadway theaters saw much use as Spanish-language movie houses during this time, beginning with the conversion of the Million Dollar Theater in the 1950s to a Spanish-language theater.[17]
Recent years[edit]
The Wilshire Grand Center in Downtown LA is the tallest building in the U.S. west of the Mississippi River at (1,099 feet or 335 meters). It is also the tallest building in the state of California.
Aerial view in 2014
In the early 2000s, the neighborhood became popular with Artists and Creatives due to low rent, open loft space, and many vacancies. In mid-2013, downtown was noted as “a neighborhood with an increasingly hip and well-heeled residential population”.[18]
Because of the downtown area’s office market’s migration west to Bunker Hill and the Financial District, many historic office buildings have been left intact, which is simply used for storage or remaining empty during recent decades. In 1999, the Los Angeles City Council passed an adaptive reuse ordinance, making it easier for developers to convert outmoded, vacant office and commercial buildings into renovated lofts and luxury apartment and condo complexes.
As of early 2009, 14,561 residential units[19] have been created under the adaptive reuse ordinance, leading to an increase in the residential population. With 28,878 residents in 2006,[20] 39,537 in 2008,[21] and over 60,000 in 2017,[22] Downtown Los Angeles is seeing new life and investment.[23]
- Crypto.com Arena, which opened in 1999, has contributed immensely to the revitalization plans, adding 250 events and nearly 4 million visitors per year to the neighborhood.[24] Since the opening of the Staples Center, the adjacent L.A. Live complex was completed, which includes the Microsoft Theatre and the Grammy Museum.
- Los Angeles Metro Rail, a rail transit network centered on the downtown area, facilitates access to the city center, especially from the congested West Side.
- Real estate developers and investors planned a $1.8 billion revitalization project along Grand Avenue, which included the development of Grand Park, a large city park,[25] and the construction of major city landmarks, including the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall and contemporary art museum The Broad, which opened in 2015.
- On August 7, 2007, the Los Angeles City Council approved sweeping changes in zoning and development rules for the downtown area.[26] Strongly advocated by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the changes allow larger and denser developments downtown; developers who reserve 15% of their units for low-income residents are now exempt from some open-space requirements and can make their buildings 35% larger than current zoning codes allow.[26]
- In 2009 Bottega Louie opened on the first floor of the historic Brockman Building on Grand Avenue and Seventh Street. It contributed to the revitalization of DTLA by creating Restaurant Row, which has since brought numerous new restaurants and retail shops to the area.[27] In 2012, the upper 11 floors of the Brockman Building were bought with the intention of being sold as luxury lofts.[28]
- In October 2015, an outdoor lifestyle center, The Bloc Los Angeles, replaced the old enclosed Macy’s Plaza.[citation needed]
- Several labels of Warner Music moved into the Los Angeles Arts District in 2019 where the company had purchased a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant.[29]
- Broadway retail is transitioning from a broad mix of stores catering mostly to Hispanic immigrants and a burgeoning sneaker and streetwear retail cluster has emerged from 4th to 9th streets: Sneaker Row.[30]
Multiple Olympic and Paralympic events will be held in DTLA during the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.[31][32]
Geography[edit]
Downtown skyline during sunset as seen from Griffith Observatory, October 2006.
Downtown Los Angeles is flanked by Echo Park to the north and northwest, Chinatown to the northeast, Boyle Heights to the east, Vernon to the south, Historic South Central and University Park to the southwest, and Pico-Union and Westlake to the west.[33][34][35]
Downtown is bounded on the northeast by Cesar Chavez Avenue, on the east by the Los Angeles River, on the south by the Los Angeles city line with Vernon, on the southwest by East Washington Boulevard and on the west by the 110 Freeway or Beaudry Avenue, including the entire Four Level Interchange with the 101 Freeway.[34][35]
