This April, I got on an airplane with a book and full intentions to read it – and (yes!) even to fall asleep mid-flight. I was all by myself, heading to Los Angeles for a conference.
I tried to spend most of my time outside of the convention center so that I could soak in the glorious weather before returning back to um… Portland, which is doing what Portland does in April. Which is not transitioning to springtime yet. And it’s already (did I mention this?) April. Besides, I hadn’t been to LA since the early 1990s, way before I ventured into this urban design thing. So, it was definitely worth a look-see. And? Thank goodness I left the convention center because that is one freakishly oppressive complex. The building above is Frank Gehry’s (who else could that be?) Walt Disney Concert Hall. I got to sneak in during a performance and the acoustics were actually pretty great.
My eyes are trained to take in all the flora everywhere, and this place is so different than my rainforest back home. Look at the crazy pine street trees! I love the palms and the agaves.
I was also in town for CicLAvia, taken from Bogota’s Ciclovias, where miles of streets are closed off to automobile traffic to allow for bikes and pedestrians to take over the public realm. Portland does a similar event throughout its neighborhoods, called Sunday Parkways, which we have participated as a family in some way or another. Portland specifically uses its events to showcase their bike boulevards and to connect its parks, which feature roller skating to yoga to hula hoops to you-name-it, it’s Portland.
But, back to LA. This was an amazing event to see, because, first of all, it was held in the heart of downtown, so the experience was uniquely urban – cyclists storming the downtown by force, flanked with high-rise towers. Secondly, LA can draw many thousands of people to its downtown, and this event seemed to do that. It was intense. I love how the people of the city really tested its streets with their bikes, including the trees, the poles, the rails, and anything they could lock their bikes up to when the need to eat or drink arose. And it did, because it was warm.
The days were so sun-filled that I found myself exploring, and I wound up visiting several parks. And – I’m not judging, but I do notice there are lots of signs telling me what not to do. And all the parks are gated. What is that all about? Anyway, the multitude of signs were kind of funny to me, so I couldn’t help myself…
One of the most interesting tours I went on as part of the conference was a mobile workshop that discussed LA’s adaptive reuse policy, which set in motion a kind of downtown renaissance and preserved many old financial buildings that had sat vacant for 40 plus years. Pretty great to be able to peek inside some of those units.
These photos were taken from a speculative office building constructed but never occupied in the 1980s. Recently it was adapted for owner-occupied condo housing. It was an anomaly to the other pre-World War II adaptive reuse buildings, but interesting nonetheless. And the views were spectacular.
Of course, no one brought a swim suit for the tour…
This is a glimpse of the convention center area, with the Ritz-Carlton in the background and the Harbor freeway.
If you squint, you can see the Hollywood sign…
LA has some super crazy tall buildings. I think that one in the foreground was given additional height by the city for not demolishing the historic library to the left of it. It’s 73 stories and the tallest on the west coast.
This entire trip was a nice autonomous getaway, a great break from the Portland weather, and a professionally stimulating opportunity. I spoke at the conference on a panel, and I met several other professionals who share a similar job description – which hadn’t happened until this trip. I’m so grateful and humbled by mi esposo, who supported and encouraged me to go. And, he survived too! He’s a rockstar. And now I’m back in Portland – where despite the lack of sunshine, it’s good to be home.
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