tag:flavorpill.com,2005:/losangeles/venues/la-conservancy 2012-02-10T00:00:00-08:00 tag:flavorpill.com,2005:EventListing/22231 2012-02-11T18:00:00Z 2012-02-11T18:00:00Z Guided Tour Tomorrow The Spring & Main tour explores an area of the city that has a rich past and a vibrant future. Main Street is one of the oldest streets in Los Angeles. Originally lined with haciendas and livestock corrals, it evolved into the city’s first major business district in the mid-nineteenth century. By the 1880s, the hub of commerce was shifting west to Spring Street, and Main Street emerged as an entertainment district with theatres, restaurants, and hotels, several of which remain. Spring Street was the business center of Los Angeles throughout most of the twentieth century. Its concentration of banks and other financial institutions inspired its nickname, “Wall Street of the West.” Grand terra cotta facades and gleaming marble lobbies still define the street. Recognized for its remarkable historic integrity, Spring Street from Fourth to Seventh Streets is a National Register Historic District. In 1999, the city of Los Angeles enacted an Adaptive Reuse Ordinance that fostered the renewal of underused historic structures, resurrecting neglected landmarks and spurring downtown’s revitalization. Spring and Main Streets are once again drawing people to the area with lofts, shops, galleries, theatres, and restaurants. tag:flavorpill.com,2005:EventListing/22233 2012-02-18T18:00:00Z 2012-02-18T18:00:00Z Guided Tour Saturday 2/18 The Union Station tour covers architecture, art, culture, and social history as it celebrates one of the great landmarks of Los Angeles, the 1939 Union Station. The grand opening of Union Station was celebrated with a three-day extravaganza attended by nearly half a million people. The station's monumental architecture, a unique combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco styles, assured that it would be one of the most identifiable landmarks in the city. It also turned out to be the last great railway station built in America, constructed as it was near the end of the heyday of rail travel. The vast and extraordinary spaces now serve as station to the city’s Metro Rail lines, and once again tens of thousands of people course through the building every day. In the mid-1990s, an intermodal transit center and 28-story office tower was added on the east side of Union Station. These additions draw on the 1939 station for inspiration, interpreting the vast spaces and southwestern colors in a new way, and incorporating the work of many different artists as part of the public spaces. tag:flavorpill.com,2005:EventListing/22230 2012-02-18T22:00:00Z 2012-02-18T22:00:00Z Guided Tour Saturday 2/18 From architecture to public art to public space, Los Angeles' Central Business District is a microcosm of the growth and development of Los Angeles.  From the 1880s when Victorian mansions crowned Bunker Hill, to today when sleek skyscrapers define the downtown skyline, the built environment of the Bunker Hill area has constantly evolved, reflecting the tastes, aspirations, and economics of the city’s population. Experience the skyscrapers, plazas, and public art that define the bustling financial district today, and discover how they relate to both the past and the future of Los Angeles, one of the great cities of the world. tag:flavorpill.com,2005:EventListing/22222 2012-03-03T18:00:00Z 2012-03-03T18:00:00Z Guided Tour Saturday 3/ 3 The Angelino Heights tour explores the architecture and history of this charming Victorian neighborhood east of Echo Park and south of Dodger Stadium. Angelino Heights is considered one of the first suburbs of Los Angeles. Built on a hill just a few miles west of the city center, the area was developed in the mid-1880s by William W. Stilson and Everett E. Hall. It is one of the few neighborhoods in Los Angeles remaining intact from the Victorian era. The main part of the tour explores Carroll Avenue, a street lined with Victorian homes from the late nineteenth century, nearly all of which have been fully restored. Carroll Avenue is a National Register Historic District, and in 1983 was designated as the first historic district (Historic Preservation Overlay Zone) in the City of Los Angeles. The neighborhood has been featured in dozens of films, TV shows, and commercials.