Los Angeles – A dream come true in the angelic megalopolis

Because of its vastness, it doesn't have just one heart, but actually every part of the city has its own soul and lives with its own fervor. Each of them is special, and we present you Downtown Los Angeles.

New angel clothes
Downtown, as Angelenos (residents of Los Angeles) call the part, could be considered a center if they did not develop independently of it Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu, South and East Los Angeles, Burbank and other areas. Once upon a time, "downtown" was considered a ghost town. Fortunately, the city authorities brought in the most daring architects, who turned it into a treat for all the senses. Lovers of contemporary art will be delighted with the museum THE POWER (Museum of Contemporary Art). An incredible collection of works from the 1940s to the present, created by artists in all media, is housed in three locations that are in themselves the pinnacle of contemporary art. MOCA Grand Avenue was built by Arata Isozaki, and from February 10th, the elegant underground exhibition spaces showcase the best of the permanent collection under the name Collecting Collections. The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and the Pacific Design Center in Hollywood are also part of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

Opposite the museum stands one of the most recognizable buildings of Los Angeles in the 21st century - the concert hall Walt Disney Concert Hall. In this year's concert season, the Los Angeles Philharmonic will mark the fifth year of concerts in the new building, which surpasses all other city innovations due to its unusual shape. The building was conceived by the architect Frank Gehry (known in Europe for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain) and built with the support (also with 50 million American greenies) of the Disney family as one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls in the world. In it, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra will play its ninetieth concert season, and they are announcing seven world premieres, Stravinsky research, the first performance of the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehte, as well as jazz concerts with Dave Brubeck, Milton Nascimento and the Jobi Trio and others. When visiting the City Hall, which was built as a kind of copy of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, we will have to bite our tongues when the proud guides assure us that the otherwise magnificent building from 1928 is one the most beautiful "historical" buildings in the city. This is why the building has featured in countless movies, including the police station in Dragnet and the Daliy Planet newspaper building in Superman.

Design in time and space
The world's leading designers who made up the jury in the magazine campaign Wallpaper, they chose Los Angeles as the best city. Designers admire the Museum of Neon Art or the store of the Fashion Institute for Design and Promotion, where students sell their creations at extremely low prices. Of course, a visit to Los Angeles is not complete without a drive on the famous road Mulholland Road, from where the most beautiful view of the famous inscription opens Hollywood, which was placed on the hill above the most notorious part of the city in 1923 as an advertisement, but it remained and became a landmark. Even a walk down the walk of fame, Walk of Fame, is indispensable, just like shopping at Rodeo Drive and driving around Sunset Boulevard, but one of the most interesting glimpses into the history of motion picture art (without the spectacular special effects you can admire on a tour of the Universal film studios) is a tour of the Annenberg Gallery at the Los Angeles Public Library. The collection presents an incredible collection of Hollywood posters, publicity photos of celebrities, postcards and other promotional material that will take us back to the past of stardom and glamour.

Babylon of the New World
In the city of angels, the 21st century also took a peek at the Catholic Church, whose archbishopric seat is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, which in 2002 replaced the previous cathedral destroyed in an earthquake in 1994. The cathedral became a center of socializing of different ethnic communities, as Sunday masses are held there in as many as 42 languages. The nearby Chinatown, especially Chung King Road, changed its rundown face at the beginning of the new millennium with the opening of the first art galleries. More and more of them opened every year, and today Friday and Saturday evenings are especially popular, when lovers of experimental art go to see new exhibitions. Galleries with Chinese and American shops and restaurants and countless lanterns adorning the streets create a magical atmosphere of art, wine, Chinese food and music. If we follow the red lanterns, we will reach the Chinese American Museum, where until the summer we can see an interesting exhibition entitled Growing up as a Chinese American, which shows the childhood of little Chinese in the promised land in the twentieth century. The different faces of Los Angeles can be seen in all corners and places, but it is best to go to the district Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia or drive to colorful East Los Angeles, home to one of America's oldest Hispanic communities, and restaurants along Cesar E. Chavez and Ford boulevards still serve authentic Mexican dishes accompanied by live mariachi music. South Los Angeles was nicknamed the Harlem of the West Coast due to the violence that erupted on the streets a few years ago, and few Angelenos know that brilliant musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker and Charlie Mingus were born in the jazz clubs there. The most unusual architectural acquisition of South Los Angeles is undoubtedly the Watts Towers, the work of Simon Rodie, who spent 33 years building his Gaudi-like work of art in his spare time.

Eat from all sides
There is also a Japanese quarter near China, Little Tokyo, where we can relax in the "pocket" Seriyuen Park (Garden of the Clear Stream) and maybe get some ideas on how to bring a little of the currently very popular Zen into the home garden. Both Chinatown and Japantown are also famous for their restaurants. In the Chinese restaurant Empress Pavillion, we treat ourselves to the best chicken bao in the city, and in Little Tokyo, some sushi restaurants that remain faithful to Japanese tradition already inform customers at the entrance that they do not serve California rolls. Of course, in America we cannot do without huge portions of food, burgers and sandwiches. One of the institutions of American food is the restaurant Philippe the Original on the edge of Chinatown, where they claim to have invented the French Dip sandwich (French bread stuffed with beef and a side dish) way back in 1908, and retro nostalgics still return to it today. And if, with all the variety of food on offer, we wonder where the chefs buy the ingredients for their specialties, then we have to go to the Grand Central Market. Here, all races and languages meet, offering and buying fruits, vegetables, meat and fresh fish from all over the world since 1917. Here we can see Los Angeles' most famous chefs and ask them for advice, listen to do-it-yourself stories and last-minute restorations making Mexican lemonade, fighting for peace in the Middle East from Arab or Jewish vendors, or just watching the hustle and bustle, proving that the ultramodern architecture of Downtown Los Angeles still leaves time and space for its inhabitants.