Below: Looking north on Hill Street from 8th Street on Dec. 5th, 1929.


http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9784/...northonhil.jpg
usc digital archive

The Coliseum/Exposition Park, December 1932.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8141/...ionpark193.jpg
usc digital archive

:previous:
Really cool night shots, ethereal! I like.

Here's a more ordinary shot of Washington and Figueroa Streets in 1942. The caption says that a streetcar is blocking traffic. Notice the old California state highway route marker shield; I read somewhere that they were originally intended to be shaped like a California miner's spade. They of course have since evolved into the green California state highway route markers you see today with somewhat of a similar shape.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/1...nandfiguer.jpg
USC archive

^^^Sopas_ej, I like the trivia about the sign shaped like a miner's spade.
It's a pretty cool photograph as well.


Civic Center proposals from the past.


Below: This plan for the Civic Center has a very interesting terraced area.
I can't tell if those are steps or a waterfall. You can see Union Station in the lower-right hand corner.


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/933...8plancivic.jpg
usc digital archive




below: This image of the proposed Civic Center area highlights an auto park.



http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/227...icautopark.jpg
usc digital archive

This elaborate proposal from 1940 has an area that resembles the Piazza San Pietro in Rome,
except this one has Spring Street running through it. lol


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/222...icplan1940.jpg
usc digital archive




below: Here is the same illustration annotated.


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/625...cplan1940a.jpg
usc digital archive

^ neat...thanks for posting them!

^^^You're welcome metroXpress.



This illustration is from 1938.
I don't have the information that corresponds to the numbers.

I'd love to know what number 15 is. It definitely looks like a waterfall.
This area appears in all 4 proposals. It could be a remnant of Court Hill.
Do you have an opinion sopas_ej?


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/650...ncivic1938.jpg
usc digital archive

above: Also, this is the first time an auditorium/arena type building appears (center left in the photograph).

Here is a rather uninspiring proposal from 1952.


http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/6...acivic1952.jpg
usc digital archive

Ugh.

^^^That's insightful.

What about the previous 4 proposals?

I love these renderings. I believe #15 would be Fort Moore Hill, which itself has an interesting history; here's a Wikipedia article about it: Fort Moore Hill. It currently is the site of a new performing arts high school that opened this fall. On the side of the hill (much of which was lost due to the extension of Hill Street the construction of the Hollywood freeway after WWII) is the bas-relief Fort Hill Pioneer Memorial, which I've walked by a number of times; and, it looks like it used to have a working waterfall, which would be cool if they were able to turn it back on.

What I find interesting in these renderings is that it looks like they took great care to retain Olvera Street, the Plaza Church and the old Plaza itself; however everything else around that area looks like they didn't find it worth saving. Also, the 101 freeway today would run through what would be the center of these renderings. What would be cool is if these renderings could somehow be superimposed over what that area looks like today.

Looking north on Spring Street from 2nd Street, 1939:
http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/249...rthonsprin.jpg
USC Archive

^^^That's a great pic from 1939 sopas_ej.
Thanks for the info about the Fort Hill Pioneer Memorial.
I read an article about it a few months ago, and couldn't place it for the life of me.


Proposed Music Center at 6th and Hoover. 1950


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/647...dmusiccent.jpg
usc digital archive



below: Another view, Music Center proposal for 6th and Hoover. 1950


http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/211...musiccentq.jpg
usc digital archive

Really cool renderings. Just pen/ink, no digital photo realistic computer rendering.

The proposals above are really cool. You think about the people involved back then, probably had little idea they were planning the downtown of one of the worlds largest cities of the 21st century.
The street sizes and amount of park/landscape space strike me. They seem to be very formal plans, that obviously never happened.
I wish some of the grand European style plans that were created at the turn of the century actually came to fruition. Burnhams plan for Chicago & SF would be interesting today, even the just the street patterns.
Frederick Olmsteds parks plan for LA would be great today....

This link shows Olmsted plan from the 1930's

http://www.flickr.com/photos/citypro...7601849458554/

At least it seems there is some variety.

Interesting! I didn't know that a music center was proposed for this site. Interesting that they would propose a music/cultural center in this neighborhood, which is adjacent to Lafayette Park, west of downtown LA, and that the Music Center would eventually be built on Bunker Hill. The area of 6th and Hoover today is so non-descript, with a strip mall and apartment building on that site.

I find the architectural style of this proposal kind of interesting, too; very simple mid-20th Century Modern. Interesting that they would also use a 3 theater combination with underground parking, which is what the Music Center on Bunker Hill is also like, albeit with a different style of Modern architecture.

Another obscure (to me anyway) proposal.

A 1951 plan for an Auditorium and Trade Fair Center
at 4th Street between Figueroa and Flower Street.

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/198...auditorium.jpg
usc digital archive

:previous:

Very interesting, considering what's actually there now. I guess the idea of a "Trade Fair Center" evolved into what is now the LA Convention Center?

Looking at these renderings, particularly of the proposed Music Center, made me think of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. That building is a definite time warp, totally a product of that Space-Age/Atomic-Age era of the mid-late 1950s. I've been inside once while some kind of rinky-dink arts & crafts fair was going on; the event space inside is very utilitarian, which surprised me, because this used to be the venue for the Academy Awards from 1961 to 1968.

Here's what it looks like today:
http://www.you-are-here.com/modern/civic.jpg
From you-are-here.com

Here's what it looked like when it first opened in 1958, images from the USC Archive:
http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6580/exmn123610095.jpg

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/1...n123610093.jpg

Hmm, the lobby looks kinda fun in that pic...

Here's what it looked like inside during an Oscars ceremony; Eddie Fisher is escorting Elizabeth Taylor to the stage, after Yul Brynner announced that she just won Best Actress for "Butterfield 8." April 17, 1961:
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6...orwinsosca.jpg
From Life Magazine

She beat out other Best Actress nominees Greer Garson in "Sunrise at Campobello," Deborah Kerr in "The Sundowners," Shirley MacLaine in "The Apartment" and Melina Mercouri in "Never on Sunday."

Here it is during the Academy Awards, 1968:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics28/00063856.jpg
From LAPL.org

Excellent information about the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium sopas_ej.
I agree with you, that lobby photograph is tres chic'.

Oh, and in my opinion...Shirley Maclaine should have won for 'The Apartment'.
(It's one of my favorite movies)

below: A death along the Los Angeles river, July 1948.


http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9...y1948death.jpg
usc digital archive





below: Gas Explosion November 1948


http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4...asblastnov.jpg
usc digital archive





below: Boy points to playmate's death 1953.


http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2...oplaymates.jpg
usc digital archive