Downtown

#258: Higgins Building (Downtown)

#258: Higgins Building (Downtown)

June 2, 2025
Architecture
The 1910 Higgins Building pioneered the use of reinforced concrete in LA. Its occupants over the years included famed attorney Clarence Darrow, the socialist leader Job Harriman, General Petroleum Co. and the LA County Bureau of Engineering.
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#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

#242: King Edward Hotel (Skid Row)

December 8, 2024
Architecture
The King Edward Hotel was one of four hotels designed by John Parkinson along a three-block stretch of 5th Street in the early decades of the 1900s. It's home to the infamous dive bar the King Eddy Saloon, and housed a subterranean speakeasy during Prohibition – still intact, a century later.
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#232: Fire Station No. 30 (Downtown)

#232: Fire Station No. 30 (Downtown)

September 1, 2024
Social History
Fire Station No. 30 once housed one of LA's two all-Black units during an era when Black and White firefighters were segregated. After a restoration in the 1990s, the old station building was reopened as the African-American Firefighter Museum, dedicated to preserving and retelling the story of Black firefighters in LA and beyond.
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#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

#152: Commercial Club (Downtown)

May 20, 2023
Architecture
The Commercial Club building was the headquarters of a short-lived social club from the 1920s and early '30s. It was designed by the venerable Curlett & Beelman, whose expertise in handsome high-rises helped define the downtown skyline. After a decade of disuse, it was transformed into the swanky Proper Hotel, while retaining many of its historic quirks.
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#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

#120-122: Garment District High-Rises (Downtown)

October 10, 2022
Architecture
The 1920s-era Garment Capitol Building, Textile Center Building and Maxfield Lofts each have their own thing going for them aesthetically. And they each capture a unique period in the economic and architectural development of the Garment District in downtown LA, which remains one of the city's economic engines to this day.
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#45: Union Station (Downtown)

#45: Union Station (Downtown)

November 24, 2021
Architecture
A beloved landmark for travelers, architecture aficionados and culture vultures since it opened in 1939 Added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 13, 1980 I took these[…]
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