DOWNTOWN - THE MERCURIAL METROPOLIS

UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative
Fall 2020
Prof.Gustavo Leclerc
Partners: Gibson Bastar, Claire Nelischer, & Jesslyn Whittell

Welcome to Downtown Los Angeles, where the action is. Nearly forty years after Banham dismissed Downtown as irrelevant in Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies, and insisted that Downtown “is where the action cannot possibly be,” we present the walking tour that Banham can’t take: an alternative tour that positions Downtown Los Angeles as a locus of all the action occurring throughout the city at large. Through four vignettes, each representing a node in the network of Downtown, the listener is invited to reimagine the reality and duality of Downtown Los Angeles. Troubling the concept of the touristic, consumption oriented walking tour and the role of the voyeuristic, disengaged tour participant, we offer a non-linear journey through Placita Olvera, Bunker Hill, Little Tokyo, and the Arts District, uncovering tales of gentrification and urban renewal, securitization and carcerality, cultural consumption, and image-making and remaking. Through these four vignettes, participants are invited to reflect on Downtown’s enduring relevance to an understanding of Los Angeles.

Please enjoy the 10 min podcast, thick map, and paper below.

If you want to know more about the UCLA AUD UHI program please follow this link. https://www.urbanhumanities.ucla.edu/

DOWNTOWN - THE MERCURIAL METROPOLIS

Morgan Jacobs