Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [92]
If you want a bit of orientation, pick up a self-guided-tour brochure at the LA Chinatown Heritage & Visitors Center (Map; 323-222-0856; www.chssc.org; 411 Bernard St; 11am-3pm Wed-Fri, noon-4:30pm Sun).
DODGER STADIUM
Baseball fans will be happy to learn that Dodger Stadium (off Map; 866-363-4377; http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/la/ballpark/tours.jsp; 1000 Elysian Park Ave; tours adult/child 4-14yr & senior $15/10; 10am & 1:30pm Tue & Thu; ) is now offering regular behind-the-scenes tours of the historic stadium. The 90-minute spins cover the press box, the Dodger dugout, the Dugout Club, the field and the Tommy LaSorda Training Center. Since tours are limited to 25 people, reservations are strongly advised. There are no tours on day-game days. For information about game tickets Click here.
CITY HALL
Until 1966 no LA building stood taller than the 1928 City Hall (Map; 213-978-1995; 200 N Spring St; admission free; 8am-5pm Mon-Fri), which cameoed in the Superman TV series and 1953 sci-fi thriller War of the Worlds. On clear days, you’ll have some cool views of the city, the mountains and several decades of Downtown growth from the observation deck. Also check out the grand domed rotunda on the 3rd level with a marble floor as intricate as those found in Italian cathedrals. Free guided tours run at 10am and 11am, Monday to Friday. The public entrance is on Main St.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
News junkies can get their fix on a free tour of the nearby Los Angeles Times (Map; 213-237-5757; 202 W 1st St; tours 9:30am, 11am & 1:30pm Mon-Fri; ). The 45-minute tours usher you through the editorial offices, explaining the paper’s history and the publishing process. Kids under 10 can’t come and reservations must be made at least one week in advance.
GRAND AVENUE CULTURAL CORRIDOR
Grand Avenue, on the northern edge of the Civic Center area, is already a major cultural hub. It’s also on the verge of what billionaire developer Eli Broad hopes will be LA’s equivalent of Paris’ Champs-Elysee or New York’s Central Park. Ambitious talk or reality? We’ll see.
The master plan, designed by Frank Gehry, calls for a large public park flanked by two soaring luxury condo towers buttressed by several smaller buildings containing high-end shops and the super-deluxe Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Phase One is expected to be completed in 2011 at a cost of $2 billion.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Frank Gehry pulled out all the stops for his iconic concert venue (Map; 323-850-2000; www.laphil.com; 111 S Grand Ave; tours $10-15; audio tours 10am-2pm most days; ) that’s the home base of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The building is a gravity-defying sculpture of heaving and billowing stainless-steel walls that conjures visions of a ship adrift in a rough sea. The auditorium, meanwhile, feels like the inside of a finely crafted instrument, a cello perhaps, clad in walls of smooth Douglas fir. It’s an imposing yet intimate hall with terraced ‘vineyard’ seating wrapped around a central stage. Even seats below the giant pipe organ offer excellent sightlines and still-decent acoustics. Tours reveal much about the history, architecture and acoustics of the place, but they won’t let you see the auditorium. Self-guided audio tours and guided tours are available – call ahead for the guided-tour schedule. Parking costs $8.
Music Center
Disney hall is part of a cultural complex known as the Music Center (Map; 213-972-7200, tours 213-972-7483; www.musiccenter.org; 135 N Grand Ave; admission free; ). Aside from the LA Phil’s old home, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which is now used for an expanded schedule by the LA Opera, it encompasses the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and a fountain plaza.