Skyscrapers Transforming L.A.'s Cityscape | Artbound | KCET

The L.A. Fire Department’s longstanding helipad requirement for all new towers didn’t just produce a monotonous flat-top skyline. It was also emblematic of a city that has always been deeply ambivalent about tall buildings and their place here. With the helipad requirement scrapped, and towers like the Wilshire Grand/Korean Air tower under construction, will that change? In the Third Los Angeles, are we ready to extend our reputation for cultural and architectural innovation skyward? Are there ways we can keep our shiniest towers from being mere containers for foreign wealth, rather than for people, as has been the case in cities like New York and London?
Read more about the Third Los Angeles at bit.ly/3AWJzOa
Watch the full episode "Third L.A. with Architecture Critic Christopher Hawthorne" at bit.ly/3yPFk49
Want to learn more? Watch more Artbound at bit.ly/3yRDaRI
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#Artbound #arts #culture #SouthernCalifornia #Third #LosAngeles #ChristopherHawthorne #urban #reinvention #architecture #skyline #skyscraper #regulations #buildings

[@Dana_Danarosana]

I find it a tad short-sighted when he's talking about the helicopter pads never having been used for rescue during a fire. I guess he's forgetting about Spring of 1988 when LA had one of the worst skyscraper fires in US history when the First Interstate Bank (now Aon Center) had floors 12-16 on fire!! Actually, they would've lost the building without the helicopter pad as they were in the process of installing fire sprinklers and the building's water pumps were shut down... and the only person who knew this was trapped on the 58th floor. Only after the sprinkler engineer was rescued by helicopter and was brought to the basement to restart the pumps was LAFD able to attain ample water pressure to actually fight the fire.

[@DesertDwight]

I actually didn't mind the flat tops. I've always loved the LA skyline

[@dubreil07]

DesertEmpire801 because you do not value a beautiful skyline

[@DesertDwight]

dubreil07 beauty is in the eye of the beholder

[@BossChronicles]

About time LA works on its skyline look at SF and Seattle

[@user-wd2th7xj4d]

Shawn Afshar san francisco hates there skyline, they said they wanted a reboot and wanted to spread their buildings likes LA's.

[@combatsuperstar]

LA has to now cause it ran out of land. Seattle and SF are on tiny pieces of land and couldnt spread out the way LA did

[@l.b.martinez4329]

Sf has cute buildings.....I suppose. LA has more then just downtown buildings...

[@carlmaster9690]

L.A has very few skyscrapers for acity of its size. San Francisco and Seattle have more skycrapers yet their smaller cities.

[@secrets.295]

LA should have New York or Chicago like skyscrapers. LA has way bigger population than Seattle or SF. They should have more high rise and skyscrappers. LA is already running out of land. Time to build up3

[@Lololol24LA]

The new tower is so beautiful, when you enter there is a glass roof and you can stare right up and it’s mesmerizing

[@hiphoprbloverjon9180]

Downtown is changing for the better!

[@dayviduh]

Can’t wait to see more rise up :)

[@Skyy67]

usa bank tower & the 777 my fav lookin buildings

[@daringleader116fan4]

Me too lol

[@JeffGR4]

For that _Los Angeles Times_ architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne @ 00:09 to imply that I.M. Pei's beautiful _Library Tower_ (a.k.a. _U.S. Bank Tower_) is negligible architecture, I have to wonder if Hawthorne is out of his mind. The _U.S. Bank Tower_ (1990) has the unique Pei characteristics. It seems as though Hawthorne derides Pei's _U.S. Bank Tower_, just because it has the obligatory helipad! I love the work of I.M. Pei and his L.A. bank skyscraper brings about visual euphoria!

[@maanceto2]

I was thinking the same thing. The U.S. Bank Tower is very original.

[@julianofpaignton6202]

I wish downtown LA looked like Manhattan. LA is 100 years behind N Y in terms of urban development

[@thebabbler8867]

LA needs a 4500 ft skyscraper for the record.

[@MitchellBPYao]

They can build on vacant car parks

[@californiamade5608]

Won’t happen. DTLA literally a fly path.

[@californiamade5608]

He said the new Wilshire Grand doesn’t have a helipad when it in fact, does.

[@GoLakers20111]

Other City Like New York, San Francisco and Chicago they don't need flat Roof for Helicopter Emergency on High rise Building I'm Glad that the City of L.A got rid of a 45 Year old law that required build an Ugly box Tower looking not attractive and Boring with the Wilshire Grand Tower it will Change the L.A Skyline alot and Hopefully for the next 10 and 20 years I would Love to see the Building go even Hire than the empire state building and the Wills Tower in Chicago.

[@jonathant1606]

Rol Over LA will never have a taller tower than Chicago and ESPECIALLY not taller than NYC :/

[@GoLakers20111]

it will in 2030

[@baldrat979]

@@jonathant1606 you're wrong la is the most populated city in the us so they need to build huge skyscrapers

[@jonathant1606]

Bryan I never said they won’t build skyscrapers to accommodate their high and growing population. I just said they won’t have a taller skyscraper than Chicago but especially over NYC.

[@GoLakers20111]

@Bryan The Christal ball will tell you

[@gusolive5522]

Now lets build the high speed rail!! Seriously things like hat inspire people to get up and get out

[@1974dormouse]

Gus olive the high speed rail our governor wants to to build isn't fully high speed rail, and it doesn't go from LA to San Fran, not even close. If you look at their plans, it's a waste of money. They should just let the private sector build it like they originally did in New York, before the state took it over.

[@gusolive5522]

Yeah I know its suppose to serve the state not just LA and SF I am glad it goes through the 99 corridor because it helps relieve traffic, What good is high speed if it only goes through non issue areas like the coast or 1-5 the real problem is Bakersfield up to Sac also it goes closer to Yosemite, Which I think tourists visiting Cali would like to see. Of course not everything will be on budget but in the long run it will pay for itself and then some...

[@danielavelar1341]

There’s a big apartment complex that replaced that parking on lot on his left in the very beginning lol

[@carlmaster9690]

About time L.A pulled its finger out and expanded its downtown area and numbet of skyscrapers

[@adancewithgod]

All of that to eat dinner! LOL!

[@bqkmg2037]

L.A. still has a boring skyline for being the second largest city in the USA, the best skylines of the West coast goes to San Francisco and Seattle.

[@buhohaha]

Ben Rayonez u. Must never have been here if u dont know keep ya mouth shut

[@bqkmg2037]

+Jay Saturday The Rebound KO YES...I've lived in LA back in the day....don't like hearing the truth ASSWIPE.

[@buhohaha]

Ben Rayonez ya u aint from where we dont say asswipe what kinda diss is that haha

[@user-wd2th7xj4d]

Ben Rayonez sure, at least LA doesnt have buildings stuck together like San fran.

[@seand67]

Nice skyline

[@roachtoasties]

So City Hall required buildings to have flat tops for decades. Why not City Hall itself?

[@jsantiago5686]

roachtoasties i think because it’s not a tower

[@antoniahamilton3201]

Because L.A. City Hall was built in 1926. The first practical use of heliocopters was about 1939.

[@californiamade5608]

@@jsantiago5686 it is a tower. It’s 453 feet tall.

[@princeerick11]

I Love The US Bank

[@Aaron-ru6ld]

us not usa

[@dannygarcia8816]

How much does it cost to get up there ?

[@bertlee3470]

How does landing a helicopter on the roof help in a big fire? Get the executives out ? Seems like a corrupt LA thing

[@lukeypham5969]

The LA downtown is too small.

[@gabriel84511]

Are these buildings earthquake proof??

[@jorgeblanco6897]

Gabriel Neuer wilshire is an earthquake proof earthquake

[@heyitzLou]

Most of them were built before the 1994 Northridge earthquake so the answer is yes.

[@AllenHanPR]

I have some friends working on all of these projects. Great people. DTLA will be the new Beverly Hills.

[@takenoshit8456]

that's my maze bank tower in gta online

[@markTwen3777]

Hello

[@princeerick11]

Los Angeles Not Las Angeles,Is My City

[@californiamade5608]

Prince Erick who cares

[@dubreil07]

Nyc innovation. Build up not across :)

[@Fabiann35]

LA has the most boring looking skyscrapers. Most look like boxes. No creativity at all. Unpleasing to the eye.

[@antoniahamilton3201]

L.A's creativity has been manifested in its film industry, its tremendous strength in aerospace and advanced transportation, its expansive manufacturing base and so forth. Never judge a city by the size of its skyscrapers. Los Angeles is an immense powerhouse with a horizontal construct not a vertical one.

[@californiamade5608]

@@antoniahamilton3201 Los Angeles is a massive homeless dump.

[@antoniahamilton3201]

@@californiamade5608 wa wa wa

[@Skyy67]

usa bank tower & the 777 my fav lookin buildings