Continue on Echo Park Avenue around the lake. Turn right on Bellevue and then left on Glendale. Continue on Glendale toward downtown as it turns into 2nd Street, following the signs into the Central City.
Look toward Bunker Hill to identify the tallest skyscrapers in L.A. The Wilshire Grand Center is recognized as the tallest in the West, but only because of the giant spike they added. With the needle, it is officially 1,100 feet (340m) tall, but its 73 floors are no more than that robot-like U.S. Bank Tower shrugging its shoulders at 1,018 foot (310m); Wilshire Grand’s roof is not as high as the Bank Tower. Cheating? (As of 2019, the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco wins as highest in the West if we only count usable space.)
Note that Bunker Hill was once home to old Victorians similar to those that have survived around our Echo Park stop. By the mid-1900s, after new modes of transportation had encouraged the wealthy to move farther from their downtown businesses, their dilapidated Victorians disappeared. Redevelopment projects quickly wiped them away and Bunker Hill grew into the impressive steel, glass, and concrete jungle you see today.
Sign up for one of the many downtown walking tours offered by the L.A. Conservancy or join the Conservancy to learn about the past history and recent excitement that helps us understand this urban landscape. An eerie ghost town was left behind when workers evacuated the city at night and on weekends during the middle 1900s White Flight. The renaissance and gentrification that followed and accelerated around the turn of this century is nothing less than an astounding revitalization that could only have been dreamed of in decades past. Just before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit, downtown’s Spring Street and surroundings had acquired a Manhattan-like atmosphere. The pandemic destroyed much of that progress and it is taking some time to reset and recover. You can spend days exploring this lively central business district on foot and that is why we must bypass it on this greater cultural tour.
(But should you dare detour on to central business district streets, you might as well stop at Grand Central Market (317 S. Broadway). Here, you will find a wild mix of diverse international cuisines ranging from those catering to old-style working class to gentrifying 21st Century hipsters. This has been evolving as an L.A. foods landmark since 1917 and it had more than 90 vendors by the 1920s. Walk farther south on Broadway to explore L.A.’s historic business district with landmarks that include iconic old theaters that have been renovated in grand fashion. Thank you again L.A. Conservancy. This became one of the largest Mexican business districts beyond Mexico by the late 1900s. Remember that this one downtown detour can easily take an entire day.)
