Downtown Los Angeles
Neighborhood
Clockwise, from top: Skyline from the southwest, the Arts District, City Hall, the Jewelry District and the Financial District in 2001
Nicknames:  "Downtown L.A.", "DTLA",[1] "Downtown"
Freeway map of the Los Angeles area showing Downtown LA
Downtown map as delineated by the Los Angeles Times
Coordinates: 34°03′N 118°15′W / 34.05°N 118.25°W / 34.05; -118.25
Country	United States of America
State	California
County	Los Angeles
City	Los Angeles
Downtown neighborhoods	List Arts District Broadway Theater and Commercial District Bunker Hill Civic Center Fashion District Financial District Flower District Gallery Row Historic Core Jewelry District Little Tokyo Old Bank District Skid Row South Park Toy District
Area
• Total	5.84 sq mi (15.1 km2)
Elevation [2]	305 ft (93 m)
Population
• Estimate  (2020)	85,000

Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a 5.84 sq mi (15.1 km²)^[3] area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents,^[4] with an estimated daytime population of over 200,000 people prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5] Despite a business exodus from downtown Los Angeles since the COVID-19 pandemic, the district is evolving as a cultural center with the world's largest showcase of architecture designed by Frank Gehry.^[6]

Downtown Los Angeles is divided into neighborhoods and districts, some overlapping. Most districts are named for the activities concentrated there now or historically, such as the Arts, Fashion, Banking, Theater, Toy, and Jewelry Districts. It is the hub for the city's urban rail transit system, as well as the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink commuter rail system covering greater Southern California. Also located in downtown is the Civic Center, the administrative core of the city government.

Historically, downtown held a dense concentration of banks, department stores, and movie palaces that drew residents and visitors of all socioeconomic classes, but after the 1950s the area began to experience an economic decline. Still, it remained an important center for various activities—government business in the Civic Center, banking on Bunker Hill, and retail and entertainment, especially for Hispanic Angelenos and immigrants, on Broadway. Since the early 2000s, downtown has experienced a renaissance of economic revitalization, including the Crypto.com Arena in downtown's south end, and the restoration and repurposing of historic buildings in the area.

History

The Tongva village of Yaanga was located in what is now downtown Los Angeles, possibly near or underneath where the Bella Union Hotel was located (now Fletcher Bowron Square).^[7][8]

Spanish and Mexican era

Father Juan Crespí, a Spanish Franciscan missionary charged with exploring sites for Catholic missions in California, noted in 1769 that the region had "all the requisites for a large settlement".^[9] On September 4, 1781, Los Angeles was founded by a group of settlers who trekked north from present-day Mexico. Like most urban centers in the Spanish Empire, the town grew in a grid-like street pattern around a central plaza which faced the first church. The area passed to American control in 1847,^[10] and the small town grew to 11,000 by 1880,^[11] The business district was centered along Main Street between the Plaza and First Street.^[12][13]

Victorian-era Downtown

Land speculation increased in the 1880s, which saw the population of the city explode from 11,000 in 1880 to nearly 100,000 by 1896.^[14] Infrastructure enhancements and the laying of a street grid eventually brought development south of the Plaza: Victorian Downtown Los Angeles in the 1800s and 1890s along Main, Spring and Broadway south to Third Street – all of which were razed to make way for today's Civic Center. After 1900, larger buildings were constructed along Broadway and Spring from Third to Ninth streets in what is now called the Historic Core.

Downtown's golden age

By 1920, the city's private and municipal rail lines were the most far-flung and most comprehensive in the world in mileage, even besting that of New York City. By this time, a steady influx of residents and aggressive land developers had transformed the city into a large metropolitan area, with DTLA at its center. Rail lines connected four counties with over 1,100 miles (1,800 km) of track.^[15]

During the early part of the 20th century, banking institutions clustered around South Spring Street, forming the Spring Street Financial District. Sometimes referred to as the "Wall Street of the West,"^[16] the district held corporate headquarters for financial institutions including Bank of America, Farmers and Merchants Bank, the Crocker National Bank, California Bank & Trust, and International Savings & Exchange Bank. The Los Angeles Stock Exchange was also located on the corridor from 1929 until 1986 before moving into a new building across the Harbor (110) Freeway.^[17]

Commercial growth brought with it hotel construction—during this time period several grand hotels, the Alexandria (1906), the Rosslyn (1911), and the Biltmore (1923), were erected—and also the need for venues to entertain the growing population of Los Angeles. Broadway became the nightlife, shopping and entertainment district of the city, with over a dozen theater and movie palaces built before 1932.

Department stores, most that had grown from local dry goods businesses, moved from Spring and Main streets around Temple and 1st, to much larger stores along Broadway, including The Broadway, Hamburger's, which became May Co., Robinson's, Bullock's, Coulter's, Desmond's, Silverwoods, Harris & Frank, and the Fifth Street Store/Walker's, serving a variety of socioeconomic groups from across the city and suburbs. All but Coulter's would, in the 1920s–1950s, launch branches dotting shopping centers across a growing Southern California. Numerous specialty stores also flourished including those in the jewelry business which gave rise to the Downtown Jewelry District. Among these early jewelers included the Laykin Diamond Company (later becoming Laykin et Cie^[18]) and Harry Winston & Co., both of which found their beginnings in the Hotel Alexandria at Fifth and Spring streets.

Decline and redevelopment

Following World War II, suburbanization, the development of the Los Angeles freeway network, and increased automobile ownership led to decreased investment downtown. Many corporate headquarters slowly dispersed to new suburbs or fell to mergers and acquisitions. As early as the 1920s once-stately Victorian mansions on Bunker Hill were dilapidated, serving as rooming houses for 20,000 working-class Angelenos.^[19]

The Broadway theaters saw much use as Spanish-language movie houses during this time, beginning with the conversion of the Million Dollar Theater in the 1950s to a Spanish-language theater.^[20]

Recent years

In the early 2000s, the neighborhood became popular with Artists and Creatives due to low rent, open loft space, and many vacancies. In mid-2013, downtown was noted as "a neighborhood with an increasingly hip and well-heeled residential population".^[21]

Because of the downtown area's office market's migration west to Bunker Hill and the Financial District, many historic office buildings have been left intact, which is simply used for storage or remaining empty during recent decades. In 1999, the Los Angeles City Council passed an adaptive reuse ordinance, making it easier for developers to convert outmoded, vacant office and commercial buildings into renovated lofts and luxury apartment and condo complexes.

As of early 2009, 14,561 residential units^[22] have been created under the adaptive reuse ordinance, leading to an increase in the residential population. With 28,878 residents in 2006,^[23] 39,537 in 2008,^[24] and over 60,000 in 2017,^[25] Downtown Los Angeles is seeing new life and investment.^[26]

• Crypto.com Arena, which opened in 1999, has contributed immensely to the revitalization plans, adding 250 events and nearly 4 million visitors per year to the neighborhood.^[27] Since the opening of the Staples Center, the adjacent L.A. Live complex was completed, which includes the Microsoft Theatre and the Grammy Museum.
• Los Angeles Metro Rail, a rail transit network centered on the downtown area, facilitates access to the city center, especially from the congested West Side.
• Real estate developers and investors planned a $1.8 billion revitalization project along Grand Avenue, which included the development of Grand Park, a large city park,^[28] and the construction of major city landmarks, including the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall and contemporary art museum The Broad, which opened in 2015.
• On August 7, 2007, the Los Angeles City Council approved sweeping changes in zoning and development rules for the downtown area.^[29] Strongly advocated by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the changes allow larger and denser developments downtown; developers who reserve 15% of their units for low-income residents are now exempt from some open-space requirements and can make their buildings 35% larger than current zoning codes allow.^[29]
• In 2009 Bottega Louie opened on the first floor of the historic Brockman Building on Grand Avenue and Seventh Street. It contributed to the revitalization of DTLA by creating Restaurant Row, which has since brought numerous new restaurants and retail shops to the area.^[30] In 2012, the upper 11 floors of the Brockman Building were bought with the intention of being sold as luxury lofts.^[31]
• Several labels of Warner Music Group moved into the Los Angeles Arts District in 2019 where the company had purchased a former Ford Motor Company assembly plant.^[32]
• Broadway retail is transitioning from a broad mix of stores catering mostly to Hispanic immigrants and a burgeoning sneaker and streetwear retail cluster has emerged from 4th to 9th streets: Sneaker Row.^[33]
• Oceanside Plaza has planned to open in 2020, but was later changed to unknown date due to financial problems and costs.^[34]

Multiple Olympic and Paralympic events will be held in DTLA during the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.^[35][36]

After six years of construction, the new Sixth Street Viaduct opened on July 9, 2022 at a cost of $588-million. This new bridge replaced a 1932 viaduct of the same name which was demolished in 2016 due to a fact that it would collapse if there were a major earthquake, and alkali-silica reaction – colloquially known as “concrete cancer.” Pedestrian and bicycle access points link to other projects such as 12 acres of new park space below the viaduct.^[37]

Shopping malls

Shopping centers include FIGat7th,^[38] and The Bloc Los Angeles, an open-air shopping area.^[39] Others include Japanese Village Plaza in Little Tokyo, City National Plaza, the Homer Laughlin Building, and the Los Angeles Mall.^[40][41]

Geography

Downtown Los Angeles is flanked by Echo Park to the north and northwest, Chinatown to the northeast, Boyle Heights to the east, Vernon to the south, Historic South Central and University Park to the southwest, and Pico-Union and Westlake to the west.^[42][43][44]

Downtown is bounded on the northeast by Cesar Chavez Avenue, on the east by the Los Angeles River, on the south by the Los Angeles city line with Vernon, on the southwest by East Washington Boulevard and on the west by the 110 Freeway or Beaudry Avenue, including the entire Four Level Interchange with the 101 Freeway.^[43][44]

Districts

The neighborhood includes these districts:

Climate

Population