Chris Burden's Urban Light, Berlin Wall on Wilshire, La Brea Tar Pits (L.A. Family Vacation, Part 10)

Chris Burden's Urban Light is located just outside the doors of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Wilshire Blvd, in between Fairfax and La Brea Avenues. 

Opening in 2008, it consists of 202 restored street lamps from the 1920's and 30's, most of which are from Southern California streets. There's a total of 17 different styles, making for interesting patterns. 

After running in and around Levitated Mass, located just a few feet away, my kids enjoyed playing in and around Urban Light. 

In March of 2013, my wife, kids and I were back in Los Angeles for a little three day get away. Here's a link to the different things we saw and did, including a trip up the Hollywood Sign and seeing the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Most of what we did was free - I think the most expensive thing (aside from our lodging) was seeing a 3-D movie at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. 

The fixtures are especially striking at night. If you're in the area, it's definitely worth stopping and seeing. Here's a previous post with some night photos and thoughts on Urban Light. 

Directly across the street from Urban Light is the largest section of the Berlin Wall anywhere outside of Germany. The Wall on Wilshire is located at 5900 Wilshire Blvd, directly in front of what's popularly known as the Variety building (named for the logo of the Hollywood trade paper on the top of the building). 

 It was a great opportunity to explain my kids what the Cold War was, and the history and purpose of the Berlin Wall. This is a permanent outdoor display sponsored by the nearby Wende Museum, a museum focusing on the Cold War. 

I absolutely LOVE these two sections, painted by Los Angeles based artist Kent Twitchell: on the left, Democrat John Kennedy. On the right, Republican Ronald Reagan. Apparently, Twitchell had planned on painting each of these two Cold War Presidents on two panels each but was just limited to just one. Having half of each President worked out better (in my non professional opinion). 

Walking back across Wilshire is the La Brea Tar Pits. Located directly on the busiest street in the heart of Los Angeles, the Tar Pits contain the largest deposit of Ice Age fossils in the entire world.

My son and daughter looking and taking photos. 

The three fiberglass sculptures of prehistoric mammoths have been around since the 1960's. Very distinctive. In the distance, in the left hand corner of the photo is the Page Museum, focusing on the fossil finds of the 100 years. 

Another view of the largest of several of the tar pits. with the office buildings of Wilshire Blvd immediately across the street. Long term plans call for the Purple Line Subway to continue from Koreatown (a few miles away) west along Wilshire - immediately adjacent to the Tar Pits. That will certainly be an engineering challenge. 

Two Giant Sloth sculptures, each about eight feet tall, next to the Page Museum as we headed back to our car. Thousands of fossils have been found in these tar pits. In the background, the 5900 Wilshire Variety Building. 

More next week as we continued to explore the "westside" of Los Angeles. 

© 2014 www.experiencingla.com

Wilshire Blvd, Part III

A couple of years ago I took a morning walk up Wilshire from Beverly Hills to the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles. Here's links to Part I and Part II. Above is the corner of Wilshire Blvd and San Vincente Blvd, where Wilshire once again enters the city of Los Angeles. As I shared last week, I had a summer job on the 10th floor of this office building back when I was a student at UCLA. Lousy pay, but a fun job. 

This little section of Wilshire between San Vincente and Fairfax is (according to the L.A. Times "mapping L.A. Project") is considered "Carthy" to the south, and "Beverly Grove" to the north. Along Wilshire it's a real mix, from office buildings  . . .

. . . to 1980's era strip malls. To me, it's almost weird to see such a suburban looking strip mall along Wilshire - what's technically the busiest and most significant street in Los Angeles. Plans are underway to finally continue to Purple Line subway along Wilshire from Koreantown (Western) to UCLA (Westwood Blvd). When they happens, I'm imagining this strip mall (and other lowrise developments) it will give way to a larger projects. 

More mismatch of zoning. Above is a wide cement side walk - with no street trees.

A block away, a huge grass parkway (still no trees). The folks here need to take a look how Pico Blvd (a similar neighborhood in L.A.) looks with street trees (here's a link).

Things pick up again (at least, architecturally) at Wilshire and Fairfax. The "Miracle Mile" district begins at Fairfax and continues for two miles until Western Avenue.

The old May Company department store, with it's distinctive gold corner, built in 1938. The department store closed in 1998 - it's currently houses offices and the Children's Museum of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

A few steps further: LACMA: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Chris Burden's "Urban Light" art display.

"Urban Light" consists of 200 Vintage Lamp Post from around Los Angeles. Here's a link to a previous blog post on this.

Looks good during the day - looks fantastic at night.

Entrance to LACMA. $15 admission, but free the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Here's their website.

Perhaps one of the most spectacular sites along Wilshire has also been their the longest: the La Brea Tar Pits, which has the distinction of being the largest deposit of Ice Age fossils in the entire world. That would be impressive anywhere - but how about along the busiest street of L.A.?

The large fiberglass mammoths (including one pictured above literally floating on the top of the largest tar pit) gives an idea of the kind of animals that existed in this area in pre-history Los Angeles - as well as the rest of North America. If you've never been, it's worth a visit. 

Normally, I hate graffiti (sadly found everywhere throughout Los Angeles) but there was something cool about people using tar to write their names on a cement wall near the tar pits.



CBS news headquarters across the street. If you've ever listened to KNX 1070 for a traffic update now you know what they mean when they give the weather from "the Miracle Mile" in Los Angeles.

Classic office building in between Burnside and Dunsmuir Avenues along Wilshire.

Along view, looking back towards the west. I like the palm tree in the center medium. Scenes like this are a reminder how even the most "urban" sections of Los Angeles are also very suburban nature.

Yet another large Korean Church on the corner of Wilshre and La Brea. I would have liked to have continued two more miles to Western Avenue (and the current terminus of the Wilshire Blvd subway) but I had to get over to campus (UCLA) so this was the end of my walk. 

Hopped on the 720 Wilshire Express (which really does move)  . . . 

. . . four miles to where I originally parked my car (near Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvds). 



View Larger Map


Here's a map of the walk. Nice walk - just under four miles. 

© 2011 www.experiencingla.com

Leaving A Mark at the La Brea Tar Pits

Last Fall, I spent a couple of hours walking along Wilshire Blvd. through Beverly Hills and the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles.

Smack dab in the middle of Los Angeles - located on our city's busiest street - is the La Brea Tar Pits.

The La Brea Tar Pits has the distinction of being the largest deposit of Ice Age fossils in the entire world.

It would be easy to spend a couple hours walking around outside the outdoor excavation sites as well as the adjacent Page Museum. If you've never been there, it's worth visiting. Here's a link: www.tarpits.org.

But as I was just passing through, for me it was a matter of just taking a couple extra minutes to snap some photos.

The large fiberglass mammoths (including one pictured above literally floating on the top of the largest tar pit) gives an idea of the kind of animals that existed in this area in pre-history Los Angeles - as well as the rest of North America. Really amazing. And right in the heart of the city.

One of the many urban problems here in Los Angeles is vandalism from graffiti, commonly known as "tagging." Millions of dollars are spent every year dealing with graffiti - which, unfortunately, only seems to get worse.

So while I'm no friend of the urban decay arising from taggers (more on that in a future post), I found something unique about tar from the La Brea Tar Pits being used by passer-byers to write their names or initials at a small observation platform right off Wilshire Blvd.

So what am I saying? That graffiti from spray paint, pens, or knives (etching on glass) is bad, but graffiti from tar on the wall next to the tar pits is fine?

As that doesn't make any sense, how about: graffiti limited to a 4 foot x 20 foot wall = fine. Everything else = bad.

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