- A walking tour of new Downtown Los Angeles.
I'm Chris, this is Yellow Productions,
I do travel guides that are fun, informative, entertaining
and on this video I'm joined by special guest Brigham Yen
he's been involved in Downtown Los Angeles since 2004
he blogs about Downtown LA
and I have not met anybody who loves Downtown Los Angeles
more than Brigham so I'm super excited for this walk today.
- Thank you Chris, thanks for having me on your show
I'm so excited about showing you the new Downtown LA
there's so many things that have happened
if you haven't been here in the last five years
we're gonna see all the new hotels, the retail,
we're gonna take a tour down Broadway,
come Downtown.
If you haven't been here,
you're gonna love the new changes that have happened.
- So we're gonna start our walking tour
at the intersection of 8th and Grand
at Joes Public Parking right here it's right next to CVS,
why are we starting here
well it's because I drove to come to DT LA
and Brigham said Chris you should park there
it's six dollars all day on weekends
and I've been to Downtown LA a number of times
but this is the first time I've found
such a cheap parking lot.
And we're gonna go this way,
because there's a Whole Foods right here
and this is why we're starting right here
this is like a great part of LA to start in
but well you're gonna walk with us this way
over to Wholefoods and so Brigham,
why are we starting here at Whole Foods?
- Whole Foods is the anchor here
in the Southern part of the Financial District
it's a wonderful kind of representation
of the new Downtown LA.
It's a really, obviously, great market
and for the longest time, I think,
we here in Downtown thought we couldn't get it
and to get Whole Foods to actually open up here
was a huge statement and I hear right now
it's one of the highest-grossing Whole Foods in all of LA.
- Yeah, that's really cool.
- We are gonna head down to 8th Street
and we're gonna check out one of the coolest new hotels
- Alright!
In Downtown LA
Let's check it out. - Called the Free hand hotel.
8th Street is one of my favorite streets in Downtown LA
it's got so much history and beautiful architecture.
One of my favorite buildings in Downtown LA
are some of these smaller ones here
where the Hotel Bristol is and the Golden Gopher
it's got Victorian elements to it
and to me it kind of reminds me
a little bit of San Francisco even.
Next door is this beautiful art deco building
the Garfield building,
there's so much history on this street.
- So what do we have across from the Hotel Bristol
we have this Freehand Hotel right?
- We have the Freehand hotel,
this is actually one of my favorite buildings
in Downtown LA,
it has one of the tallest neon signs in Los Angeles
the Commercial Exchange building here.
- (Chris) It's probably no longer
the Commercial Exchange building is it.
- It isn't but it was actually an office building
before it was a hotel this was back in the day
this building was built in 1926
one of the most famous tenants here was Edgar Burroughs
who's the author of Tarzan.
- Cool! And so what's cool about the Freehand hotel?
- The Freehand is trendy,
it's a hostel for those looking for maybe a little bit more
less expensive option to stay in Downtown LA
this is an option that they can choose
it's a hostel but it actually has hotel rooms too
so it's not all just hostels.
- (Chris) An upscale hostel, let's check it out.
- Come into the lobby and make a left,
go up the historic elevators
to one of the coolest rooftop bars in Downtown LA,
the Broken Shaker.
And it's got a pool
and it's got this awesome theme going on here
it's like basically like Tiki here right?
Mid-century Tiki.
And people really don't even know that it's here
it's one of the coolest secrets about Downtown LA
is that you can go up this elevator
and be in this completely different place
that, you know, really is just awesome to be here.
- So I think is most interesting about this place
is you wouldn't know this place was here
unless you knew this place was here.
That's so cool about walking around with Brigham
it's like he knows these things cos he lives here,
but you saw the door, 8th,
just come in the door, go up that elevator,
this rooftop bar is kinda like Tiki-ish
and it's like it's this super-neat vibe
cos you see the views of all the high-rise buildings around
and you can get some neat pictures of the view down below
from up here as well.
So just walking out of the Freehand Hotel
there's three new eating places around here,
one that I really like is Shake Shack on the corner,
but there's two other ones over here too.
- You got Paris Baguette and Sweetgreen
what's really exciting about all of this is
less than a year ago, if you were walking down 8th Street
there would have been nothing here
because this basically is brand new
both of these, or actually all three of these restaurants
opened up within the last year.
Just across the street from Shake Shack at 8th and Hill
is this enormous historic building
once called the Hamburger Department store
it's this beautiful, terracotta structure
that's 1.1 million square feet, it's gimungous,
this is gonna be the next big thing in Downtown LA
the developer is planning to convert it
to retail, office, restaurants, hotel, a giant rooftop park
and this is gonna be finished somewhere around like 2021/22
so when you're in Downtown LA in the future
be sure to check this out.
- So we're just rounding the corner
from the Hamburger Department store
and we are on Broadway now.
Brigham, tell us a little bit about Broadway.
- Broadway is pretty much the most magnificent street
in Los Angeles
it's got the most rich history in all of Southern California
I mean this was the highstreet of Los Angeles
at one point, every single major retailer
had a flagship presence here on Broadway.
It has the most historic movie palaces
of any street in America.
There are 12 historic movie palaces on Broadway.
- Yeah and speaking of these movie palaces
and I've always thought they're cool
and if we look down this way the Rialto here
you know when I came here before
a lot of these movie palaces
they were just rundown and kind of decrepit
and so it's actually great to see a lot of them
being rehabilitated,
some of them as theaters,
the other ones that couldn't be rehabilitated as theaters
coming back as stores.
But Brigham what's happening to this one back here?
- So this is really really exciting
this is gonna be the new Apple flagship store
for Los Angeles this is the Tower theater
it's one of those original 12 movie palaces
that are on Broadway
but because of all the disrepair that's happened
in the last several decades before it was really used
Apple has leased the entire building
and it's so exciting that it's gonna be the new Apple store.
- Apple store is coming to Downtown LA.
- Absolutely yeah, yeah.
- Do we know when like tomorrow should I get in line
to get my new Iphone. - Probably next year.
I mean it's got a lot of work that's needed.
- Yeah, and I'm glad I did not get run over by that bus.
Alright, where we heading to now Brigham?
- We're gonna head to the Harold Examiner Building
down the street here, and while we're walking
I wanna point out some of the cool things
happening on Broadway
so, - Okay!
there's been a lot of retailers
that have now opened up here on Broadway
such as Mykita from Germany, Theory,
the global flagship store for Acne Studios,
you have Aesop and Paul Smith just rented a space here,
and what that says is Downtown LA is really on the map now
these brands are very exclusive,
many of them would have opened up
only on the West side of Los Angeles at one point
but now Downtown LA is a major player
and it's actually a place people wanna do business now.
- Yeah that's pretty cool, do business and I also see like
this is new in Downtown LA
and like eat outside too
I mean take a look at these like tables and chairs
that are out here.
How long have these things been here?
- This has been here for a while, it's basically
they're called pedestrian plazas
and it was really modeled after New York city, yeah.
- Pretty cool.
So before we move on something
that I find really interesting about Downtown LA
and what makes it pretty unique
is that like, all these stores,
and this German store Brigham was just talking about like,
it's not in a shopping mall, in a cheap strip mall,
it's in these like amazing grand buildings
of times of old.
Brigham, what is this building?
- This is the Eastern Columbia Building
built in 1930 it's one of the most beautiful buildings
in Los Angeles it's this beautiful art deco edifice here
with this amazing sun burst here
you can see the gold relief here
and this is one of the other reasons
why I love Downtown LA
it's just filled with just amazing architecture like this
that you're not gonna find anywhere else in the region.
And so this whole building
was a department store at one point
and it was converted to high-end condos
and one of its most famous residents here was Johnny Depp
he owned four penthouses up on the top of this building
with amazing views.
If you google Johnny Depp in Eastern Columbia
you'll be able to see inside of
what these units used to look like.
- Wow that's cool, yeah and when you said
there's no other place to find building like this
when I look at this I think it comes from like
the Wizard of Oz so if you're not in Downtown LA
maybe check out, Oz?
Alright so just down the street from that green building
is this brown building right here
it's got this sign that says United Artists
which I think is like a movie theater chain,
is there a movie theater in there Brigham?
- It's not a movie theater it's a movie palace
and this is one of the original movie palaces
that we were talking about earlier
and Ace Hotel came in and converted it into a hotel in 2013
and it has one of the coolest rooftop bars in Downtown LA
just called Upstairs.
And many people here in Los Angeles
really attribute all the exciting changes to Broadway
because Ace Hotel came here and it became the solid anchor
and brought in so many new businesses to the area.
- (Chris) So when did Ace Hotel open?
- (Brigham) 2013.
- 2013 and so if you wanna go into that rooftop bar
there's this little random door that says hotel
it doesn't actually look that welcoming
but you go in there
and you can walk through the hotel restaurant
you take the elevator up to the roof,
which is all the way up there,
and then there's this like really neat rooftop bar,
a rooftop swimming pool,
and there's some pretty epic views of Downtown LA up there.
This is another one of those places that
if you didn't know, you wouldn't know.
But now you know Brigham, and so now you know.
So just a couple of blocks from the Ace Hotel now
we're leaving what's known as the historic core
and we're kind of on the border between
the Fashion District and South Park
and so Brigham tell us about what we see here.
- Well Chris this is kind of like
what you would have seen in Downtown LA kind of
all over the place this is what most people think of
when they think of Downtown LA.
So at one point when we were standing by Whole Foods
this is what it would've - Where we started
By Whole Foods right yeah?
- Yeah this is what it would've been like
- Just like five or six years ago right?
- Five or six years ago it would've been dead
not a single person on the street, tumbleweeds blowing by
- You missed the tumbleweed it just flew by here.
- (laughs) And then now look at it
where we were standing before, Whole Foods,
the whole area is just vibrant and reactivated and so
this part of Downtown LA is kind of
the next up-and-coming area we're standing across the street
from the Herald Examiner Building
designed by one of the most famous female architects
in American History, Julia Morgan,
you might have known her as the architect who designed
the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California.
And this is one of her best, prime examples of her work
it's beautiful, I actually think it looks like
something out of Star Wars especially from the air
I mean you can't really tell right now
but the roof really looks like something out of the movies.
They're, right now, currently changing it
into the new Arizona State University campus
and it's gonna be filled with students
in about a couple of years.
- So we're walking our way through South Park
on the way to the Financial District
and we had to get this scene
for those who of you who watch this channel a lot
know I love hamburgers and
Brigham do you know anything about this place?
- I don't know much about it
but this mural always stands out
when I do walk past this place.
- And I think like this is just about the character
of Downtown LA like graffiti art, things like that
and there's a ton of it throughout Downtown LA.
Walking over to the financial district
and what do we have here we have a Target.
Brigham what is this a Target in Downtown LA.
- Yes this Target is actually a really huge deal for us
in Downtown because when it first opened
back in like 2012
it was like one of the only places we can get
anything in Downtown because prior to Target opening
if you had to buy anything you had to leave Downtown
so it's such a huge deal
and it's part of this really cool shopping complex
called FiGat7th.
- So Brigham how long have you lived here in Downtown LA?
- I've lived here, well I moved here first in 2005
when all of this revitalization was first starting
and I did do a little stint in Pasadena but
on and off I've been here for over ten years.
- Wow very cool,
what do you like best about living in Downtown LA?
- I love Downtown LA for its walkability
it's like nowhere else in Los Angeles.
Every else in LA you have to get in your car
to do everything
to mail a letter, to go to the store, buy something
in Downtown LA I feel like it's so cool, so special,
because our experience living here is very much like
what somebody in New York would be like,
or Tokyo, you're walking.
You're walking to your barber, your dentist, your work,
getting you chores done, your errands and I love that.
I don't have to get in my car for everything here.
- So for people who are planning to visit LA
how long do you think they should spend in Downtown LA
compared to the rest of LA.
- I would say you want to spend
at least a couple of days here
because we do have a bunch of museums
like the Broad Museum on Bunker Hill, the MOCA Museum,
you have the Walt Disney Concert Hall
so all that cultural stuff,
you have like the STAPLES Center down in South Park
so you know you wanna spend at least a couple of days here
in Downtown LA to see all of that
and of course being in Downtown
it's the hub of the transit system
so you can take the train to the beach,
the Expo Line to Santa Monica, the Red Line to Hollywood,
the Gold Line to Pasadena, the Blue Line to Long Beach
all from Downtown LA so you don't even have to rent a car.
- And this actually, can you take the subway from here?
- Yeah, actually there's a subway station
across the street from us, the 7th and Metro subway stop.
- Alright, hey but he said he likes walking
so let's walk over to our last destination.
Alright? - Awesome.
- Alright you go that way I'll go this way.
Alright so we made it to the Financial District
and Brigham saved the best for last,
Brigham what is this building behind us?
- This is the Wilshire Grand Tower
it is the new tallest building on the West coast.
Including the spire on top it is 1100 feet tall
which makes it taller than
the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco.
- Sorry we had to pause for the fire engine going by
this is the thing about shooting a live video
in Downtown Los Angeles but you were just telling us
how this is the tallest building on the best coast.
- Yeah this is 1100 feet tall so it's basically
taller than the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco,
it's taller than the U.S. Bank Tower here in LA,
and on the very top of this tower
is the Intercontinental Hotel
so it has a really special sky lobby on the 70th floor
which makes it one of, I think
the tallest hotel lobby in the U.S.
- Yeah and I'll say the view up there, it's totally amazing
like it's a great view and you might be thinking hey
go up to the U.S. Bank Tower they've got the sky sight
that costs money and this view from this lobby
is totally free and by the way
- (Brigham) that's a secret (laughs).
- Yeah so we didn't tell you, you didn't hear that from me,
or from here, or anywhere,
but also if you go up there and if you're a man
go check out the men's restroom
it has some of the most interesting urinals I've ever seen.
I'll just leave for that you have to come,
and you have to see it.
Hey, well Brigham I really enjoyed this tour with you today.
- Awesome thank you so much Chris.
- Thanks for showing us around, hey,
if people wanna follow you and they wanna find out more
about your blogging, your stuff,
where should they check you out?
- Check out DTLARising.com which you'll find
our social media on there
DTLA Rising on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
- Alright, well we won't say goodbye
because we're gonna see you in the next video,
one of our other LA videos,
or Brigham will see you over at DTLARising.com
you'll find links in the description below as well.