San Pedro, Los Angeles
Neighborhood city of Los Angeles, California, United States.
The Enclave
The Enclave, a newly opened 25,000-square-foot retail and civic hub nestled in Los Angeles, California, has breathed fresh life into underutilized space with meticulous planning and activation. Positioned amidst two towering structures, this dynamic project serves as a bustling restaurant and retail center, thoughtfully curated to meet the demands of both office occupants and the wider South Bay community. Boasting 25,000 square feet of vibrant food and beverage outlets, complemented by an additional 25,000 square feet of lush landscaped areas and collaborative spaces, The Enclave stands as a verdant urban oasis, showcasing over 40 plant and tree species amidst the city's industrial landscape. From morning coffees to evening engagements, the project's design facilitates seamless transitions between indoor and outdoor realms, fostering a harmonious blend of functionality and aesthetics. Rooted in three primary objectives outlined by its client, Ruth Group, The Enclave aims to modernize existing office towers, cultivate a sense of community akin to Silicon Beach, and enhance property values through thoughtful design interventions. This holistic vision translates into revitalized lobbies, integrated architectural elements, and an array of outdoor meeting spaces, meticulously crafted to encourage collaboration and engagement. With a strong focus on design continuity and indoor-outdoor connectivity, The Enclave not only sets a precedent for future small-scale developments but also offers a versatile environment catering to diverse user needs, heralding a new era of inclusive, community-driven spaces in the heart of Torrance.
Watts, Los Angeles
Neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States.
Venice, Los Angeles
Beachfront neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Entenza House
Historic house in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles
Neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Brentwood, Los Angeles
Affluent neighborhood in the Westside of Los Angeles, California, United States.
The Century Towers
Ensemble of buildings in California, United States.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Art museum in Los Angeles, California.
Treyarch
Treyarch see the reimagining of a 1960s warehouse building in Los Angeles into a dynamic 21st Century gaming studio as the new headquarters of Treyarch Corporation, a division of video game and interactive entertainment company Activision Blizzard. The building, which was first constructed in 1969 as an industrial facility, has been renovated with a thoughtful circulation strategy to create expansive open-plan spaces tailored for diverse departments. Private offices and conference rooms are strategically placed across the first and second floors to foster both focus and teamwork. At the core of the building lie specialized spaces designed for cutting-edge video game development, including state-of-the-art audio editing suites, a screening room, and a photogrammetry room. The vibrant heart of the office features open, double-height spaces that encourage social interaction and testing, cultivating a dynamic environment where creativity and innovation thrive. The project focuses on seamlessly integrating the specialised requirements of the brief while respecting and showcasing the history of the structure. It brings flexibility by minimising cellular offices and providing open office workstations and giving the ability to adapt the building for any future needs. Finishes and facilities have been updated throughout, creating a fun and comfortable place to work and reflecting the company’s brand identity while creating a timeless space to evolve and grow. The building is design to impress, with its carefully designed double height entrance space greeting visitors. This not only enriches the visitor’s journey, creating a lasting impression on but serves acts as to safeguard the confidentiality of valuable intellectual property, striking the balance between openness and security. The double height windows also embrace natural light to permeate deep into the building, fostering a connection to the outside. Curated materials and indoor plants enhance the interior, which in turn promotes well-being and nurtures productivity and creativity.
Rumblefish - a.k.a. The Taylor Yard Bike & Pedestrian Bridge
-History of the LA River Long before Los Angeles was a bustling metropolis, it was a quiet region where the landscape ebbed and flowed with Mother Nature. When the Native Americans lived in the area, floods were not uncommon.
Parasol Agriculture Center
Once a thriving community, Allensworth had gradually faded into obscurity, losing its once vibrant identity over time. The emergence of the Parasol Agriculture Center breathed new life into the area, serving as a guiding light of hope and aiming to redefine the community’s future. This project weaves together four crucial elements, each representing a significant challenge faced by the site: extreme heat and a lack of urban canopy, air pollution in the area, and the looming threat of floods. The project includes Teaching & Innovation Farm Lab will house multiple micro-projects that synergistically and operationally support one another while allowing for each project to act as an independent revenue generator/profit center for the Allensworth community. The Teaching & Innovation Farm Lab encompasses two essential components: the Farmer Housing Building and a multifunctional facility with a total sqft of 6700 sf. The center employs sustainable practices to minimize its environmental impact. To combat the intense heat and reduce energy demand, the building uses an operable shading envelope system that shields it from the scorching sun. Furthermore, with the core material chosen as structural rammed earth, the building reduces its operational carbon. Transforming obscurity into opportunity, the Teaching & Innovation Farm Lab sets a precedent for sustainable development, revitalizing Allensworth and inspiring a future defined by resilience and prosperity.
La Brea Tar Pits and Museum Master Plan
The La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum are sites of exploration and an enduring source of wonder. Our proposed reimagination of the park and museum emerges from a close analysis of what is present, inspiring a commitment to preserve and magnify the park, tar pits, and museum as an ever-changing site of discovery. The design titled La Brea Loops and Lenses forms a triple mobius linking all formerly disconnected elements of the park into a unified whole. This triple mobius redefines Hancock Park as a continuously unfolding experience, connecting three distinguishing identities that are latent within the park today: Research and Revelation – the site of the excavation pits and Pleistocene Garden, Community and Culture – where the Page museum and central green are located, and Spectacle and Urban Fictions – where the lake pit and sculptural mastodons join the public imagination on Wilshire Boulevard. These different identities of the loops embody journeys, with programming that appeals to diverse constituencies—from paleontology to bird watching, from science to play. The triple loop updates the 1-kilometer pedestrian experience that connects the rich yet disparate existing elements of the site, brings drama to the crossing of the Lake Pit, frames views into the museum, enhances amenities for community engagement and research, and reveals the riches found in the tar pits and museum. As a vibrant public park, active exploration is complemented with lookout platforms along the loop to provide more intimate spaces for reflection. Students and curious adults can observe excavation and research in action. The Page Museum rejuvenation and expansion is located strategically on the triple loop. Its design is rooted in the analysis of the existing building, preserving and magnifying the museum’s unique strengths. The renovation and expansion are conceived as a contemporary Wunderkammer, a treasure chest of stunning fossils and artifacts, both large and microscopic. Like a magnifying glass, exhibition spaces bring artifacts into focus and make visible the museum's treasures to the public. Framed views throughout the park and museum bring into alignment the research and museum collection that contains over 3.5 million specimens. As flexible armatures, Loops and Lenses connect and reveal, forming a continuous journey that tells the story of La Brea Tar Pits and Museum: the continuum from prehistoric time to our contemporary moment. The museum treasures will be revealed to visitors, bringing the museum into the park, and the park into the public imagination.
D.S. & Durga Abbot Kinney
D.S. & Durga Abbot Kinney is the 3rd collaboration between the lead designer and owner. Friends who both studied architecture, the partnership began with the first store in Nolita in downtown New York City and very much reflected the downtown punk feeling of the brand. In approaching the design for the newest store in Los Angeles, both immediately thought of visionary 20th-century modernist, John Lautner. “Opening a store in Los Angeles is a homecoming for me as a designer. It is where I studied architecture and first experienced the work of the great California modernists - Neutra, Schindler, and especially Lautner, whose work inspired the sculptural ceiling a focal element in the store. We used the same signature materials from our New York stores but added some warm woods and sandier tones to announce our arrival in Los Angeles,” says the co-founder of D.S. & DURGA. The designers were tasked with designing the California location to contrast the urban palette and finishes found at the previous New York locations, while still maintaining the fragrance house’s identity through similar aesthetics. This includes analogous uses of poured concrete that evoke rammed earth, as well as acrylic pyramid stud finishes that back the wall displays. Influenced by Coachella Valley’s Elrod House by John Lautner, an apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright, the design is in dialogue with the colors and textures found in Southern California. A Lautner-inspired monumental sculptural ceiling in a cementitious finish creates a feeling of volume and openness, while curved walls create distinct areas within the space and distinguish transactional areas like the POS area without cutting off the flow movement. Earth tone colors and textural elements such as trowelled wall and ceiling finishes compliment the graphic grain found in Douglas Fir, a wood used in accents and shelving throughout the space. Together the design elements create a warm and inviting space that emphasizes D.S. & DURGA’s brand motto, “Perfume is Armchair Travel.”.
Stradella Ridge
Inspired by the site's geometry and orientation, the exterior has a robust angular form. The upper floor is enclosed in white aluminum vertical screens – a pristine, clean element that floats above a monolithic concrete base. This mass element, which gives the building's primary street character, is interrupted by a single undulation in its otherwise uniform surface, its lightness contrasting with the solid, tactile concrete it hovers over. Entering the property, the architectural character changes. Clean lines persist but are now fragmented, with angled mass walls guiding visitors towards the entrance, and the materiality shifts from metal and concrete to earthy travertine surfaces. The contrast between the containment of the street entrance and the release into the living space, with its architectural lines reinforcing the expansive views over the pool terrace and down the canyon's flanks, is powerful. A memorably large living space is focused toward the view. Floor-to-ceiling glass walls seamlessly connect indoor and outdoor spaces, merging the main living areas with the pool terrace. The architecture shapes the views, providing privacy where necessary while drawing the landscape's calmness and serenity into the home's heart. Inside, fluid, curved forms and a simple palette of stone, timber, and bronze create a unified, sculptural quality. Natural materials and organic shapes infuse warmth and well-being, from the kitchen island to the circular marble bath carved from a single piece of marble. Architecturally, the design balances solidity and lightness, angularity and curvature, street presence, and scenic views, resulting in a powerful architectural statement and a cocooning nurturing environment.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Concert hall in Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Catholic cathedral in Los Angeles, California.
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Los Angeles museum dedicated to films and filmmaking.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Art museum in Los Angeles, United States.
Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics
Research institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Beverly Center
Shopping mall in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Cinerama Dome
Movie theater at Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.
Hollywood, Los Angeles
Neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States.
Get optimized routing, transit times, and turn-by-turn directions.
Open in Atlas MapFrequently Asked Questions
How long does the Los Angeles architecture walking tour take?+
The self-guided walking tour covers approximately 71.2 km with 20 stops. Allow approximately 22 hours including 20 minutes of viewing time per building.
Is the Los Angeles architecture tour free?+
Yes, this is a completely free self-guided walking tour. You can view the route on the interactive map, export it to Google Maps for navigation, and explore at your own pace.
Do I need to book the Los Angeles architecture tour in advance?+
No booking is required — this is a self-guided tour that you can start at any time. All buildings can be viewed from the outside. For guided tours with expert commentary, we recommend checking GetYourGuide for local architecture tours.
What is the best time to do the Los Angeles architecture walking tour?+
Morning light (before 11am) is ideal for photography of building facades. Weekdays tend to be less crowded around commercial buildings. Allow a full half day for the complete tour.