Bridge Me A River
flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Living in Los Angeles for 13 years has been an interesting experience for me, especially
architecturally speaking. I came here from Chicago with several years of New York mixed in, and wasn't sure what I was in for in terms of LA urban life. I'd never spent anytime in Los Angeles prior to the move, but if I wanted to advance in my career as an art director in the film industry, I had to relocate to the film capital. My relationship with the city, as a city, has been a roller coaster ride, but I have discovered that the popular assumption that LA is a cultural wasteland is not entirely true. The city is not New York or Chicago, it was never meant to be and never will be, but I have discovered an architectural and cultural heritage here, and one of my more obscure finds is the subject of today's post.
The Los Angeles River is one ugly concrete trench that seems to attract more graffiti than
it does water. The Army Corps of Engineers began pouring cement with a vengeance in the 1930s, as a flood control measure. So, while the river is far from being a riparian wonderland, it does have a collection of wonderful bridges that span the waterway. This was one of the surprising discoveries I made not too long after coming here, wandering around a downtown district that was full of architectural surprises.
In November, 2007 the city's Cultural Heritage Museum recommended designating 13 of
the bridges as Historic Cultural Monuments. In January of 2008, the City Council voted unanimously to designate 11 of them. This is something else that a lot of people aren't aware of, that there is a very active preservation community in the city. You can read more about the bridges at the city's Office of Historic Resources as well as the Los Angeles Conservancy's web page.
These wonderful bridges, sit majestically over a cement ditch, surrounded by high-voltage
wires, which kind of sums up the bizarre nature of the LA experience for me.
the LA River, jondoeforty1 via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
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