Field Trip Report

Los Angeles Field Trip Report On October 11, 2014 along with 23 other classmates, we took a field trip to downtown Los Angeles. The purpose of this field trip was to observe and learn about the physical and the built environment, its interrelationship to each other, and to draw our own conclusions from everything that we saw and learned. Students provided information on a subject that they chose and provided handouts for everyone. We learned about different architectural styles, ages of buildings, what contributed to the demise to the first subway and to the Pacific Electric Railway, and what is currently going on to revitalize that area. Los Angeles was founded in 1781, and in the 1870s, Los Angeles was a village of approximately 5,000 inhabitants. By 1900, there were over 100,000 occupants in the city. Today downtown Los Angeles is composed of different areas ranging from a fashion district to a skid row, and it is the hub of the city's Metro rapid transit system. Banks, department stores and movie palaces at one time drew residents and visitors into the area, but the district declined economically and suffered a downturn for decades until its recent renaissance starting in the early 2000s: Old buildings are being modified for new uses, and skyscrapers have been built. Downtown Los Angeles is known for its government buildings, parks, theaters and other public places. There are five things that I have learned about Los Angeles; that John Parkinson was the major architect that gave Los Angeles new life, that the automobile was responsible for the demise of many businesses, of the 200 buildings that John Parkinson built that 50 still remain today, Saint Vincent Jewelry Center is still housed in a large 1923 building that was once a theater owned by Warner Brothers, and that Bunker Hill was an effort to revitalize downtown Los Angeles. John Parkinson was the dominant architect over that time period when L.A.