Los Angeles Conservancy

I went on the Art Deco tour with the AMAZING CATHY COLDWATER last weekend — not to be missed! Cathy was phenomenal: friendly, engaging, extremely knowledgeable and passionate about architecture and preservation. Arguably the most interesting and enjoyable 2 hours I’ve spent in LA since moving here 2 years ago.

One of the best organizations out there. Become a member! It’s only 40 bucks and you get deals on their amazing tours. Plus, you’re supporting a great cause.
LA is rich in architectural history and the LA Conservancy fights everyday to protect it.
Great company and if you love random bits of information about LA, art and architecture, take the tours. I know many tourists often do these things but for locals, we should know and appreciate our great city. I hope I can work for this organization one day.

Just because we don’t live on the East Coast doesn’t mean that we don’t have historic places to preserve. Hots off to the conservancy to stepping up to the plate and doing their best to preserve our famous city. This city has a lot to offer even out grandchildren. There are plenty of tours to take and other things to do to get to know the city you love so much. This is what needs to be in our history books at school. Our children need to see the history of our beloved state. For the price of a membership, it is well worth it and you can be a part of history in the making. Thank you for preserving our great history.

This organization is keeping Los Angeles grounded in its history and helping to preserve iconic structures and historical buildings. Without organizations like this we’d have the most bland skyline and personality. When you think about revitalization, you should think preservation of what made this city such a fantastic place to live in and visit. When you look at old buildings and see the art– the artistic talent that went into creating them– you gain an appreciation for the artisans of yesteryear. We need to support the LA Conservancy so we don’t end up living in a concrete jungle.
Their programs are fantastic! Walking tours focused on specific types of architecture and The Last Remaining Seats– movies shown in the old Broadway district downtown. Give it a try. Membership is cheap and goes for a great cause!

If you want to really dig deep into the history of Los Angeles, take a walking tour! Tourist, native or transplant, everyone can benefit from these tours. Saturday mornings they meet up at Pershing Square, find your specific walking group and get ready. I took the Historic Downtown walking tour, 2.5ish hours walking all over DTLA, into interiors of buildings, parks, LA Library, and hotels. More specifically —
— Pershing Square
— Millenium Biltmore Hotel
— Title Guarantee and Trust
— Pac Mutual
— One Bunker Hill
— LA Central Library
— Metro 417
— Million Dollar Theater
— Bradbury Building
— Grand Central Market
We get to hear about surrounding areas, like the Bunker Steps and the US Bank Tower. Some buildings on the tour you won’t be able to go into, private, but you get to stand outside and hear about it. It’s $ 10 to take these tours, you can sign up online or you can walk up to the group if it isn’t full already.

This review is specifically for the L.A. Conservancy Union Station tour. Went on a Wednesday afternoon (busy commuter time!), and would recommend that you go on a weekend instead. It got very noisy (car and people traffic sometimes) which made the tour guide hard to understand. Wonderful and very educational tour of Union Station overall though, and would highly recommend. Thank you to our tour guide Jay. Learned so much about the architectural details inside and outside Union Station. Also got the chance to go inside the original ticket counter area which is closed to the public.

Great walking tours

The Conservancy is a blessing to Los Angeles. I’ve been on two different walking tours and to many of the Last Remaining Seats events. Probably the very best cultural activity you can do in this city — or on par with the Getty. Unpaid, volunteer docents are so colorful and so knowledgeable about the city and its history. Really makes you appreciate our young-​ish town and the historic buildings that are truly worth fighting for.

This review is specifically for the Biltmore Hotel Tour. We had a wonderful time walking through this marvelous building. Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. It was amazing being able to walk around in the various rooms and take a look at the detailed craftsmanship and artistry that went into making the place.
Highly highly recommend the LA Conservancy for a more relaxed and less gaudy tours available in the city. Will definitely look into doing another tour with them in the future!

Great cause and they have wonderful volunteers that give you one of the best tours of Downtown LA less expensive and less «glitzy» then the annoying double-​deckers driving around.

Guess which city in the nation hosts the largest historic preservation organization in the Country. Boston? New York? San Francisco? Nope!
The correct answer would be Los Angeles. Specifically, it would be the Los Angeles Conservancy, which since 1978 has worked to make sure the history of the City remains in-​tact. Some non-​natives and even some native Angelenos may laugh at that idea, but it’s true — Los Angeles has history. It’s all around us, sometimes we just need someone to point it out.
If you’ve marveled at the beauty of Downtown’s Central Library, you can thank the Conservancy for that. If you you’ve spent time at St. Vibiana’s, you can thank the conservancy for that. If you’ve walked around the newly-​revitalized Eastern part of Downtown and found yourself starring up at the beautiful buildings, you can thank the conservancy for that. Ditto the Edison, LA Athletic Club, Angel’s Flight, El Capitan, and a slew of others. And their success has helped advocates throughout town win their own battles.
This doesn’t always make the LA Conservancy popular. Developers routinely fight them. Preservation advocates tell them they aren’t doing enough. Angelenos in general scratch their heads when they fight to save a building from the 1960s (like the Century Plaza Hotel in Culver City). Preservation isn’t easy! Sometimes the benefits aren’t seen for decades…
Yet, if Downtown’s revival tells us anything, historic preservation matters precisely because they aren’t thinking in the moment.
From the 1950s through the 1980s, when so much of the City was being torn down, it was because we only valued history in the context of the Eastern part of the US. Recent history and it’s associated styles — Art Deco, Craftsman, Mediterranean — were easily to look past in the name of progress. After all, the city was growing and we had to have the newest, latest and greatest. We needed big highways and parking lots because everyone needed to have a big car. Places like Bunker Hill were just, well, old-​fashioned, which is why we got rid of them to make room for just that — highways and parking lots.
Thank you, LA Conservancy, for teaching us that history is more than George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. For showing us that this town has history. Keep up the good work showing silent movies in historic theaters, giving walking tours of downtown and Angelino Heights and advocating for the buildings that can’t speak for themselves.
In return, I’ll renew my membership…

This review is for the Historic Downtown walking tour. The tour takes you through Pershing Square, Grand Central Market, and Angels Flight Railway, and takes you to (and sometimes into) the Pacific Center, the L.A. Central Library, One Bunker Hill, the Million Dollar Theatre, and the Bradbury Building.
We met our tour guide, Kay, along with about 15 others at Pershing Square.
Our tour guide pointed out that the downtown buildings could typically be classified as being air «Art Deco» or «Beaux-​Arts» styles, which were each pupular in the early 1900s. Art Deco buildings tend to be tall and pointy while the Beaux-​Arts style is associated with a more horizontal design. The Biltmore Hotel, which overlooks Pershing Square, is an example of Beaux-​Art.
One Bunker Hill was the biggest surprise of the tour. I had not heard of this place before, but it was definitely one of the top stops. The building was originally home to Southern California Edison, and contains an impressive internal design, including a number of large murals which look very impressive and likely symbolically convey something very profound.
We made our next epic stop at the Bradbury Building! The Bradbudy Building was famously featured in the movie Blade Runner, and was recently featured in the movie 500 days of Summer. (I am slightly puzzled why everyone likes the movie Blade Runner, perhaps I need to watch it again). I had seen pictures of the interior of the Bradbury Building before, but the pictures could not capture what you see when you see when you are there in person. The interior of the building contains tall rows of intricate stairs or elevators which are illuminated by the sun through the transparent ceiling. There is also a statue of Charlie Chaplin on a bench.
We also stopped by Angels Flight Railway. The railway cars go by the name «Sinai» and «Olivet». I don’t know which one we rode up on. When you get to the top you may be able to spot the famous bench from the movie «500 days of Summer». You can distinguish the 500 days of summer bench from the others by a plaque on the back. It is kind of silly.
Keep in mind that no two tours are the same, so if you go on a «Historic Downtown» tour it will be slightly different from the one that I described here. Life can be unpredictable like that.
You can read more (and see some pictures) by following the link to my blog on my profile.

After learning about the history of buildings and streets in Paris, I realized I knew less about my own city: Los Angeles. So, upon returning home, I went on a tour of downtown LA with the Los Angeles Conservancy. What a fun and informative day!
It’s amazing to learn details about the buildings that surround us — who the architects and mural artists were; why the buildings were built; the story of Los Angeles and the people who helped create this city.
On the tour, we were able to go into some of the buildings. Stunning, the details that went into every feature — from the murals, to the deco elevator doors and drinking fountains. I brought my camera and took lots of great shots.
The Conservancy is a much needed advocate for our city’s history. Too often buildings that give Los Angeles character are torn down — from Schwabb’s Pharmacy to the Malibu Colony Diner and the Ambassador Hotel, and other great architecture — The Conservancy fights to keep these buildings, and LA’s history intact.
And that’s why I became a member. I love The LA Conservancy!

This is the most amazing organization. I joined the conservancy this year and this past month I attended 3 of their «Last Remaining Seats» fundraising events for the first time. The organizers and volunteers deserve the highest commendation for making this annual classic film/​theatre restoration event simply magical. I saw «Captain Blood» at the Million Dollar Theatre, «Sunset Boulveard» at the Palace, and my favorite was «Safety Last,» the 1923 silent comedy, at the Orpheum. Before the screening of «Safety Last,» the conservancy put on a live «period show» with a 1920s mini big band, dancers, singers, and tappers. Wow! And the Wurlitzer organ accompaniment to the film was unbelievable. The organist Mr. Israel is such a talent. Kudos to all involved.
An added bonus is that the type of people these conservancy events attract are friendly, interesting, and fun to meet. I’m now a regular forever. If anyone (or organization) can bring Los Angeles’s Broadway back to its glory days, it’s the conservancy and its friends.

Really great organization with great intentions! They offer fabulous tours at really cheap prices ($ 10 for nonmembers, $ 5 for members). I went on their Art Deco tour, which was great!, on Saturday, and will be back for the Biltmore Hotel tour soon!

We went on the walking tour of the theater district yesterday. It was amazing. It’s a long time to be on one’s feet, but for what we saw and what we learned it was well worth the effort and the $ 10 fee.
We were actually able to get inside of some of the historic buildings to see for ourselves what they were. My wife felt comfortable because we went as a group. We did encounter one aggressive panhandler, but that was all. I couldn’t believe how many people were out and about in this area on a Saturday morning.

After residing in LA for almost 8 years, I had an itch to learn more about Los Angeles — the city I love & sometimes hate.
For $ 10 (non-​members), LA Conservancy provides 8 different tours for downtown LA. My date & I signed up for the 2 ½ hour Historic Core walking tour & it was AWESOME!
This tour is now at the top of my cultural things-​to-​do list. The tour mainly focused on the architecture of Pershing Square, Pacific Finance/​Pacific Mutual Bldg, Biltmore Hotel, Mayflower Hotel, So. Cal Edison Bldg, LA Central Library, Title Guarantee & Trust, Subway Terminal Bldg, Angels Flight Railway, Grand Central Market, Million Dollar Theater & the Bradbury Bldg.
Group tours are small so you can listen & follow the guides easily. Our tour ended at Angels Flight and up the hill is the bench where Zoe & Joseph meet in 500 Days of Summer.
At the risk of sounding cheesy, this tour actually gave me a greater appreciation of living in Los Angeles. It was nice to take the time to slow down & appreciate the past, present & future of LA.
As a special thank you, they give a $ 5 discount if you join the LA Conservancy — $ 35/​year. We were told that members get to participate in an Angelino Heights scavenger hunt in the fall & get to watch movies in some of downtown’s oldest theaters. If you love history & LA — their membership is a bargain!
Don’t leave LA without ever taking one of these tours!

I love this organization. So will you if you have any interest in architecture or the history of Los Angeles.
They have a variety of inexpensive walking tours that last a couple hours. One might focus on art deco in the downtown area and another might focus on the amazing historical movie theaters that align Broadway. There are many more and they are all fascinating. I promise you will learn things about L.A. and see architecture that you had no clue about. Interiors of buildings that few get to see. Go sign up for one of their walking tours!

Time for some love. This past weekend I attended a Last Remaining Seats screening of A Streetcar Named Desire at the old Los Angeles Theater on Broadway. The show began with a totally fun and entertaining-​for-​adults Merry Melodies Daffy Duck cartoon and an introduction to the movie by a Warner Bros. archivist. I’ve read the play but had never seen the movie. The mellow artsy audience, the beautiful decrepit grand dame theatre, Brando’s biceps on the big screen: there was much to enjoy.
The last screening this year will be the silent B&W film Pandora’s Box on July 1. The Conservancy is a gem of an organization that does necessary work in a city where historical preservation is not the priority it should be.

Great tours — super cheap docent-​led and self-​guided tours: Union Station, Historic Core, Art Deco, and lots of others great tours.
And, THE MOST AMAZING program ever — Last Remaining Seats — fantastic old films shown in three gorgeous old theaters on South Broadway. Fun Wednesday evenings, get your tickets for the coming season May 27 — July 1, there’s a great line up! I just got tickets to every single one of them, and now I’ve been singing tunes from Cabaret (June 10) all day!
what good is sitting alone in your room. come hear the music play! … …okay, stop singing now
I used to have a girlfriend known as Elsie, with whom I shared four sordid rooms in Chelsea. She wasn’t what you’d call a blushing flower. As a matter of fact she rented by the hour
…somebody help me, i can’t stop
THANK YOU Los Angeles Conservancy