Downtown L.A. Panorama

Downtown L.A. Panorama (a Flickr photoset)

Last Thursday was an amazingly clear day in Los Angeles -- not a cloud in the sky, hardly any smog. Credit for this beautiful day belongs to the same Santa Ana winds that (sadly) have been responsible for the recent outbreak of wildfires in Southern California.

On such a day, I was compelled to take some photographs from the Los Angeles County Hall of Records, the building in which I work. I was able to take photographs in every direction from the balconies on the 13th and 15th floors. While I've posted the best 16 to my space on Flickr, I'd like to share 10 of them here:

Looking southeast from the 13th floor balcony -- City Hall at left, with the Caltrans Building at its right

Also looking southeast from the 13th floor balcony -- the Caltrans Building at left, with the Los Angeles Times Building at its right

Looking south from the 13th floor balcony towards the Downtown Los Angeles skyline of the Bunker Hill Financial District

Looking down from the 13th floor balcony in a westerly direction at the "Civic Center Mall," a large but underutilized park that is slated to be redeveloped (see Bunker Hill Park, a "team blog" I've joined but have yet to post to)

Looking west from the 13th floor balcony across the "Civic Center Mall" towards the Music Center and the Water and Power Building

Looking northwest from the 15th floor balcony -- the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Park Observatory can be seen at center -- for the record, I can't remember ever being able to see these landmarks from the Hall of Records before

Looking northwest from the 15th floor balcony -- the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels is at center

Looking northeast from the 15th floor balcony -- the tower on the near right is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority headquarters building

Looking northeast from the 13th floor balcony -- the Hall of Justice is at center -- this historic building was severly damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and was deemed unsafe for human occupation soon after, but Los Angeles County plans to retrofit and remodel the building and reopen it in the next few years

Looking east from the 13th floor down Temple Street, showing some of the buildings in the Los Angeles Civic Center, the largest concentration of government employees (City, County, State, Federal) outside of Washington, D.C.

Downtown L.A. Panorama (a Flickr photoset)