Rolling Through the ‘70s: A Weekend in Los Angeles

Follow this guide for a far out road trip to the 1970s! Available now until December 31, 2023.

Key Information

Format: Self-guided tour booklet. Includes three driving tour itineraries to be taken at your own pace.

Start Time: There is no start time or date for this event. The tours in this guide are self-guided, without any onsite involvement from the L.A. Conservancy.

Length: Guidebook contains over thirty 1970s era sites to visit and read about. Over one hour of recorded interviews and discussions with 1970s activists and experts is also included.

Cost: $15 general public, $10 Conservancy members and youth seventeen and under.

Self-guided Driving Tour

Rolling Through the ‘70s: A Weekend in Los Angeles

Sunday, December 31, 2023 - 11:30pm Register

About the Event
Getting There

Put on your bell bottoms, and grab your platform shoes for this self-guided driving tour through ‘70s L.A.

The ‘70s were a time of change and experimentation, especially in Los Angeles. New architectural styles, clothing trends, and cultural movements emerged, pushing the boundaries of the status quo. Today, architecturally and culturally significant sites associated with the decade remain throughout Los Angeles County. This '70s focus guidebook is the most radical way to see firsthand why buildings from this era matter and must be protected for future generations.

Rolling Through the ‘70s features a weekend-full itinerary of places to see, legacy restaurants to try, and businesses to visit. Three separate tour itineraries will lead you to historic 1970s buildings and businesses in locations ranging from Westchester to Burbank. Each itinerary includes recommendations of legacy restaurants to try along your route. The self-guided tours cover all aspects of the '70s from the era's grassroots activism to its often-divisive architectural styles. The guidebook also includes recorded interviews and discussions with 1970s activists and architectural experts, to give you more context around the sites that you are seeing.

Rolling Through the ‘70s: A Weekend in Los Angeles includes:

Digital guide (PDF format)
Three driving tour itineraries, containing over thirty 1970s era sites
Over one hour of digital audio files featuring commentaries by experts in ‘70s architecture, business owners, and community activists
Digital playlist of ‘70s music to set the mood

Can you dig it?

There is no start time or date for this event. The tours in this guide are self-guided, without any onsite involvement from the L.A. Conservancy.

All participants in the Los Angeles Conservancy-sponsored Walking Tours knowingly and freely accept and assume all risks, both known and unknown, and AGREE TO RELEASE, DEFEND, INDEMNIFY, NOT SUE, AND HOLD HARMLESS the Los Angeles Conservancy, its principals, officers, employees, volunteers, sponsors, agents and other participants from any and all claims, damages (including medical expenses and attorneys’ fees), injuries and expenses arising out of, or resulting from your voluntary attendance/participation in Walking Tours.

Featured Location(s)

Photo by Michael Locke

Willis Fagan

Frank Thornton

George C. Page Museum (La Brea Tar Pits)

The George C. Page Museum has the rare architectual distinction of housing and exhibiting paleontological discoveries from the very site on which it sits--the La Brea Tar Pits.

Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy

Barton Choy

Barton Choy Residence

Sitting one address apart in Silver Lake, these two wooden plank-paneled houses' acute angles, use of steep lots, and dramatic façades proclaim the work of innovative architect Barton Choy.

Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Cesar Pelli

Victor Gruen Associates

Norma Merrick Sklarek

Pacific Design Center

At once beloved and reviled by its neighbors, the Pacific Design Center is an enormous landmark that arose in three major stages: Center Blue, Center Green and Center Red.

Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Charles Luckman Associates

Robert Herrick Carter

Inglewood Civic Center

Inglewood's twenty-nine-acre Civic Center aimed to increase mobility in the area for both pedestrians and cars, and create landscaped open space in the heart of the city.