Grand Hope Park | Los Angeles Conservancy
Photo by Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy

Grand Hope Park

Designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, this 2.5 acre park incorporates the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising campus to create a unique landscape for downtown's South Park community. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency, Grand Hope Park was created to be the center of a new redevelopment project, which included retail and residential spaces.

Grand Hope Park was designed as a collection of “outdoor rooms” each being formed by the use of trees, fountains, sculptures, and walk ways. The park includes a large water feature, a children’s playground, and spaces for community gatherings. The park is also a site for local artwork. The clock tower at the entrance was designed by Halprin. The other works in the park were designed by various Californian artists including Lita Albuquerque, Raul Guerrero, Ralph McIntosh, Gwynn Murrill, and Adrian Saxe.

Grand Hope Park is the last downtown Los Angeles landscape designed by Halprin. The park is also the final landscape along the Los Angeles Open Space Network. Other sites in the network are Wells Fargo Center, Bunker Hill Steps, and the Central Library's Maguire Gardens. 

Photo by Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy

Bunker Hill Steps

The ties between downtown L.A. and its Bunker Hill origins have been tenuous at best. The Bunker Hill Steps, built in 1989, aimed to remedy that.
Hollywood Boulevard east of Highland Avenue, near the parade's starting point. Photo by Laura Dominguez/L.A. Conservancy

Christopher Street West / L.A. Pride Parade

Christopher Street West spearheaded the world's first LGBTQ pride parade in Hollywood in 1970.
Photo by Robert Mangurian

Gagosian Art Gallery and Apartments

From the street it's hard to see the splendor of this nondescript, industrial-looking building—that is, until you spy an aerial view revealing its secret heart: a circular interior courtyard, wholly open to the sky.