2013 Started a New Chapter in L.A.'s Story

"When I arrived in Los Angeles nine years ago, the city had just begun to turn away from a largely private urbanism and toward a new embrace of the public realm," writes Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the Los Angeles Times. "But the trend lines have only thickened over time, and it was in 2013 that they converged in a definitive way."

"High-level debate over the future of the L.A. River; new parks in Santa Monica and downtown L.A.; exhibitions at the Getty and elsewhere that highlighted our architectural heritage; the election of Eric Garcetti as mayor and his early initiatives; victories for preservation in Beverly Hills and elsewhere; progress on planned subway and light-rail lines and designs for an expanded Union Station: All contributed this year to the sense that L.A. has crossed a major divide and entered new civic territory."