When it comes to civic gathering places, bigger and newer aren’t always better. A look at L.A.’s disconnected cathedrals, concert halls, museums and malls.
Certain downtown districts are undergoing their own version of mansionization. In Los Angeles, the $189 million Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels complex has just opened. It will be joined a year from now by the $260 million Walt Disney Concert Hall. Both are highly theatrical architectural statements from a pair of Pritzker-winners: The Cathedral is designed by Jose Raphael Moneo, and Disney Hall is by Frank Gehry... Despite evidence that grand buildings alone cant revitalize their downtowns, city planners and cultural institutions still tend to rely on them, perhaps precisely because they make such dramatic statements.
Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan
FULL STORY: The Mansionization of Downtowns
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Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA)
Ada County Highway District
Charles County Government
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland