Tikkabik

So I'm staying a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, in the Bunker Hill area (we have one of those in Boston, too). As a business hotel, the place I'm staying at is near the large financial buildings you see in skyline shots of LA.

Although a little further south is dominated by small, old buildings and a rather run-down but heavily trodden area, but this part of the city is pristine and very corporate. I had a chance to take a walk this evening and was struck by the really austere beauty of the place -- despite the fact that's all totally manufactured, the few blocks around this hotel are really well pieced together to allow people to enjoy open space, which is odd, since these enormous skyscrapers rise into the sky.

Right outside my window and a couple of stories down is the MOCA -- the Museum of Contemporary Art -- and right up the street is the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by famed architect Frank Geary. It's quite an impressive site when you can see it from the surrounding hotels and high-rise towers, but even more so when you're standing on the curb near it.

The places I walked all had these geometric, open areas filled with shops and stores and restaurants that cater to the daytime businesspeople and travelers. The open areas, however, are these vast expanses of marble, stone and concrete, lush with green vegetation in carefully cultivated beds, many of them surrounded by or accented by long reflecting pools, fountains and other waterworks. Great place to get in some walking exercise with the iPod.