City in a City: Designing Downtown LA's Second Renaissance

Harvard GSD

Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is emblematic of contemporary urban design’s complexity and opportunity. How can an existing district be redesigned, adapted, and developed for today and tomorrow?Amid an expanse of dingbat apartments and strip malls, downtown Los Angeles is a paradox: a dense icon for a city it largely does not resemble. Yet DTLA is where the city gathers, celebrates, and drives economic development, with offices, hotels, schools, museums, dining, and roughly 90,000 residents…