The following walking tour itinerary was originally posted on October 12, 2012 and then updated on July 9, 2015. It provides some interesting insights on some of the city’s most iconic and classic architectural buildings in downtown LA, so thought we would share it here. Enjoy!

From discoverlosangeles.com – October 12, 2012
You can begin this walking tour at Downtown L.A.’s Union Station. The last of the great rail stations (opened in 1939) and carefully restored to its full glamour, Union Station is a romantic blend of Spanish Mission, Moorish and Streamline Moderne elements.

The culmination of over two decades of planning, Union Station embodies the excitement, promise, and wide-open spaces of Southern California in the early and mid-twentieth century.

The grand opening of the John and Donald Parkinson-designed train station was celebrated with a three-day extravaganza attended by nearly half a million people.

The vast and extraordinary spaces now serve as station to the city’s Metro Rail lines, and once again tens of thousands of people course through the building every day. In the mid-1990s, an intermodal transit center and twenty-eight-story office tower was added on the east side of Union Station.

These additions draw on the 1939 station for inspiration, interpreting the vast spaces and southwestern colors in a new way, and incorporating the work of many different artists as part of the public spaces.

Up next… LA Central Public Library