I would love to do that! I need some advanced notice to get a Saturday off work, tho.......

Here's what I've found for April 10, 2010. I haven't gotten any push back on that date so I'll press ahead with it.

Summary: There are three good walking tours on that date, all starting at 10 a.m.
http://www.laconservancey.org

- Art Deco
- Historic Core
- Downtown Renaissance

- Options are:

a) Stay in one big group or split into smaller groups to go on separate tours.

-- If we stay in one group then we will probably have to make special arrangements but might get our own custom tour.

-- If we split up then there are even more options for individuals such as hanging around Union Station/Olvera St. and self guided tours of the many interesting parts of the downtown area.

b) Travel down and back has been suggested by Metrolink but personal cars and other methods are also available.

- I would like your feedback on these, there's only six weeks to finalize this, get the word out, and make it happen.

Details:

- Tours: There are actually four walking tours scheduled for that day but I spoke with Annie, the tour leader, and she said that the Broadway tour would not be good for photography because too much of it is indoors where many of the businesses don't allow cameras. The other three work well for photographers (she's worked with many photo clubs) but tripods are discouraged because of the pace of the tours and the limited space on the sidewalks. The Art Deco tour, she said, is probably the best because they often stop in front of buildings and spend some time talking about the architecture and art work.

-- Art Deco:
--- Length: 2-2.5 hours, 1.5 miles
--- Starts at Pershing Square
--- Cost: $10/adult

-- Historic Core:
--- Length: 2.5 hours, 1.5 miles
--- Starts at Pershing Square
--- Cost $10/adult

-- Downtown Renaissance:
--- Length 2 3/4 hours, 1 1/4 miles
--- Starts at Main and 4th
--- Cost is $10/adult

-- Union Station/Olvera St:
--- Self guided
--- Historic Union Station (Google Images "union station los angeles&quot
--- Olvera St. with it's square, historic buildings, shops, restaurants (Google images "olvera st los angeles&quot

-- Other
--- Walt Disney Concert Hall
--- Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
--- Many other interesting and impressive sights

- Transportation:

-- Metrolink:
--- Leaves Palmdale at 6:49 a.m. and arrives at Union Station at 8:35 a.m., plenty of time to get to your starting point. Round trip fare is $16.25.
http://www.metrolinktrains.com/schedules/

--- There are trains/busses to Pershing Square which are free with your Metrolink ticket. The Downtown Renaissance tour starts only a few blocks from there.

--- The Saturday return Metrolink leaves Union Station at 2:45 p.m. and arrives at Palmdale at 4:40 p.m.

--- If these times/arrangements are not to your liking the LA Conservancy can validate your parking so you pay only $5. An additional alternative is to make arrangements so that you can take the Metrolink down with the group (there are some interesting photography opportunities on the trip) then ride back with someone, but you'll have to work that out yourselves.

- Proposed Itinerary:

-- Take the Metrolink down.
-- Split into different tours.
-- Meet back at Olvera St. about 1 p.m.to eat, chat, and take photos.
-- Wander around Ovlera St. until time to catch the Metrolink back.

Conclusion:

-- It's a long day (about 10 hours) but there's enough to see and photograph to satisfy almost anyone.
-- You'll get to photograph architecture, art, street scenes and people, culture, city life, and more.
-- By chatting with other participants and looking at what they photographed you'll have a better feel for what's available to the photographer in LA
-- You'll be more confident about scheduling your own trip/tour to downtown LA.

Let me know what you think.

Glenn Olson
<!-- e --><a href="mailto:glenn@glenn-olson.com">glenn@glenn-olson.com</a><!-- e -->
816-8278

Here is the Word file for handout which will be distributed at the meeting tonight.

http://www.glenn-olson.com/photos/bucket/deco2.doc

Here ya go..................................................................... (OCR)



Last of the Great Railway Stations
Tours of Los Angeles landmark offer glimpse into citys transportation past.

by Jim Skeen
Valley Press Business Editor

As new members of the Los Angeles Conservancy, my fiancee and I were offered a free walking tour of Los Angeles Union Station — a chance to see one of the city's great jewels upclose.

Opened in 1939, Union Station is simply one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Los Angeles and has been described as &quot;the last of the great railway stations.&quot; For someone seeing it for the first time, it is a jaw-dropping experience.



&quot;It is just a magnificent thing,&quot; said Anne Laskey, program manager at the conservancy. &quot;L.A. doesn't have many grand spaces, but this is one of them. It has a sense of spaciousness and grandeur.&quot;

Over 1,000 people a year take the conservancy's tour of the station, which has been offered since 1991. The docents work from a script Laskey helped develop, but each brings their own interest to the tour, whether railroad history, sociology or Los Angeles history.

&quot;Each docent brings their own voice to the tour — which is a good thing,&quot; Laskey said. &quot;They will bring to it their own sense of history.&quot;

We met up with our tour group in the station's south patio and our guide led us out to view the station's main entrance. Designed by John and Donald Parkinson, the same father-and-son team that designed the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the station is a mix of Spanish Colonial Revival, art deco and Moorish architecture, disparate styles blended together in a sublime manner.

The facade is Spanish Colonial, looking very much like the California missions with its red tile roofs,smooth white plaster walls and arched windows. The Moorish influences can been seen in the clock tower, high-arched windows and an eight-pointed star desig^jf: at the entrance — a symbol, our guide pointed out, repeated in other portions of the structure.

The art deco elements are first seen in the Union Station marquee over the entrance, with its emphasis on horizontal lines, giving it a sense of movement. Horizontal and zig-zag art deco lines are seen throughout&quot; the interior of the station.

The station's construction was marked with controversy, our guide said. It was created to consolidate three railroads, which had their own depots and their own maze of rail lines through streets, clogging the city's burgeoning traffic.

But the station was fought by the railroads, each wanting to retain their own stations, resulting in several years of litigation that was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The location selected for the station was then the heart of Chinatown, which mean families and businesses had to be uprooted, many with little notice. A boundary line marking where the community once was has since been incorporated into one of the station's patios.

As we approached the main entrance, our guide asked us to imagine being a visitor in the 1940s — perr haps a serviceman coming into the city or about to head east for an assignment. In the 1940s, the station was bustling with rail passengers; many of them servicemen.

&quot;It was designed as the gateway to Los Angeles,&quot; Las-key said. &quot;This would have been their (passengers') first encounter with Los Angeles. This is how L.A. would have greeted you.&quot;

To the visitor's left is the ticket concourse, no longer in use except for movie and wedding rentals. The room is still grand with a high ceiling 52 feet up with beams painted to look like wood. There are six 10-foot-diame-ter, 3,000-pound chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

The 115-foot-long walnut ticket counter is still there, a ghost of the station's heydays.

The 140-foot-long waiting room is remarkably quiet despite its cavernous size, thanks to acoustic tiling. In the tour program, the conservancy describes the room as featuring a wainscot of multi-colored Spanish tile below panels of sienna-colored travertine, punctuated by small ornamental tiles.

The red tile floor is highlighted by a marble pathway laid in geometric patterns down a centerline, which guides visitors through the station.

&quot;It's a warm kind of architecture,&quot; Laskey said. &quot;It's a place you want to stay awhile.&quot;

The station is in terrific shape for its age, Laskey said. In the 1970s, when its use declined, it benefitted from being ignored. By the time its use starting building back up, thanks to Metrolink and the city's Metro rail system, there was a growing awareness of preservation.

The condition of the building has benefitted from steady ownership. Its owner, Catellus, is a real estate arm of the railroads that the station originally served.

Gatellus has been respectful of the building's past. During a major renovation a few years back, the company left the ticket concourse intact. The company did take down a wall of gateways, but retained a couple of them so visitors could see how the structure once looked. Marquees added to the parking lot were done in an art deco style that mirrored the station's architecture.

Public art highlights the tour stop at the east portal to the station. Above an escalator that leads to the train and subway concourse is a work that appears to be nothing more than moving slats of light.

But if a visitor looks long enough, the work appears to be a moving train with famous passengers, including movie stars, Vincent Van Gogh and George Washington, looking out the windows.

At the bottom of the escalator is a mural depiciting travelers in the region over the centuries, from Spanish explorers to stagecoach passengers to actress Carole Lombard sitting on a suitcase.

At one end of the east portal lobby is a giant aquarium with historical figures etched into the glass, one of them appearing to be James Dean. The aquarium holds sea life found off the California coast.

Also in the lobby is a work honoring the city's history, a bench that incorporates a symbolic meandering Los Angeles River in its design. At one end is a &quot;mountain&quot; made of artifacts of the original Chinatown found during excavation work, including bottles, crockery and even a set of false teeth.

Our tour was capped with a peek inside the former Harvey House restaurant, which, like the ticket concourse, is now closed, except for movie and wedding rentals, and is very much a symbol of bygone days.

The restaurant was designed by Mary Goiter, whom biographer Arnold Berke described as &quot;the best known unknown architect in the a world.&quot; Like the station, the restaurs rant has Spanish Colonial and art £ deco elements, but it also reflects Colter's interest in the American Southwest with the floor tile resembling a Navajo rug.

The main room is dominated by a U-shaped bar. Our guide points out that the spots where stools were once fastened can still be seen on the floor around the bar.

To the side is another bar and a series of booths, each with a mirror on the wall, arranged in an asymmetric pattern. It is possible, our guide said, to find a spot at the end of the booths where a person's reflection would be seen in every mirror. Unfortunately, he was not able to find it.



The Harvey House restaurant stopped operating in the 1960s. Today's passengers can find food at a couple of snack bars or, for those unafraid to let some sunshine into their wallets, the fabulous Traxx restaurant.

Got the bug yet?
Visit http://www.lpaphotography.org/Calendar/ClubEvents/fieldtrips/04GrandStation/index.html

FYI - Lee and I will be getting on the train at the Lancaster station. We'll phone Glenn to let him know what car we end up on. We just didn't want to drive all the way to Palmdale, when the Lancaster station is just 3 miles down the Blvd. So for those in Lancaster who wish to do the same, come join us.

Most of the photos Deborah, Julia, and I submitted didn't get posted on the LPA web site but if you're interested you can find them on my web site at http://www.glenn-olson.com/photos/blogs/laft/laft.htm.

I don't have a location for photos by Lee and Terri.