viewfromaloft

View From a Bike: 4th Street Bridge During CicVIALA

HEADSHOT: During CicVIAla, Will "Wildbell" Campbell attached a camera to his helmet -- or some part of his body -- and came back with some great photos of his ride, including this shot heading into Downtown via the 4th Street Bridge and Arts District. The other 72 photos, including a spill,  are in his flickr steam CicLAvia No. 4 (April 15, 2012) [view]

Photo Tour of the Los Angeles River Profiled at KPCC

Olympic Boulevard Viaduct by Ed Fuentes, taken during an Urban Photo Adventures tour April 2009.

The Los Angeles River is easily a favorite photo-op for professional and amateurs, and a major stop for the Urban Photo Adventure tour as led by former location scouts Mark Indig and Ken Habe. Also helping organize the safari is Maria Lopez. Their recent L.A. River Tour is profiled at  KPCC with video.

The day-long tours begin in the lush, woodsy part of the river near Altadena, where it looks more like the idyllic waterway it once was. Traveling by bus, the tour usually ends downtown, where Indig and Haber show visitors the unique sights along the river’s cement-paved, grittier portion. The tour travels through diverse neighborhoods, running into the occasional transient or tagger. For many of the attendees, being part of a group provided a feeling of safety when visiting parts of the city they wouldn’t normally venture to on their own.

When I took the tour,  a stop included a 100 year old shipyard in San Pedro. The next outing is a full day in the desert with their Salton Sea Photo Tour and Workshop (dates to be announced).

Urban Adventure Tours [view]

 

Downtown Vid Pick: 'LA NOIRE'

Arts District's 4th Street Bridge makes gamer lore (screen shot from L.A. Noire).

L.A. Noire is the Rockstar Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game that has teased gamers like a haughty femme fatale . . . .promising a good time without a real confession. Right now, there is only a promise of a Spring release date.

Based in 1947 Los Angeles, the clips and trailers show off the groundbreaking facial animation, and research of the genre that relies on location for mood. "There are countless nods to film noir if you're a true fan, and the game was inspired by a massive range of film and literature spreading across eras," says Rockstar's Brendan McNamara. "We were inspired by everything from the Naked City, which invented the police procedural, through to more obscure movies like Detour and more modern Noir like Chinatown or L.A. Confidential."

For our survey, you have to like this cameo of the 4th Street Bridge.

 

 

A Quick Walk Over the Bridges*

City Council will be asked to declare the eleven Downtown bridges that cross the Los Angeles River as historical-cultural landmarks. One of them, the First Street Bridge, is about to be closed this month for a phase of Gold Line Extension and is being put back together carefully.  Others may be be doing so well, says the LAT:

The move comes as the city is undertaking a bridge-improvement program that will affect six of the river bridges. The impending upgrades have lent a sense of urgency to those who think that the structures deserve special status.

On and On

Bridge still life.

The bridges of Los Angeles

In 2000 The Los Angeles River Bridges Historical Project completed a set of drawings to archive backstory on L.A.'s Bureau of Engineering seismic retrofitting of fifteen bridges, including the twelve that cross the Los Angeles River. The Bureau of Engineering has that overview posted online with the drawings, elevations and some bridge factoids, helpful if you want to pick a bridge to do a photo essay on your own personal tour. Some of the bridges you can find illustratedare after the jump: