April 23, 2018
Until recently the tallest building in Los Angeles(and west of Chicago) was the US Bank tower(formerly the First Interstate Bank tower). The new Wilshire Grand building is now technically taller due to a spire on it. A couple of years ago a company opened up what’s called SkySpace on the 69th and 70th floors that even includes a plexiglass slide on the outside of the building between the two floors. I’ve been wanting to go up there but the cost was a bit prohibitive when the first opened(about $35), but they do have an annual pass that makes it much more affordable. So I finally bought the annual pass on-line and took the train downtown to visit. You take two elevators up to the 70th floor and walk down stairs to the 69th floor(or you could take the skyslide). They have two open patios(lined in plexiglass) on the east and west side of the building and windows that allow for a 360 degree view. Shooting through windows(or the plexiglass) does present some problems with reflections, but I shot close and straight to eliminate them, but that does lead to a bit less flexibility as far a composition.
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Echo Park
I’ve shot pictures of Downtown LA from Echo Park fairly often, but I’ve never really been able to shoot a picture of Echo Park from above since it’s usually behind a hill. A very short historical note: LA had planned for 4 reservoirs north, south, east and west of the young city. The east(Eastlake in Lincoln Park), west(the lake in MacArthur Park) and north(the lake in Echo Park) were built, but the south lake never was.
