At the dawn of the 1960s, Los Angeles lacked a true city skyline. A longstanding 13-story height restriction, in…
Nathan Masters's posts
Nathan Masters
nathanmasters
Before 1948, there was something funny about the Southland's electricity. Plug in a clock from New York and it would…
Had one of Tomorrowland's flying saucers gone missing? When the Anaheim Convention Center's arena opened in the…
That's some serious military hardware parading down city streets, but no, this isn't Moscow's Red Square—it's Long…
Trolleys once rivaled the crashing surf in the soundscape of Southland beaches. Along much of the Southern…
How could the Angels call any place but Los Angeles their home? After all, the club's name directly referred to…
As twilight faded over Pasadena on September 9, 1894, an artificial sun flickered to life for the first time. High…
Rising conspicuously above the red-tile roofs and big-box stores of suburban Tustin, California, these two massive…
Orange County, California, hardly lives up to its name1 anymore. A few relict orchards may survive, but today the…
Its promoters billed it as an exceptional housing tract—buried utility lines, curving concrete roads, and a hilltop…
Viewed from this unfamiliar angle and in the infrared rather than visible spectrum, Los Angeles reveals itself in…
Like some of the very people who drive on them, a few Los Angeles streets have achieved the height of fame. Sunset…
Walt Disney didn't set out to revolutionize urban design when he created Disneyland—that's what his Experimental…
Many of us can sympathize with this fan palm in Pasadena, which in its roller-coaster youth apparently struggled to…
HOLLYWOODLAND's voice was not alone. Other hillsides also spoke. Across Los Angeles in the 1920s, signs announced…
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Is the L.A. of 2014 driving around on a road network built for the L.A. of the 1980s? That's one conclusion two…
The message was clear: Los Angeles was not afraid to reshape its urban form to accommodate the automobile. Over the…
If we really are witnessing the dawn of a "new golden age of train travel," there are few better places to see it…
Looking at photos of the Hollywood Sign in its early years is a little like seeing the Statue of Liberty with a…
Can you blame the U.S. Geological Survey for having a bit of fun when when it mapped Disneyland?