Los Angeles: Day to Night on Broadway

It began as “normal” day, meeting up with a friend I’d not seen in months. We had scheduled a lunch date and a time to rove around downtown and explore the city into the early evening hours.

Little did we know that an average-seeming day would bring us to stumble upon a bizarre and unexpected street festival–A Night on Broadway.

But first, after eating at Public School 213, I dragged my friend up to the John Ferraro building–home to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Around the structure, there is a reflecting pool which beautifully mirrors the city skyline. The site has become a place of peaceful contemplation, which I had wanted to share with her.

Evening begins to fall over the downtown Los Angeles skyline as viewed from the John Ferraro building’s reflecting pool platform.

The sky dims and Los Angeles is reflected in a shallow pool surrounding the John Ferraro building.

A sculpture seems to float in the John Ferraro reflection pool located atop the facility’s parking structure.

The building is a somewhat energy efficient structure and the recirculating water in the reflecting pool is used in emergency situations and during scheduled outages to cool LADWP’s computer system, according to an Off-Ramp article. It is also filled with some recycled water from the building’s air conditioning system.

Not pictured: ground-level solar panels which serve to provide some of the building’s electricity.

A neat place for those who care about the planet’s resources to spend a few minutes.

We then roved over to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Broad Museum to capture some different light settings as the sun fell deeper below the horizon.

This area of town is almost always bustling, yet never feels completely overcrowded as can some of the other city sidewalks. The result is a really clean, safe and cultured feel to a walk, which can become addicting. It’s come to be one of my favorite areas to spend time while taking classes at USC.

A pedestrian waits to cross the street as he looks toward Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Night lighting and a light-polluted evening sky create dynamic hues on the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s stainless steel exterior.

Light and shadow create effortlessly interesting images of the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s angular, convex and concave surfaces.

A light-polluted sky gently illuminates the stainless steel panels of the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Night lighting strikes the surface of the Broad museum.

From there we descended the huge hill that is Grand Avenue. Passing by the L.A. Public LIbrary, I captured the below shot on accident. It’s another one of my favorites. I really enjoy mistakes when it comes to photography. Who says you’ve always got to be perfect? I find almost all the character in life is found in delicate flaws.

We ventured into the Biltmore hotel during the descent, which merits a stop to look at the detail on the ceilings and wall pillars. It’s a beautiful and classic venue I was glad to stumble into.

May I recommend twirling beneath one of the chandeliers while admiring its details?

And after a quick restroom break, into another world we went as we crossed the barrier into Broadway.

Suddenly we were in a circus-like environment where all of L.A.’s color collided into one street. It felt almost Vegas-like in a very L.A. type of fashion. The crowd ranged from tiny youngsters to 60-somethings wandering wide-eyed.

Night lighting illuminates the Los Angeles Spring Arcade Building.

A small ferris wheel decorates Broadway at 5th Street.

Pedestrians walk up 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles, toward Broadway.

friends and strangers walk up 5th Street toward the Night on Broadway festivities in downtown Los Angeles as the lights of a ferris wheel and blinking traffic lights reflect in storefront windows.

A Spring Arts Tower shoppe-front window has an appealing display that welcomes passers-by.

A man enjoys his ride on the ferris wheel at A Night on Broadway.

An ornate Broadway building reflects the light of a nearby street lamp.

The shadows of passers-by become a momentary piece of art.

An artist parks his canvas at the corner of Broadway and 5th in downtown Los Angeles.

A neon street sign dimly lights up the ornate details of a Broadway theater.

Event-goers stroll down the blocked off street taking in the sights of the festivities.

A little boy struggling with a single hula hoop looks on attentively as a woman prepares to perform using multiples.

I found myself grinning ear-to-ear and feeling a bit like Pinocchio on Pleasure Island as I took snap after snap.

I felt privileged to recognize that I live in a town with so much personality that on any given night these types of environments exist.

At events like these, it’s such a neat sensation to have the opportunity to see the world through the pieces of it that all of our diverse population bring to it.

Going from an everyday experience of walking through a familiar town and having it transform unexpectedly in front of my own eyes within just minutes, I was reminded that nothing is ever truly ordinary.

I may not be able to travel right now, but Los Angeles has plenty still to offer as I continue to ramble on.