Virtual Field Trip Alternative Assignment:Downtown Los Angeles

Students who are unable to attend the class field trip this semester can still get credit for the trip by completing the following web-based assignment. Simply visit the on-line Downtown Los Angeles Walking Tour offered by USC's Department of Geography, and answer the following questions. This make-up assignment is due the last day of class.

1. Still standing in Downtown LA are two old hotels that were prominent destinations for the rich and famous during their hey day. One was completed in 1870, the other in 1923. What are these hotels called, and where are they located?

2. What specialty retail district is located south/southwest of Pershing Square? What specialty retail district is located next to Skid Row?

3. Which subregion contains the country's largest concentration of government employees outside Washington, DC? Name at least five different governmental or cultural institutions that are headquartered in the region.

4. What are the names of the seven downtown subregions around which the tour is based? Which freeways, together with the LA River, effectively set the boundaries of Downtown, and which one of the seven downtown subregions exists outside of these freeway-based boundaries?

5. How old is Los Angeles? When was it first established as a permanent settlement?

6. What was the tallest building in Los Angeles between 1928 and the early 1960s? What building near Staples Center was the first modern skyscraper in Los Angeles, constructed after the 150-foot height limit was removed in the late 1950s?

7. Parts of the movie Blade Runner were filmed in the remarkable interior of what historic building downtown?
 
8. In what subregion can you find old theaters and department stores, many of which have been converted into discount stores catering primarily to a Spanish-speaking, immigrant population?

9. What/where is the tallest building between Chicago and Hong Kong? When was it built, and how is it related to the Central Public Library?

10. Historic Angels Flight railway connects which downtown neighborhoods?