Does Los Angeles lack history?
Los Angeles is significantly more carefree of its history, the panelists noted. It has always imagined itself as the city of the future, the city of “progress with a capital p,” Hise said. Since the mid-19th century it has envisioned itself as the capital of the Pacific Rim. “[L.A. Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa is the last person in one hundred years to make the claim about being the capital of the Pacific Rim,” he said. Like Berlin, Los Angeles is considered a city formed by creative destruction, but Los Angeles also saves more than it might seem. “Every epic of building is on the ground in place,” he said. “You see the moment frozen in time. It is an interesting lab for urbanism.” Sherman agreed, noting in Q&A Sherman agreed, noting that West Hollywood apartments mimic New York — built to draw young actors in the last century — and that Culver City was built in part as a studio back lot. He added in Q&A that overlay zones keep neighborhoods looking as they did at a certain point in the
