GLORIOUS DOWNTOWN L.A.
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Downtown L.A. has long been underrated but there are an increasing number of reasons to go to there, including a much heralded concert hall that will open on Oct. 23 with a Los Angeles Philharmonic gala.

Backers hope the new hall will become an instantly recognizable icon that will put L.A. on the map as a place to be taken seriously for more than cinema. Whether or not this happens, there’s no doubt that the Walt Disney Concert Hall isn’t Mickey Mouse.

Flamboyant and thrilling, the Frank Gehry-designed building seems just right for L.A., and is one of several arresting new buildings and many remarkable old ones in the downtown area.

The new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, just down the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall, is also architecturally stunning as are the opulent pre-World War II movie palaces a few blocks away — the largest assemblage of these vintage theatres in the United States.

And then there's the light-filled Bradbury Building, which has figured in many movies and whose story would be worthy of a Hollywood script

. By TERESE LOEB KREUZER. With 15 photos.

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