Bunker Hill: library, steps, Angels Flight and Grand Avenue: a walk in Los Angeles

Up and over Bunker Hill: Goodhue's 1926 Central Library, Lawrence Halprin's Bunker Hill Steps, the 1901 Angels Flight funicular, then Grand Avenue's art and architecture row (MOCA, The Broad, Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall), the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Grand Park and the 1928 City Hall. Ride Angels Flight down to Grand Central Market for a detour ($1.50, $0.75 with TAP).

Best time: Late morning on a weekday or weekend (book The Broad ahead); end at Grand Park or City Hall in the afternoon

The route, stop by stop

1
Los Angeles Central Library
1926, the last work of Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue; the threat of its demolition in the 1970s led to the founding of the Los Angeles Conservancy. (LA Conservancy). 30 min.
Bertram Goodhue's 1926 library has a tiled pyramid tower, Lee Lawrie reliefs and a colorful lobby ceiling mural by Renee Petropoulos; the fight to stop its demolition in the…
2
Bunker Hill Steps
Lawrence Halprin's 1989-90 concrete stairway from Fifth St up to Hope St, built to reconnect old downtown with the rebuilt Bunker Hill (LA Conservancy). 10 min.
3
Angels Flight Railway
Funicular opened in 1901, 'the world's shortest railway', reopened 31 August 2017; runs daily 6:45am-10pm between Hill St (opposite Grand Central Market) and California Plaza (LA Conservancy; angelsflight.org). Ride down and back if you like. 10 min.
The 'shortest railway in the world', a funicular opened in 1901 with two cars named Olivet and Sinai that climb 298 feet from Hill Street to Bunker Hill; it reopened in 2017…
4
MOCA Grand Avenue
MOCA's main building on Grand Avenue near Disney Hall (Wikipedia). 45 min.
Arata Isozaki's red sandstone building is the flagship of L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art: a permanent room of Mark Rothko canvases and big rotating exhibitions of postwar and…
5
The Broad
Contemporary art museum opened 20 September 2015 for Eli and Edythe Broad's collection; general admission to the collection galleries is free, some exhibitions are paid (Wikipedia). 60 min.
Eli and Edythe Broad's honeycomb-veiled museum of 2,000-plus postwar works (Ruscha, Basquiat, Koons, Kruger, Sherman) with Yayoi Kusama's walk-in Infinity Mirrored Room, The…
6
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Frank Gehry's hall, opened 23 October 2003, home of the LA Philharmonic and LA Master Chorale, 2,265 seats (Wikipedia). 20 min.
Frank Gehry's stainless-steel sails, opened in 2003, house the LA Philharmonic and a 6,134-pipe organ whose pipes are nicknamed the French fries; outside, stairs climb along the…
7
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Mother church of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles (Wikipedia). 20 min.
Rafael Moneo's angular cathedral, dedicated in 2002 to replace St. Vibiana's after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and mother church for about five million Catholics. Inside are…
8
Gloria Molina Grand Park
12-acre civic park on the 1966 Civic Center Mall, reopened in July 2012 (Wikipedia). 15 min.
Twelve acres of lawns and fountains stepping down from the Music Center to City Hall, the civic living room of downtown, with free programming such as the summer Sunday Sessions…
9
Los Angeles City Hall Observation Deck
Completed 1928 by John Parkinson, John C. Austin and Albert C. Martin; seismically stabilised and restored (LA Conservancy). 15 min.
The white Art Deco tower of 1928 (John Parkinson and John C. Austin) was the city's tallest building for decades; its 27th-floor observation deck is the cheapest high view of…

Walking directions

Bunker Hill: library, steps, Angels Flight and Grand Avenue

The route, stop by stop

More walks in Los Angeles