L.A. we love you

Thinking of relocating to the City of Angels, or adding a home here to your portfolio? Let five local experts take you on a tour to give you plenty of reasons why you should…

A love letter to… The city

In 2003, I figured it all out: I would move to Los Angeles, become an actor and writer, find the perfect balance of rich and famous, and marry the woman of my dreams. Two decades later, I’m in L.A. and I’m a writer. Two out of five ain’t bad.

After 20 years, I still haven’t figured out Los Angeles itself, and that’s what I love about it most.

Conventional wisdom credits Dorothy Parker as having said that L.A. is “72 suburbs in search of a city.” That she’s acknowledged as the maxim’s author, despite there being no proof that it’s hers, is appropriate for a town where actors are acclaimed for saying someone else’s words. But be it Parker, or Mencken, or even one of our celebrity Housewives, they have a point. Living in L.A. is akin to living in multiple cities at once, all defined by fuzzy borders.

Take Santa Monica: the views from rooftop bars and restaurants such as Elephante or Calabra make for relaxing beachfront life. Beverly Hills, just down the road, lives up to its opulent reputation, with its boutiques from Louis Vuitton and Bulgari.

Keep skipping east, and you get new takes on the L.A. experience. Little Ethiopia’s restaurants are transportive; bars in Culver City are populated by workers running cables and cameras on studio productions; the LGBTQ+ nightlife of West Hollywood is both a safe space for members of the community and an inclusive party.

To visit Los Angeles is to take in the city’s tasting menu, an amuse bouche of what the town offers. I will never “understand” it all. But the constant siren song of being able to wrap my arms around L.A. is enough to keep me here for a lifetime.

Robert Spuhler has written for Los Angeles magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle , and the New York Times

Retail therapy

Beverly Hills is a shopper’s paradise, and its palm tree-lined streets are famed for their boutiques (below).

A love letter to…

The architecture

Los Angeles has a reputation for its glowing golden beaches and its Hollywood stars, and something of a cultural vortex in between—a city of transplants where artists and thought leaders from every corner of the world convene over strip-mall suppers.

Despite L.A. being the setting for the Case Study houses—the hugely influential program to develop affordable, easily replicable homes for nuclearfamily living in the post-war boom—and the professional playground for renowned designers such as Eames, Neutra, and Koenig, it only received its first UNESCO World Heritage recognition in 2019 for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Hollyhock House.

That landmark can be seen atop its perch in Barnsdall Art Park by those enjoying a view of the city from 1,000 feet (305 m) above sea level during a hike through Griffith Park. It’s from that height that I first noticed the low-rise construction of L.A.

But pockets of high-rise buildings poke out of a smattering of locations. Downtown Los Angeles is home to financial skyscrapers and high-ceilinged loft apartments, while Hollywood’s hotels and Mid City’s museums offer more breaks from the flatness. Further west, Century City is home to Fox Plaza— better known as Die Hard ’s Nakatomi Plaza—as good a landmark as you could hope for in a city most famous for blockbuster movies.

As an avid film fan, it was landmarks such as the giant neon clown from Circus Liquor in North

Hollywood (Clueless) and the Bradbury Building in Downtown L.A. (Blade Runner) that gave me a sense of place to attach myself to. When considering the building I would love to live in, however, it has to be the Sheats-Goldstein Residence in Beverly Crest. Designed by John Lautner in 1963, it’s a MidCentury Modern masterpiece. High in the hills, the angular concrete and glass design, with its indoor–outdoor living philosophy, was immortalized in 1998’s The Big Lebowski . It’s a true MCM beauty.

If that superficial vacation reputation still lingers for the city, any cultural vortex has been filled on the architectural side. Once you look beyond Sunset Boulevard, L.A. can feel much more like home.

Raziq Rauf is a content creator specializing in urban geographies and international communities

A love letter to… L.A. hotels

“Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” So said the celebrated American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, whose legacy, as already mentioned, lives on in multiple masterworks throughout L.A. As a third-generation Angeleno who has heard it all about my hometown, I will opine that Wright’s remark speaks to the dizzying eclecticism of a city where more than 200 languages are spoken and that up until 170 years ago wasn’t even a part of the U.S. Indeed, it is L.A.’s uncanny ability to mix cultures, lifestyles, and sensibilities that is a big part of the draw for the 40 million-plus visitors who come here every year. And when they come, where should they stay? Here are three of my favorite L.A. hotels.

Pendry

West Hollywood

Five decades on from its most decadent days, when the escapades of rock stars and A-list actors made unwanted headlines, Sunset Strip has lost none of its sizzle. But notably, over the past few years, The Strip has acquired a new patina of style and sophistication. Nowhere is this better experienced than at the Pendry West Hollywood. The 149-room hotel is a destination diva worthy of a location where the hallowed House of Blues once stood. Expect bold design statements the minute you enter the lobby, where you are greeted by a mesmerizing Anthony James light sculpture seen in Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Move past into the rooms and you’re ensconced in a design milieu described by staff as “L.A. at dusk.” That translates into Golden Age of Hollywood sumptuousness with sleek modern surfaces of natural wood and marble. pendry.com

Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel

A common misconception of Los Angeles is that there is no proper city center. To visitors, the idea of a vast, 470-square-mile (1,217 sq km) city must seem daunting. But I assure you, there has always been a center since the city’s founding in 1781. It’s Downtown L.A., also known as DTLA or El Centro. The post-war years were not kind to the city’s core, but things have changed dramatically, and hotels such as the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel unassailably prove it. After undergoing a masterful makeover by designer Kelly Wearstler, the centuryold brick building is now reborn as an art-infused, 147-room property of impeccable sensibilities. Curated vintage furniture, rugs, murals, and tiles of every hue reflect Mexican, French, Moroccan, and Old California provenance. This imbues rooms and suites with a rarefied residential feel, which reaches its apex in two specialty suites sited in a former basketball court and indoor swimming pool. properhotel.com

Conrad Los Angeles

Due north at the opposite end of DTLA, Conrad, the luxury marque of Hilton Hotels, planted its flag with a flourish last summer at The Grand L.A., a new multi-use development adjacent to the city’s most prestigious cultural institutions. Conrad’s flagship West Coast property, the 305-room hotel boasts a long-list of superlatives from build to bites, and, like its Disney neighbor, is the work of Frank Gehry. The interiors by Tara Bernerd & Partners are no less impressive, echoing elements of Gehry’s vision, featuring eye-catching contours, textured fabrics, and polished surfaces rendered from tactile materials including wide-planked oak and ancient lava. The effect dovetails seamlessly into the accommodations, where pale lines and textured wood surfaces are complemented by floor-to-ceiling windows providing stellar city views. hilton.com

Eric Hiss has written for Robb Report , Condé Nast Traveler, and Variety

Hotel California

The rooftop terrace of the Downtown L.A. Proper Hotel (above left) and one of Pendry West Hollywood’s “L.A. at dusk”-like rooms (left).

CONTACT

Rachel Koffsky

RKoffsky@christies.com

+1 212 636 2331

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