A Walk on Wilcox

This is a bit random, but this street art on Wilcox Avenue just off Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, CA. caught my eye back in April when I was visiting LA.  I decided to explore a few blocks in the vicinity of the sign. After all, it says Start Walkin' and who could resist that command by Nancy Sinatra (even if I wasn't wearing boots)?

I pretty quickly discovered there are many interesting buildings along this stretch of Wilcox.  First, to the south, and this Art Deco beauty with many beautiful details.

 

A little further south I came across the Hollywood News Building at 1545 Wilcox.

This building was also the home of the Citizen News.

Look up to enjoy beautiful details.

I'm a sucker for old neon signs and rooftop signs.  They abound on these few blocks.  Here you can see the Hotel Mark Twain, the Pacific Theatre tower on Hollywood Boulevard, and, in the distance, the Lido Apartments.

Just across the street from the Hollywood News building, the Gilbert Hotel.  And visible a couple of blocks to the east, the iconic sign of The Broadway Hollywood, formerly a department store, now high-price residential units.

I reversed course, and walked north to the intersection of Wilcox and Hollywood Boulevard for a closer look at the Pacific Theatre, now a church.

This beautiful old movie palace is another wonderfully detailed building.

And there are reminders that this stretch of sidewalk has a way to go yet.

North of the boulevard, I peeked over a fence into the lush courtyard of an apartment complex.

At the corner of Wilcox and Yucca, the Lido Apts, a touch of "old Hollywood" according to the sign.  I took a walking tour a couple of years ago and the guide said that Carol Burnett and her mother lived here for a while when Burnett was growing up.

The Lido has another of Hollywood's great vintage roof-top neon signs.

I have many more pictures which I'll share in a future post.  I'll end this one by thanking the artist whose streetside mural inspired me "start walkin'."  Here's a link to further appreciate the sentiment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyAZQ45uww

Thanks Nancy.  Great song, and a great walk.

Two Marvels in the Desert

On our recent trip to Las Vegas, we drove out to the Hoover Dam.  We wanted to see the remarkable Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge which has opened since our last visit out there.  A pedestrian walk alongside the span hovers high above the Colorado River and gives the perfect vantage point for amazing views of the dam.

The O'Callaghan-Tillman bridge is a bypass for U.S. Route 93 which previously crossed the top of the Hoover Dam.  Traffic back-ups were common.  After the 9-11 attacks, there were serious concerns about security at the dam and plans for the bypass were expedited.

You can still drive over the dam, but the only place the road takes you is the parking areas for visitors. 

Once I'd taken pictures from the bridge, we drove to the dam for a closer look.

The dam was dedicated in 1935.  The era of the 30s is evident in the art deco architecture of Gordon B. Kaufmann.  The clocks on the intake towers show the time in the two states that share the dam.  Since Arizona doesn't observe daylight saving time, the time on the clocks is the same for much of the year even though Nevada and Arizona are in different time zones.

Lake Mead stretches out on one side of the dam.

An inlet near the intake towers if full of fish.

Now the view of the O'Callaghan-Tillman bridge, a composite steel and concrete arch bridge.  What a spectacular sight!

The Hoover Dam is its awe-inspiring equal.

These marvels in the desert are engineering feats to be celebrated. 

The Neon Boneyard

This is where the great neon signs of Las Vegas go to die (or just rest a while before someone puts them back into use).  Welcome to the Neon Boneyard.  No, these are not historic buildings.  But they are a part of the nation's architectural history!

Here lie the remains of hundreds of signs that once lit up the Vegas Strip or Fremont Street downtown.  Many are familiar to anyone who visited the city within the past twenty years.  Binion's Horseshoe, the Stardust and the Tropicana are just a few.  Some of the hotels, motels and restaurants represented by these signs are no longer with us; others, like the Tropicana, are still around.

Some of the signs are relics of the past. 

Luckily for us, even in an ever-changing city like Las Vegas, there are preservationists who recognize the value of the past.  These signs represent the old Vegas.  Neon and flashing lights were the order of the day before the new breed of signs that now reign over the gambling empire.  Giant video monitors have replaced the vintage signs that once glowed in the desert.  The new look Vegas is impressive in its own right, but, in my opinion, doesn't have the same "knock you off your feet" effect of the old.  You certainly can't feel the heat of the lights as you once did on a drive down the strip!

 

As the old signs were dismantled, the sign companies held onto the parts for a time.  Some were re purposed, but most were not, and, as the inventory grew, the companies began to discard them.  Historians came to the rescue and created the park as a means of displaying and saving the iconic remainders.  Entry to the boneyard is through the restored lobby of a early 1960s era motel which has been moved the site.

The LaConcha Motel is long gone, but this piece of it lives on as the front door to this literal walk down memory lane.