(500) Days of Summer

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levit were awarded the key to the city for (500) Days of Summer, due to the way it celebrated downtown Los Angeles. Little known fact, the original script was set in San Francisco, and all those nice things were said about SF architecture, but it was adapted after Fox Searchlight was given incentives to film in LA.

That's a photo I took, the view from the park bench Tom and Summer sat on when Tom said he'd "make people notice" the good stuff. That building just to the right of center is the Continental Building, LA's first skyscraper. The 151 foot tall building is on the national register of historic places. Shortly after it was built in 1903, city council enacted an ordinance saying buildings could not be more than 150 feet tall. 

It's one of a few buildings downtown built in a Renaissance Revival style, found often in New York. Folk often remember the building ordinance as "no building could be build taller than City Hall", but that building wasn't built until 1928. City Hall is 453 feet tall, and built as an exception to the rule. 

The 150 foot rule was removed in the 1950s. You can see how the building which once dominated the skyline is now barely noticeable, there's a parking lot to the left almost as tall. I think that's what Tom meant. There's beauty downtown but it's dwarfed by so much ugly.