Does alot of LA have a 20th century vibe? (San Francisco: houses, movies)

[Trimac20]

When I visited LA I was surprised at how sort of 'retro' alot of it still looked. I expected most of it to look super-modern, and while parts of it do (like around the Staples Center, Century City, Santa Monica, parts of Pasadena and Beverly Hills) alot of it (like the areas between LAX and Hollywood like Crenshaw or La Brea), the Sunset Strip, Santa Monica Blvd, Melrose, Vernon etc have a sort of latter 20th century vibe which I actually liked. Also should mention Venice which still retained a sort of 1960s boho feel along the waterfront. Would you agree/disagree? I'm contrasting it to cities like Nashville which have a kind of sterile 21st century feel to them.

[Vinsanity]

Well, downtown L.A. saw its emergence during the 1920's (Art Deco period), and most of the rest of it was built during the 1950's and 60's ("googie" architecture), so yeah, that would be expected. And the city never saw declines (at least not as much as major midwest cities have experienced), so there wasn't really much opportunity to do any landscape-altering renovations like some of the other cities that have re-emerged from a decline. Consider Manhattan. The buildings and architecture for the most part still look the same as they did since the middle of the last century also. Because by that time, the city was already very well-established, and had a strong identity of its own. Same with San Francisco. This is just my take on it, I'm sure someone else has something more valuable to add.

[AMgoody]

lol I thought the same thing visiting LA, I'm from NYC everything is super modern here, especially in Fashion.
I thought I was a character in a 70's movie a couple times going through Inglewood and Culver City, I didn't get to check Long Beach. But the way a lot of people dressed, and their hairstyle had a 70's disco vibe to it.
I thought it was just a California thing.

[drunk on kool aid]

Originally Posted by Trimac20

When I visited LA I was surprised at how sort of 'retro' alot of it still looked. I expected most of it to look super-modern, and while parts of it do (like around the Staples Center, Century City, Santa Monica, parts of Pasadena and Beverly Hills) alot of it (like the areas between LAX and Hollywood like Crenshaw or La Brea), the Sunset Strip, Santa Monica Blvd, Melrose, Vernon etc have a sort of latter 20th century vibe which I actually liked. Also should mention Venice which still retained a sort of 1960s boho feel along the waterfront. Would you agree/disagree? I'm contrasting it to cities like Nashville which have a kind of sterile 21st century feel to them.

*I wrote this before Vinsanity's post #2 but didn't get around to posting this so apologies or the redundancies.

The vast bulk of LA's development was during the 20th century so it's no surprise that it would have a 20th century "vibe." We're only a decade into the 21st century so I wouldn't expect the city to have taken on a modern look. What is a 21st century look at this point anyway?

Did you expect LA to look like Dubai or modern Shanghai? Even the skewed look of LA found in TV and movies doesn't look like that.

Most of LA was built out by mid-century to the seventies at the latest. Newer buildings usually require a teardown. We have a very good collection of pre-WWII houses of every genre as well as mid-century moderns and stucco boxes. Unfortunately, we are losing many of these as developers raze them for $$$. Case is point is an unusually large Richard Neutra house in Beverly Hills which is being threatened with demolition. Another is the planned destruction of the West Hall of the Convention Center so that a bunch of guys can toss a pointy ball around.

LA is ground zero for Tiki and Googie styles and at one point we had many buildings in those idioms. Unfortunately, only a fraction remain. In summary, LA's "look" is mainly determined by structures which were built a half to one century ago. We're not as young as many people think!

P.S. I've never been to Nashville. Is it really that modern looking?