Future Noir: The Forgotten Los Angeles
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Inside the iconic Bradbury Building
As a kid growing up in England in the early 1980s, I remember seeing a science fiction movie set in the far future on the other side of the world. As the movie Blade Runner began, the opening shots stated “LOS ANGELES: NOVEMBER, 2019.” It seemed impossibly distant.
And now, thirty-seven years later, I live just down the road, and we’re in that future.
Downtown LA was a perfect place for those 1980s film makers to create a futuristically dark, gritty urban movie. After all, these were the same streets where many atmospheric 1940s movies had shown hard-boiled private detectives working through the seedy underbelly of California’s biggest city. But that was the 1940s. And 1980s. What is it like to visit the area now?
In short, it’s wonderful. It’s that way precisely because it was forgotten for decades.
Just up the hill – literally – the old neighborhood of elegant wooden homes was torn down and replaced in the 1980s with enormous, gleaming skyscrapers. The downtown area became overlooked. In the 1930s, it had been as busy and bustling as downtown Chicago or Manhattan. After World War Two, however, residents and businesses drifted away, and the streets of beautiful old Art Deco buildings began to feel grimy. Unsafe. Unwanted. Los Angeles became known as a town of sprawl. People forgot it once had a heart.
Visiting the shooting locations of the Blade Runner movie now, however, is a very different experience. The area has rejuvenated after many millions of dollars of investment. It is a place where – contrary to the stereotype – it is a pleasure to walk in LA.
UNION STATION
A great place to begin is the 1939 Union Station where, before the era of the choked Los Angeles freeways, most people would have arrived in town by train. Lined by palm trees, it is deliberately designed to look like an old Mission, complete with tower, ornate tile work, and chandeliers. The inside decoration of marble, walnut, and brass reminds me of how elegant train travel once was. And for Blade Runner fans, one end of the station was used as the police station in that movie, perfectly capturing the echoing halls of smoky bureaucracy. The station still has tucked-away restaurants and bars where you could imagine yourself in the middle of a 1940s crime caper.
BRADBURY BUILDING
The end of Blade Runner had me on the edge of my seat: a suspense-filled chase through a building with ornate cast-iron balconies and elevators, with a glass atrium. It seemed too perfect for the movie’s atmosphere to be anything but a film set. But this 1893 office building is real. Constructed inside and out with golden brick, alabaster, and sandstone, it glows in the California sun. It has been beautifully restored to its original glory. Best of all for visitors, the building owners understand its place in movie history. Casual visitors can walk in and go up to the first landing, and the staff are very friendly.
Blue Bottle Coffee, the iconic coffee roasters, have a café on the ground floor that takes full advantage of the building’s spacious interiors. For those who believe that Los Angeles has no cultural buzz or history, to sit in this downtown location, enjoying some of the world’s best coffee and watching the bustling street scene outside is the perfect rebuke.
MILLION DOLLAR THEATER
Directly across the street from the Bradbury, and visible in many Blade Runner shots, is the ornate façade of the Million Dollar Theater. Looking like the front of a Spanish cathedral, it started showing movies in 1917 – and it still screens classic films in its lush burgundy interior. As an example of the revitalization of the area, the former offices in the building above are now apartments.
GRAND CENTRAL MARKET
Immediately behind the Bradbury Building, the enormous Grand Central Market also dates from 1917, and is both the city’s largest and oldest market. Open to the street on both ends, it’s a wide thoroughfare crammed with a diverse cluster of food stalls, usually packed with the new wave of young people who have come to live and work in the neighborhood. The blaze of neon signage and long counter spaces where visitors can sample a large variety of world cuisine evoke the international Film Noir feel of Blade Runner. You almost feel like you are in the movie.
SECOND STREET TUNNEL
A short walk away – and a perfect way to enter or exit the neighborhood if coming by car – the West Second Street tunnel is loved by film makers for its glistening, reflective white tiles. Running under the skyscraper-covered Bunker Hill, it would be faster to list the movies it has not been used in. It was the perfect futuristic-feeling tunnel for a driving scene in Blade Runner.
ENNIS HOUSE
Away from the downtown core – but only a short drive away, and with a stunning view back to downtown – the Ennis House was built in 1924 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Its concrete block design is evocative of Mayan temples. The exterior was briefly used in Blade Runner, and the Mayan design was also used to inspire imaginative interiors in the film. It’s the kind of design that works perfectly in the golden California evening sun.
So far from being a future dystopia in November 2019, the urban core of Los Angeles is a vibrant, enjoyable hub of fun activities and gorgeous architecture. These movie settings are only examples in an area full of great bookstores, street markets, and great cultural diversity. What better time to visit than in a month and year made famous by a movie opening credit?
Union Station