City Plate, Los Angeles

Part of our first series of City Plates. The theme of the first collection is “City as Gateway,” and the cities chosen are Los Angeles, Shanghai, Cairo and Berlin. With this theme we ask: how is each city dealing with the effects of agglomeration as its population begins to reach critical mass Los Angeles – The Los Angeles plate design, ringed with freeways, shows that what used to be labeled “sprawl,” is now being looked at as a model for modern development. A deep green mass represents Dodger Stadium and Elysian Park; and vivid persimmon icons represent key buildings in the citys historic core. Los Angeles, with the port of Long Beach, is the largest port in North America, and is vital to trade with Asia and the Pacific Rim. The city, thanks to its youth and love of the automobile, has also developed in a singular way that runs counter to the traditional condensed urban cores of East Coast cities. As cities populations grow and cities themselves drift towards each other, the multiple-city-center approach of Los Angeles is becoming more and more familiar. The City Plates measure 12 across. Key buildings are represented with persimmon icons, while rivers and public spaces are shown in blue and green.