Bring Back Broadway

This project aims to design a City Symbol, giving distinction to the city and become that city’s measure by serving to activate a city, instilling unity, and vitalizing the community. We focused on the street with a forgotten value as the City Symbol and came across an idea to reinvigorate it.

The historic Broadway is located in the heart of the Historic Core in Los Angeles Broadway, stretching for six blocks from third to ninth streets. The street enjoys a history as the birthplace of vaudeville and cinematic entertainment and the retail capital of the United States. It used to be filled moviegoers, but the street declined after World War II. Cara Mia Dimassa wrote in Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2006;

“There was a time, long ago, when the streets of downtown Los Angeles were awash in neon – thanks to a confluence of movie theatres the world had never seen before. Dozens of theatres screened Hollywood’s latest fare, played host to star-studded premieres, and were filled nightly with thousands of moviegoers. In those days, before World War II, downtown Los Angeles was the movie capital of the world.”

To bring back Broadway to symbolic and beloved presence, an effort is made to illuminate the street. This precious corridor is weaved with lighting to be revitalized. These illuminating light trails redefine the spaces of the street by sculpting with genitive forms.