Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Circles of LA

Connecting the dots of LA could be a very easy task, but it doesn't really make much sense. See, there are only a few number of dots - or roads forming circles - in the City of LA. There are two in the Valley, one in South LA, and the rest between the 405 and the LA River. (I'm not going to go through the definition of east or west side, or lack thereof!) And most of them - over half - are concentrated at one location.

So, what do you get when you connect the Circles of LA? And by Circles, these things can't be oblong like the "Beverlywood Tear" or "Victoria Circle":




They are real, roadway circles like...

The Sherman Oaks Circle


The Van Nuys Circle at Archwood & Katherine in the Van Nuys HPOZ


The South LA Circle at Gramercy and 76th (there are a few circles nearby in the adjacent Inglewood, but they're not in the City of LA.)


The Dodger Stadium Circle (it's a circle within the City if you follow the traffic lanes)


The Hollyridge Circle



The Murray Circle in Silver Lake


And finally...

The 3 three large circles at Park La Brea and the 5 smaller ones, too.




So what happens when you connect the 14 circles of LA?


I got a kite with a hole in it near the bottom.


Try it and see what you get!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think there is also one in Eagle Rock right off of Colorado a little east of the Eagle Rock Plaza.

Will Campbell said...

Awesome post! If I'm not confusing it with something else entirely, I believe it was in part of a recent article on ornate Persian mansions in Los Angeles in the L.A. Times' "West" magazine that one of the over-the-top genre's architects has proposed turning Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards in Beverly Hills into a massive roundabout. There was even an artistic rendering that looked fabulous!

Anonymous said...

That "tear" in Beverlywood has a nice park on it, but it's restricted to Beverlywood residents only.

Anonymous said...

...and it's not in Los Angeles, but the Traffic Circle in Long Beach is the only large roundabout like they have in Europe that is in Southern California (or at least that I know of).

Link

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Windward Circle in Venice...

Peter McFerrin said...

You included the various traffic circles of Brentwood, right? There are four along Bristol Avenue, at (N to S) Sunset Blvd, Marlboro St, Hanover St, and Evanston St.

Turning the San Vicente/Olympic/Fairfax, Lankershim/Tujunga/Burbank, Hollywood/Sunset/Hillhurst/Virgil, and Beverly/Temple/Silver Lake/Virgil disasters into traffic circles would probably help the city's traffic problems at least a little. Man, those are some nasty intersections.

Zach Behrens said...

i hate that long beach circle

Anonymous said...

I never hated the Long Beach Traffic Circle until a dumb girl hit me coming from Los Coyotes as I was turning onto Lakewood. Now I avoid it.

Anonymous said...

There is another circle (tiny) in the Highland Park area, right off North Figueroa.

It's at the intersection of South Ave. 59 and Echo Street. Naturally, an English-style cottage is parked right near it.

It's a pathetic excuse for a roundabout. I've seen many in England decorated with colorful flowers inside. That's how a roundabout should look.

- Manuel