Taking the L.A. Out of Downtown's Skyline

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, November 06, 2007, at 10:54PM

Honda's Fake Downtown Eric Richardson [Flickr]
Honda's Fake Downtown Eric Richardson [Flickr]

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES —

I was flipping through ESPN The Magazine yesterday and was struck by this Honda ad, appearing on pages 10 and 11. It’s a smoggy colored skyline shot was Honda touting blue skies ahead, and I immediately through “Hey, it’s Downtown.”

Then I looked closer.

I recognized most of the buildings, but the shot as a whole just didn’t make sense. Things weren’t in their right place. It was Downtown as jigsaw puzzle, and the pieces were definitely put together all wrong.

Upon further reflection, clearly this started as a shot of Downtown Los Angeles taken from the northwest. Honda’s ad agency didn’t want the shot to register as “L.A.,” though, so they took the buildings and jumbled them. The Aon tower magically moves south of the Wedbush building, with a cloned Bunker Hill Tower sitting in front of it.

Most telling is their complete elimination of Downtown L.A.’s one signature landmark – U.S. Bank Tower. If you check out the close up at the top right you’ll note the Citigroup building at 444 S. Flower and the Gas Company Tower, but in between – where U.S. Bank Tower should be – is some brown monolith that doesn’t exist.

Two more closer looks for your viewing pleasure:

Honda's Fake DowntownHonda's Fake Downtown


Comments

1
fridayinla writes:

That brown monolith is the TCW Tower, which isn’t nearly that tall and is located over on Figueroa, not Bunker Hill.

# on Nov.06.2007 AT 11:06 PM
2
BusTard writes:

Yeah, it is kinda like that movie that “Volcano,” the one that has that strange "leg-and-a-half guy in a Dr. Seuss hat" I photographed so many years ago and the movie poster on which the LaBrea Tar Pits—where the questionable plot starts—boiled over is suddenly removed to somewhere round Hollywood & Highland (was that not prescient for a 1997 movie) and downtown is moved over to Santa Monica and Highland. The Capitol Records Tower at Vine and Hollywood, just to the left of the 101 Freeway, should exhibit just what we are missing while the “writers” are on strike.

Here

Are not the “photographers” from ESPN not of the same mindset of those with the unimaginative signs demanding more cash along Melrose and other avenues?

# on Nov.07.2007 AT 12:33 AM
3
Rico A writes:

I read a while back that the “Wilshire Blvd” portion of Volcano was actually filmed on a street in Torrance that was totally redone to look like the Miracle Mile. Pretty cool.

# on Nov.07.2007 AT 10:12 AM
4
David Kennedy writes:

Volcano is to be avoided. Waste of time bad, not cheesy cornball bad.

# on Nov.07.2007 AT 11:11 AM
5
Tim writes:

I remember seeing this ad. I couldn’t figure out why, between the Gas Company Tower and the L.A. Law building, they chose to remove Library Tower and put 865 S Figureoa in its place. Very disorienting.

# on Nov.07.2007 AT 01:20 PM
6
Jeremy R writes:

Volcano is the epitome of “hollywood”. Anyhow, I want to put a scene of Volcano up on my subway to the sea website. that first scene is fictional but it stirs up so much emotion for me.

In the first scene, they are in front of the beverly center and people are fighting the subway.

I want that to be my “that was then, this is now” statement.

# on Nov.07.2007 AT 01:35 PM
7
MetroRapid writes:

BusTard – I thought the moderators had blocked you from this blog!?

Volcano? Isn’t that the one Dennis Woodruff sued over because audiences cheered as one of his “art” cars got engulfed in flames?

But aside from that, if you are so high and mighty as to have been associated with a magazine you intend to remain nameless – why are you trolling with pedestrian folk like us?

Shouldn’t you be on some special, members only blog talking about how bad Paris Hilton’s farts smelled last night?

Fly south for the winter dude…

# on Nov.07.2007 AT 09:07 PM

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