Esotouric touts two upcoming tours

Downtown LA and Route 66 tours follow in the steps of critic Reyner Banham

WHAT: Esotouric presents two new tours in the "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles" architecture and urbanism series
WHEN: The Many Downtowns (Feb. 23, 11am-3pm) and Route 66 (Mar. 1, 11am-4pm)
COST: $55 each, or save $30 on four tours with a Season Pass
WHERE: Both tours depart from Philippe the Original, opposite Union Station

"Reyner Banham was as smart and sassy as any critic in the postwar period. What made him distinctive was his passion for the edgiest expressions of his technological age, not only in avant-garde architecture but in anything designed - Cadillacs and transistor radios, custom hot-rods and painted surfboards, gadgets and gizmos." ­Hal Foster

No city has so fascinated scholars of urban and cultural studies than L.A., that sprawling, self-referential zone of mystery and glamour. British writer Reyner Banham was the first to love the city's ugliness as well as her beauty. In the early 1970s he abandoned his academic preconceptions to revel in L.A.'s freeways, foothills, beaches and suburbs. Along the way, he discovered extraordinary spaces in neighborhoods that were often overlooked for being too remote, too industrial, or simply occupying invisible "flyover country" beneath the great freeways. Banham saw that behind the urban sprawl was a pattern, almost a language, which could not be understood through old modes of architectural criticism, but which required new ways of seeing and of thinking.
Nearly twenty years after his death, one of Banham's students, Esotouric's Richard Schave, launches two new bus tours to take urban explorers deep into uncharted downtown L.A., then East along old Route 66, to explore how Southern California has changed since Banham mapped it and reveal the secret wonders that survive.

THE MANY DOWNTOWNS is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center this tour explains why.
The tour will feature visits inside exquisite architectural gems, including some seldom seen by the general public. But the tour also offers a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown. Featured locations include Grand Central Market, Title Guarantee Building (including its landmark Hugo Ballin murals), Angels Flight Railway, Pershing Square (including its tribute to novelist John Fante), Grand Central Market (tour lunch break).

ROUTE 66 explores California's Mother Road and the building of its dream, from climate to citrus industry, TB hospitals to candyflake car culture. Highlights include the fanciful Rubel Castle in Glendora, City of Hope's great murals by Philip Guston and Rubin Kadish, the haunting expanses of the Santa Fe Dam recreation area, a gravel pit, Robert Stacy Judd's extraordinary (and mainly Mayan) Aztec Hotel, a chat with longtime employees of the Googie masterpiece The Covina Bowl and a presentation by sign historian J. Eric Lynxwiler on "how to read a neon sign."

These new Esotouric bus adventures provide fresh ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers, and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, downtown dwellers and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the secrets beneath.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour schedule (new tours starred):
San Jan 26- Weird West Adams Crime Bus Tour
Sat Feb 2- Where the Action Was Hollywood Rock and Roll Tour*
Sat Feb 16- Wild Wild West Side Crime Bus Tour*
Sat Feb 23- Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Many Downtowns*
Sat Mar 1- Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (on Banham's birthday weekend)*
Sat Mar 8- Raymond Chandler's Bay City (West Los Angeles Chandler tour)
Sun Mar 9- Haunts of a Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles (on the anniversary of his death)
Sat Mar 15- Vroman's Bookstore presents Pasadena Confidential

For more info on Esotouric, please visit http://www.esotouric.com

For more on Reyner Banham, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyner_Banham
And the BBC documentary "Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles"
http://reyner.notlong.com