Esotouric offers architecture tours in August and September

Discover secret histories of urban Los Angeles with Esotouric's summer
architecture tours

WHAT: Esotouric's architecture and urbanism tour series, REYNER BANHAM LOVES
L.A. includes three tours in August, one in September -- plus a FREE
Broadway walking tour

WHERE/WHEN: ROUTE 66 tour departs Saturday, August 4, 11am; SOUTH L.A. tour
departs Sunday, August 5, 11am; * NEW TOUR * BOYLE HEIGHTS & SAN GABRIEL
VALLEY tour departs Saturday, August 25, 11am; THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN tour
departs Saturday, September 15, 11am. All four bus tours leave from The
Daily Dose, 1820 Industrial St., Los Angeles, CA 90021.

FREE TOUR: Tour host Richard Schave also offers a free Broadway architecture
walking tour under the umbrella of LAVA ­ The Los Angeles Visionaries
Association, Sunday, September 2, in the ongoing series The Flâneur & The
City (info at www.lavatransforms.org)

COST: $58/person for ROUTE 66, SOUTH L.A. and THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN bus
tours; $63 for BOYLE HEIGHTS & SAN GABRIEL VALLEY bus tour (ticket price
includes tacos from Guisados and tea at Wing Hop Fung); BROADWAY walking
tour is free but reservations are required

SAVE: Esotouric is offering a $90 weekend pass for Route 66/South LA (retail
$116)

INFO: Esotouric bus tours http://www.esotouric.com , LAVA walking tour
http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur-broadway , or call 213-373-1947

Los Angeles is a place that defies easy understanding or
description. Love it or hate it, few would ever say the city isn't
interesting. This summer join the Los Angeles natives of Esotouric, the
offbeat bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret heart of the
southland, as they host excursions going deep into the region's most
fascinating crannies: along ROUTE 66 in the San Gabriel Valley, down along
the 710 freeway to view the gems and oddities of SOUTH L.A, due east * ON A
NEW TOUR * to explore the cultural histories of BOYLE HEIGHTS & THE SAN
GABRIEL VALLEY and into the heart of the urban core for THE LOWDOWN ON
DOWNTOWN.

Also offered is a very special event, as Esotouric's Richard
Schave and architectural historian Nathan Marsak host a free downtown
walking tour, THE FLANEUR & THE CITY: BROADWAY, under the umbrella of LAVA -
The Los Angeles Visionaries Association.

All tours begin downtown.

ABOUT THE ROUTE 66 TOUR (August 4):
It's a common misconception that ROUTE 66 only gets interesting in Arizona.
But when Esotouric's Route 66 bus tour departs from downtown Los Angeles,
passengers are in for a four-hour tour packed with stunning retro jewels
plucked from L.A.'s own backyard. ROUTE 66 only exists today in small
fragments, but many of the unique attractions that dotted its length survive
and flourish today. Get on the bus to explore the real Southland, as no one
but Esotouric's Richard Schave can reveal it.

Richard's unique expertise on
unknown Los Angeles has seen him as a featured guide on television's "Globe
Trekker" (Grand Central Market) and "Cities of the Underworld" (downtown's
prohibition-era tunnels) and speaking at the Canadian Centre for
Architecture and Hammer Museum.

The ROUTE 66 tour explores California's
original mass transit corridor and the building of its dream, from climate
to citrus industry, Kalifornia Krazy architectural novelties to bucolic
bungalows. Highlights in this edition of ROUTE 66 include a tour of E. WALDO
WARD FARM (the oldest surviving commercial citrus facility in LA, where
passengers can buy scrumptious preserves and almond-filled olives to take
home), a stop at Robert Stacy Judd's 1924 masterpiece THE AZTEC HOTEL
(currently being renovated), a swing around the homes of the feuding SLAUSON
SISTERS tucked among vast cleared fields awaiting new development (hidden
gems of Azusa lore and family dynamics, and a reminder of how fragile
ecologies fall to the incessant crush of progress).

Passengers will also
tour the seldom-seen Civil War-era FAIRMOUNT CEMETERY and view the evocative
BUNGALOWS of old Monrovia accompanied by host Richard Schave's lively
rendition of a vintage bungalow booster tune.

ABOUT THE SOUTH LA TOUR (August 5)
This provocative Esotouric bus adventure begins downtown and works its way
south through Vernon, Bell Gardens, Santa Fe Springs and Downey, and through
the past two centuries, exploring some of L.A.'s seldom-seen gems. Turning
the West Side-centric notion of an L.A. architecture tour on its head‹just
like Banham's book did for the historical monograph ­ the bus goes into
areas not traditionally associated with the important, beautiful or
significant, raising issues of preservation, adaptive reuse and the
evolution of the city. The locations all speak to the power, mutability and
reach of the Southern California Dream.

Tour stops include: Rancho San
Antonio (circa 1840, one of the oldest adobe structure in Los Angeles
County, this fascinating home sits smack dab in the middle of a 65-year-old
trailer park on the banks of the Rio Hondo River in Bell Gardens); The
Clarke Estate (1920, a lost masterpiece by tilt-slab concrete architect
Irving Gill, this Mission Revival-inspired dwelling features symbolic leaves
pressed into the walls and feels like a time capsule from a simpler
California); Johnie's Broiler (1958/2008, a cautionary tale about historic
preservation, this beloved Downey diner with its landmark neon sign was
illegally demolished by a renter who wanted to park use cars in its place.
The site was barred from further commercial use due to public outcry, and
has been restored as a Bob's Big Boy).

*NEW TOUR * ABOUT THE BOYLE HEIGHTS & SAN GABRIEL VALLEY TOUR (August 25)
On the east side the Los Angeles River, some of the most fascinating
Southern California stories are waiting to be told. Come on a century¹s
social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated
with delicious stops to sample the tastes, smells and cultures that make our
changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, Chicano
Moratorium, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial
covenants, boycotts, punk rock, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and
Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings‹all
are themes which will be addressed on this lively excursion. So get on the
bus--and bring your appetite! One of the best ways to understand a
neighborhood is to eat there, and we¹ve got some tasty treats in store.

Discover the new wave of Mexican cuisine with our lunchtime visit to
Guisado¹s in Boyle Heights, for a miniature taco sampler that will tickle
your taste buds. Later, learn how a passion for traditional Chinese tea has
evolved into a unique way of selling wine, as we tour the automated wine
dispensers of Monterey Park¹s Wing Hop Fung superstore and enjoy a
complementary tea tasting and no-host wine selections. This whirlwind social
history tour of some of the most interesting and dynamic neighborhoods on
the east side of Los Angeles will include stops at: The Vladeck Center,
Libros Schmibros, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, The Venice Room, El
Encanto & Cascades Park, Divine¹s Furniture, Guisado's, Wing Hop Fung. Plus
in a very special guest-hosted section (featuring East L.A. punk historian
Jimmy Alvarado), a pocket history of the rich and unjustly neglected East
Los Angeles punk rock scene, a cultural explosion that measures up to
anything happening in London, New York or Huntington Beach in the late
1970s.

ABOUT THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN TOUR (September 15)
Join Richard Schave, the founding director of the Downtown LA Art Walk
non-profit, on a tour that reveals the secret history, and the fascinating
future, of this most beguiling LA neighborhood. THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN 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.

Passengers will
visit exquisite architectural gems, including some seldom seen by the
general public, but they'll also enjoy a sophisticated analysis of the
economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown, learn how gentrification
sprung up on the city's meanest streets with all the conflicts that go along
with a community's socio-economic shift, meet creative residents and explore
unique destinations. Featured locations include the intentionally
depopulated Bunker Hill and its Angels Flight funicular railway, Grand
Central Market, the concrete design disaster Pershing Square (with its
tribute to novelist John Fante), European-style dining alley St. Vincent's
Court, the lyrical glass-topped Mercantile Arcade Building (an exact replica
of a London landmark) and a visit to an underground art space. Get on the
bus for the real Lowdown on Downtown, the story the boosters don't want you
to hear.

ABOUT THE FLANEUR & THE CITY: BROADWAY WALKING TOUR (September 2)
For the latest installment of urban historian Richard Schave¹s site-specific
discussion series "The Flâneur & The City," Richard (Esotouric bus
adventures, In SRO Land) is joined by architectural historian Nathan Marsak
(1947project, On Bunker Hill). The series is an ongoing attempt to explore
some of the more important issues revealed by the constantly changing heart
of the metropolis. The core notion of the series is of culture and history
as commodities that are packaged and sold to a target demographic;
meanwhile, it¹s the ignored and seemingly worthless scraps of meaning found
on the sidewalks and marketplaces where the true remnants of positive public
space can be found. All interpretations and nuisances of the word flâneur
are examined‹from the modern-day aesthete dreaming of Baudelaire while
carried along in the human tide past the stalls and shops of Broadway, to
its more recent and perhaps relevant use, someone who is loitering.

At its
heart this series is a celebration of the simple act of getting out of your
car, walking through a neighborhood and learning to see it with your own
eyes. On this excursion we¹ll be casting our eyes along Broadway, from 2nd
to 9th, which roughly corresponds to the National Register designation
footprint. Broadway has been a viable and vibrant commercial artery and
transit hub of Los Angeles since the 1890s. This tour will be slightly
different from others in this series, as almost all the buildings to be
discussed still survive. We will focus on giving meaning and context to the
complex palimpsest which has built up over the past century.

The tour begins
at Hamburger¹s Department Store (the People¹s Store) (architect: Alfred
Rosenheim) at Eighth Street and proceeds up the east side of Broadway to
Grand Central Market, where we will have a well deserved snack break. Then
we will return via the western side of Broadway, ending up at Seventh
Street. To reserve: http://lavatransforms.org/flaneur-broadway

ABOUT THE REYNER BANHAM LOVES L.A. TOUR SERIES:
Inspired by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham, who tour host
Richard Schave studied under at UC Santa Cruz, the REYNER BANHAM LOVES LOS
ANGELES series offers a fresh way of looking at the urban web of history,
mass transit, migration and mystery that somehow holds L.A. together. The
Reyner Banham Loves LA series of Esotouric bus adventures provides fresh
ways of seeing the Southland and mingling with fascinating fellow travelers,
and are a must for urban explorers, architecture buffs, curious locals,
daring tourists, and anyone who enjoys turning over rocks to reveal the
secrets beneath. Come ride and see for yourself.

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (architecture tours
starred)
Mon July 23- The LAVA Salon at Musso & Frank: Dorothy Parker & F. Scott
Fitzgerald (info at lavatransforms.org) - SOLD OUT!
Sat July 28 - The Real Black Dahlia - SOLD OUT!
* Sat August 4 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Route 66 (weekend pass
available)
* Sun August 5 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: South LA (weekend pass
available)
Sat August 11 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles
Sat August 18 - Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles
* Sat August 25 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: Boyle Heights & The San
Gabriel Valley
Sat August 26 - Crime lab seminar: Cold A Long Time (info at
lavatransforms.org)
* Sun September 2 - The Flâneur & The City: Broadway walking tour (info at
lavatransforms.org)
Sat September 8 - Weird West Adams
* Sat September 15 - Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles: The Lowdown on
Downtown
Sat September 22 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice
Sat September 29 - The Real Black Dahlia
Sat October 6 - Pasadena Confidential (weekend pass available)
Sun October 7 - Eastside Babylon (weekend pass available)
Sat October 20 - The Birth of Noir: James M. Cain's Southern California
Nightmare
Sat October 27 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles

Esotouric's Richard Schave, Kim Cooper and Joan Renner are proud members of
LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association.
http://www.lavatransforms.org

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