Union Station Walking Tour
12/21
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Start time: 10:00am
Length: 2-1/2 hours
The Union Station tour covers architecture, art, culture, and social history as it celebrates one of the great landmarks of Los Angeles, the 1939 Union Station.
The grand opening of Union Station was celebrated with a three-day extravaganza attended by nearly half a million people. The station’s monumental architecture, a unique combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco styles, assured that it would be one of the most identifiable landmarks in the city.
It also turned out to be the last great railway station built in America, constructed as it was near the end of the heyday of rail travel. The vast and extraordinary spaces now serve as station to the city’s Metro Rail lines, and once again tens of thousands of people course through the building every day.
In the mid-1990s, an intermodal transit center and 28-story office tower was added on the east side of Union Station. These additions draw on the 1939 station for inspiration, interpreting the vast spaces and southwestern colors in a new way, and incorporating the work of many different artists as part of the public spaces.
Walking difficulty: Route covers about one mile total walking; no stairs or inclines
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
Cost: $10 general public, $5 Conservancy members (up to 2 admissions at Individual level; up to 4 admissions at all other levels), $5 children 12 and under
Note: If the Register button does not appear next to a date above, the tour has sold out.