WWW.CURATINGTHECITY.ORG
Wilshire Boulevard bisects the Los Angeles basin with some of the most famous architecture in the city. The L.A. Conservancy, a local preservationist organization, tapped Hello Design to promote a tour of six of the Boulevard’s most historic buildings and showcase nearly 100 other architecturally significant buildings on Wilshire that the tour couldn’t cover.

Beyond simply reading the locations and descriptions of the buildings, users can interact with a dynamic map of the entire 16- mile street, organizing the structures by the year they were built, neighborhood, or architectural style. Hello also created a memory book, a blog-like feature where people can post their memories or photos of a building, even if it no longer exists.

Just as Hello was completing the site, it was announced that the Ambassador Hotel, a 1921 Wilshire Boulevard landmark, was going to be torn down. When the site went live, the memories and images of the Ambassador made it one of the richest online resources for the demolished building. “It’s a testament to how important this site is for the city,” says creative director David Lai. “It provides a context for some important history that may have disappeared with the building. While the Ambassador’s chandeliers were being auctioned off, the website became one of the few places where you could still see the hotel.”
Alissa Walker

HelloDesign
CREATIVE DIRECTORS: David Lai, Hiro Niwa
DESIGNER: Casey Sheehan
PROJECT LEAD: Anna Simonse
PRODUCER: Szu Ann Chen
TECHNICAL LEAD: Hugo Zhu
FLASH PROGRAMMERS: Jason Taylor, Jon Lorenz
PRODUCTION/QA: Morgan Weatherford
CLIENT: Los Angeles Conservancy
CONTACT: www.hellodesign.com