FICTIONAL Westwood Blvd & Pico Blvd, West Los Angeles
© David Yoon
Photographer David Yoon narrows existing streets of Los Angeles to see the effects on the city
Could the entire mood of a neighborhood depend on something as simple as street width? That was the question David Yoon, a writer, designer, photographer, and self-confessed urban planning geek living in Los Angeles, asked himself after returning from a trip to Paris. He started documenting existing streets of Los Angeles and narrowing them to see the effects that his manipulations had on the city. His fictional depictions of the streets, while they are not literal proposals, provide the perfect platform to discuss if another city is possible, one that puts human scale in the foreground.
ACTUAL Sunset Blvd & Clark St, West Hollywood
© David Yoon
FICTIONAL Sunset Blvd & Clark St, West Hollywood
© David Yoon
ACTUAL Ocean Ave & Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica
© David Yoon
FICTIONAL Ocean Ave & Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica
© David Yoon
ACTUAL Sunset Blvd, Echo Park (II)
© David Yoon
FICTIONAL Sunset Blvd, Echo Park (II)
© David Yoon
ACTUAL 1st St, Little Tokyo
© David Yoon
FICTIONAL 1st St, Little Tokyo
© David Yoon
ACTUAL Burbank Blvd & Van Nuys Blvd
© David Yoon
FICTIONAL Burbank Blvd & Van Nuys Blvd
© David Yoon
David Yoon is a writer, designer, photographer, and self-confessed urban planning geek living in Los Angeles, where he work as an art director at an ad agency by day and otherwise spend my time writing fiction and screenplays. He grew up in Orange County and has lived in Berkeley, Yokohama, and Boston before winding up back here in Southern California.
www.davidyoon.com | narrowstreetsla.blogspot.com | @narrowstreetsLA
Tags: 2010, DAVID YOON, ISSUE 8, LOS ANGELES, PHOTOGRAPHY, PUBLIC, WINTER 10
Intriguing how the billboards and signs look way too large in the “revised” photos. The signs must be sized for motorists speeding by. Also, I would be curious to see a series of revised street scenes. Just what is the optimum size? For example, I suspect Little Tokyo would look okay with two lanes. Would it?
Thanks for the clever work.
I am amazed by how much more inviting the streets look to pedestrians.