Los Angeles

Los Angeles runs on car culture and perpetual reinvention — the freeway is not a problem to solve but the city's actual circulatory system, and understanding that reframes everything. Architecturally, the dominant register is mid-century stucco and glass-box modernism punctuated by the occasional Frank Gehry landmark; historical depth is not the draw. The city holds more languages, nationalities, and culinary traditions than almost anywhere on earth, concentrated in distinct corridors — Koreatown along Wilshire, the Eastside's Mexican markets, Little Ethiopia on Fairfax — each operating as a largely self-contained world. Without a car, the rhythm is frustrating; with one, the Pacific at Zuma, the galleries on Wilshire, and a taco counter in Boyle Heights are all within the same afternoon.