Angels and saints: Making and promoting place in Los Angeles and Southern California, 1890--1932.

摘要

This dissertation is a study of ways in which an urban sense of place is formulated and expressed, and how it is utilized in place promotion. Using Los Angeles. San Diego, and the Southern California region as windows on the process, it considers the use of local history, historic sites, civic celebrations, public spaces, architecture and urban design, and mega-events to define identity, and examines how the region's growing cities exploited a sense of place to stimulate tourism, population growth, and economic investment from 1894--1932.; Urban placemaking is a cooperative, often contentious, effort that involves a range of organizations and individuals. The records of business and professional organizations and government entities were used to analyze Southern California placemakers' motivations and actions. Newspapers, architectural journals, booster publications, tourist literature, and ephemeral materials provided descriptions and insights into events and places, and a picture of emergent urban identities.; This dissertation examines four distinct, yet overlapping, placemaking methods and episodes, and the promotional images they spawned. First, the restoration of Mission San Diego de Alcala illustrates the use of local history and historic preservation in creating place. Its restoration was inspired by the Mission Myth, which exploited the region's only historic architectural remains. Second, during the 1890s Los Angeles moved beyond the Spanish fantasy past to promote itself as a cosmopolitan metropolis, marketing multiculturalism through La Fiesta de Los Angeles. Third, Los Angeles' efforts to use urban design and architecture to develop and communicate its status as a major metropolis are illustrated by the unsuccessful, extended struggle to devise a plan for its civic center area and by the successful design and construction of the 1928 Los Angeles City Hall. Finally, in staging the 1932 Olympic games, Los Angeles involved a range of people and organizations and exploited a variety of images to define itself as a world-class city, and to maximize publicity and profits. Placemaking and promotional methods grew more complex in the years covered by this dissertation, the places and events discussed, which were critical to the process, are now integral elements of the identities of their cities and the region.