Los Angeles: What to See & Do: Architecture: Caltrans District 7 Headquarters

Caltrans District 7 Headquarters

While downtown, architecture buffs should at least drive past this cutting-edge office building, which was instrumental in earning L.A. architect Thom Mayne the Pritzker Prize in 2005. (It’s a long walk from the cathedral but doable.) The front of the building is sheathed in an ever-changing mechanical aluminum skin, with apertures that open or close according to the weather and sunlight. The art installation by Keith Sonnier in the four-story outdoor plaza—half a mile of red and blue neon and argon tubes—becomes visible at dusk.