Tour of the Los Angeles Times

Great tour of the Los Angeles Times building on 1^st Street in DTLA. It’s a great Art Deco/​Streamline Modern building dating back to the 1930’s by architect, Gordon Kaufmann. The main lobby is like a museum dedicated to the Los Angeles Times with huge murals by Hugo Ballin, busts of the founder, H. G. Otis & H. Chandler, son-​in-​law, an old school printing machine, photos depicting the different times in LA Times history.
D. Kunitomi, a 38 year veteran and one of the ‘last of the Mohicans”, was a great guide since he knows so much of the history & ways of the LA times personally. The hallways, unseen by the general public, is lined with famous pictures captured by past LA Times reporters, and they became a focus of attention & discussion. We also saw different sections of the Times dedicated to general news. sports, food which has its own test kitchen to standardize & quantify recipes requested by readers from famous restaurants for the readers to try out as well as Hoy which is a Spanish language publication in association with the LA Times.
We also got a chance to meet Ruben Vives walking by who was one of the reporters who got on the ground floor of the corruption scandal in the City of Bell. Newpapers are vital in informing the public on what is going on with our governments and exposing illegal activities, payola, nepotism, etc. They are another check & balance essential to the workings of our democracy since transparency is so important to ward off the evil influences of corruption. So far internet sources can not do the important job that newspapers do so well since there is no system of verification & professionalism.
The tour takes a little over 1 hour, and it is a great way to get to know another facet of our sprawling city. Mr. Kunitomi has an interesting mixture of a very wry sense of humour and also humility. He helps create an intelligent, thought provoking tour that is unique unto himself. He’d make an excellent late night host especially if the theme leans toward the intellectual inn a tongue-​in-​cheek way.
I highly recommend this tour and since Little Tokyo is so close, lunch or dinner afterwards would be a great way to kill two Teriyaki chickens with one stone. 4+ Unilocal stars.
(213) 237‑5757
Free public tours of the iconic Times Building and the newspaper’s printing facility in downtown Los Angeles are available a few times a month.