Downtown Los Angeles

A young girl stares into the depths of the whale exhibit at the Natural History Museum.  (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Saber-toothed tigers come to life with the help of robotics and a puppeteer in the Ice Age Encounters show at the Natural History Museum.  (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Head up to the second floor of the Central Library to admire the Lodwrick M. Cook Rotunda. Among its many treasures: mosaic-like dome decorations created by Julian E. Garnsey and a globe chandelier that is part of a model of the solar system.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Noelle Scaggs, lead hostess, awaits the next guests at Bottega Louie. The busy restaurant and gourmet market at Grand Avenue and 7th Street is known for its Italian food and its din.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Counter man David Diaz displays a selection of macarons, those delectable little French desserts, at Bottega Louie.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

The new Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott Hotel add a bit of sparkle to the L.A. Live area of downtown.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

The intersection of West 6th Street and South Broadway, part of downtown’s Jewelry District.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Greg Guzelian, a veteran bartender at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s Gallery Bar, puts the finishing touches on a French Kiss, a $16 cocktail he created several years ago.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Carpeted with sawdust and illuminated by a jumble of neon signs, the Grand Central Market dates to 1917.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

This open-air market offers produce, meats and street food of many countries (especially Mexico).  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Take a trip into downtown’s past aboard one of the twin orange cars of the Angels Flight Railway, a rebuilt funicular that, for a quarter, will take you 298 feet up Bunker Hill.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

The interior of the Bradbury Building, a five-story, glazed-brick-and-cast-iron marvel that went up in 1893. Architect George Wyman was inspired by an imaginary building in a science fiction story. Then, decades later, director Ridley Scott seized on the Bradbury as a set for his futuristic 1982 film “Blade Runner.” It’s free to stroll the ground level of the Bradbury, whose tenants include the LAPD Internal Affairs unit and Ross Cutlery, where you can use the old-fashioned scale for a dime.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Twin dragons welcome visitors to Chinatown. In the background is Los Angeles’ iconic City Hall.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Although Los Angeles’ Chinatown can’t match its counterparts in San Francisco or New York for pedestrian friendliness or retail and restaurant variety, it has a backstory all its own. The original neighborhood was leveled to make way for Union Station in the 1930s, so the community rebuilt itself a few blocks to the northwest.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Olvera Street is crowded with pedestrians and vendors. This is where settlers from Mexico founded Los Angeles in the late 18th century.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Stephanie Delgadillo enjoys the lunchtime entertainment at La Golondrina (main dishes $10-$24), one of several restaurants on the alley. If you dine there on a Friday evening, you’ll be serenaded by a five- or six-man mariachi group, for free.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Colorful guitars hang for sale on Olvera Street.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

A dancer from the Xipe Totec Danzantes Aztecas troupe performs on Olvera Street.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Traxx, an upscale bar-restaurant, is tucked away just inside the main entrance of Union Station.  (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Disney Hall, Frank Gehry’s rippling metallic beauty, is nearly irresistible, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic keeps it busy.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Acclaimed young conductor Gustavo Dudamel is scheduled to conduct about 45 performances in the 2010-11 season, and the hall books jazz and world music too. But tickets are dear, so you might just take the free 60-minute building tour, which doesn’t cover the auditorium but does let you creep up and around the exterior. Most days, they hand out headphones between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and sometimes there are live guides.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

The Museum of Contemporary Art on Grand Avenue.  (Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times)

The Stay, a clean budget lodging, offers bunk beds for as little as $35, private rooms with bath for $75.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Downtown’s boosters dream of a 24-hour district teeming with loft dwellers who nightly browse restaurants, bars, galleries and one-of-a-kind shops. We’re not all the way there yet, but if you show up on Spring or Main streets, between 2nd and 9th streets, on the second Thursday of any month, you’ll see something like that vision. That’s the night of the Downtown Art Walk. In this photo, local artist Amanda Sage works on a piece outside the Temple of Visions gallery during the Art Walk.  (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

During Downtown Art Walk, a loosely organized ritual, galleries such as the Hive (729 S. Spring St.) and shops including Metropolis Books (440 S. Main St.) stay open late, DJs pop up everywhere, there are dozens of food trucks, and hundreds of young artsy urbanites -- some of them loft dwellers, many of them adventurers from elsewhere -- roam the streets under the gaze of police and private security guards.  (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Local artist Sand One is filmed during January’s Art Walk.  (Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Nickel Diner serves American comfort food (including maple bacon donuts) near the gritty corner of Main and 5th.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Lazy Ox Canteen (241 S. San Pedro St., www.lazyoxcanteen.com) is known for its brilliant burgers.  (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Gourmet hot dogs are the specialty at Wurstkuche in downtown’s Arts District.  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

L.A. doesn’t have an NFL team -- yet. Till then, Angelenos have something almost as bruising, a banked-track, all-female roller derby league known as the L.A. Derby Dolls. Once, sometimes twice a month, about 2,000 people turn out at the rink on West Temple Street (near Alvarado Street) to watch these tough puppies in unstaged athletic competitions.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)