Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The area features many of the city's major arts institutions and sports facilities, a variety of skyscrapers and associated large multinational corporations and an array of public art, unique shopping opportunities and the hub of the city's freeway and public transportation networks.

Downtown Los Angeles is generally thought to be bounded by the Los Angeles River on the east, the U.S. Route 101 to the north, the 10 Santa Monica Freeway on the south and the 110 Harbor Freeway on the west; however, some sources including the Los Angeles Downtown News and Los Angeles Times[1], extend the area past the traditional boundary to include the University Park (encompassing the University of Southern California (USC) and Exposition Park, just south of the 10 Freeway) and Central City West (just west of the 110 Freeway) neighborhoods as a part of the downtown map.

Downtown Los Angeles is currently undergoing a transformation, with many historic buildings being converted into lofts, many new high-rise residential buildings being built and slated to be built, and with two major construction projects: L.A. Live and the Grand Avenue Project.

Despite its relative decentralization, Los Angeles has one of the largest skylines in the United States, and its development has continued in recent times. The skyline has seen rapid growth due to improvements in building standards, which has made some buildings highly earthquake-resistant. Many of the new skyscrapers are housing, especially in Downtown--what the office tower rush in the 1970s and 1980s added to the skyline is now occurring again in the form of residential construction. Some current and upcoming examples of skyscraper construction include:

1. Grand Avenue Project scheduled to begin construction on or before February 2009. It will include a 40-50-story iconic tower at the corner of Second and Grand.[1] Flower District of Downtwon LA is a six block area, which is the countries largest Wholesale Flower Market. Its located within the Fashion District of LA, near the intersection of San Pdero and East 8th street. It's home to nearly 200 individual flower dealers.
2. LA Live which will include a 54 story 2 hotel hybrid. Currently under construction and on the 36th floor as of September 2008.
3. South, a tri-tower complex (13-, 19-, and 23-story towers) called Elleven, Luma, and Evo at the north-west block from 11th and Grand to 12th and Grand.
4. Metropolis, a mixed-use tri-tower (38, 47, and 52 stories, respectively) at Francisco and 9th Street.
5. Park Fifth Residential Towers.
6. Concerto a 28 story residential tower, currently on floor 25 as of September 2008
7. 717 9th St a 35 story residential tower, which will top out on September 19th 2008.

This is a brief list, and there are many more. The recent "rise" of South Park, the low-rise district of downtown south of Bunker Hill (roughly south of 8th Street and north of the Santa Monica Freeway), is bringing skyscrapers that will be high enough in quantity and height to create an extended downtown skyline within a few years from 2005. Due to numerous films, television, and music videos that are shot in Los Angeles and uses downtown Los Angeles as the backdrop, the Los Angeles skyline is probably one of the most recognizable skylines in the world.

The skyline of Los Angeles consists of several different clusters of high-rise buildings; most of these clusters are not directly connected to each other. Century City and the parts of Wilshire Boulevard through Westwood together form a rather busy skyline that is often confused with the downtown skyline.

Source: Wikipedia.org. More Information at:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Los_Angeles