Jamie Horton contributed to this report.
Watch a century of Los Angeles history unfold before your eyes in a matter seconds with Built:LA, a new interactive visual database that lets you see the built environment change in bright colors.
Not only does it you take a macro view of regional growth, but it also uses County data to let you zoom in on individual buildings to find out the exact year a building was built.
It also lets you take a look at major growth patterns over the last one hundred years or so by decade. Notice the burst of light blue in Santa Monica, mostly concentrated in the north side of the city, representing buildings built in the 1920s.
Then, the city begins filling out with shades of purple — those buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s. Striking is how little orange there is: those buildings built after 2000.
It’s an easy-to-use interface and who knows what you might find out about your neighborhood. At the very least, it’s a cool way to kill an hour at work while running down the clock before a holiday weekend. Give it a try.
