Park La Brea, Los Angeles facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Park La Brea
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Two types of housing at Park La Brea
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 Park La Brea
Location in Western Los Angeles
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| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Los Angeles |
| City | Los Angeles |
| Time zone | UTC−8 (PST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−7 (PDT) |
Park La Brea is a very large apartment community in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles, California. Its name comes from the Spanish words La Brea, which mean "The tar." This is because it's close to the famous La Brea Tar Pits.
Park La Brea is one of the biggest apartment complexes in the United States. It has 4,255 homes. These homes are in eighteen tall 13-story towers and thirty-one smaller two-story buildings. The whole community covers about 160 acres (0.65 square kilometers) of land.
Contents
Location and Getting Around
Park La Brea is located in a specific part of Los Angeles. It is bordered by 3rd Street to the north and 6th Street to the south. On the east side is Cochran Avenue, and on the west side is Fairfax Avenue.
Unique Street Design
One interesting thing about Park La Brea is its street layout. Many of the roads inside the complex are angled differently from the streets outside. They are set at a 45-degree angle compared to the regular city grid.
Public Transportation Access
Residents of Park La Brea have good access to public transportation. The Wilshire/Fairfax station on the D Line subway opened in 2025. This station is only about a 5-minute walk from Park La Brea. This means people living there can easily travel to Downtown Los Angeles by subway. The D Line subway line will also reach UCLA and the Westwood neighborhood by 2028.
History of Park La Brea
The land where Park La Brea now stands has a long history. After the Spanish arrived in the 1780s, most of this area became part of a large land grant called Rancho La Brea. For many years, the land was used for farming and for producing oil.
Development of the Area
In the 1920s, areas like Hollywood and the Miracle Mile grew very popular. This made the nearby land desirable for building homes. The tall apartment towers that give Park La Brea its name were built later, between 1944 and 1948.
Architectural Style
The apartment buildings at Park La Brea were designed by Leonard Schultze & Associates from New York. Earl T. Heitschmidt was also an important architect on the project in 1941. The style of the buildings is sometimes called Modern Colonial.
Schools for Residents
Children living in Park La Brea attend schools that are part of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Elementary Schools
There are three different elementary schools that serve parts of this neighborhood:
- Carthay Center Elementary School
- Hancock Park Elementary School
- Wilshire Crest Elementary School
Middle and High Schools
All students in the Park La Brea neighborhood attend the same middle and high schools:
- John Burroughs Middle School
- Fairfax High School
See also
- Co-op City
- Cooperative Village
- Mitchell Lama
- Parkchester, Bronx
- Parkfairfax, Virginia
- Parkmerced, San Francisco
- Penn South
- Riverton Houses
- Rochdale Village, Queens
- Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village
