Legman was warmly welcomed to the LAPD’s spanking new 437 million dollar headquarters the other day. Three floors up the brilliantly reflective façade of the L-shaped building a law enforcement management type is waiving at us!

Everyone else was busy working- the halls are barren- but after keenly spotting us pointing and shooting in the expansive public plaza one guy assigned to the Police Administrative Building took the time to extend a greeting and we’re grateful. This gesture makes manifest the architectural point of the building, promoting a new era of transparency in LA’s police operations. Can’t peek into the bunker like police headquarters in NYC. And their One Police Plaza is encumbered with a massive public art piece-Tony Rosenthal’s sculpture “Five in One”- while here the art- hippo-evoking bronze works that out going Chief Bratton likened to “cow splat”-is relegated to the street side perimeter, perhaps as a defensive barrier. (My old man insisted Richard Serra’s “Tilted Arc” at New York’s Federal Plaza was a functional shield)
So the plaza is wide open, and with its long, slightly sloping ramps and low rise steps angeling into the plaza, that means this is a skating paradise. Indeed, with the Brooklyn Banks shut down, we can’t see why skaters from across the nation wouldn’t show up here daily, we’re just saying.