When I moved to California a decade ago, I remember seeing Downtown LA from the car coming from the airport and then thinking to myself – “This is their business district? Wow, ours is waaaaaaay better!”

The buildings were small and since it’s the US of A, I was expecting better than where I came from. Makati, Eastwood (Philippines), among others were modern, expensive and high tech in 2008. And DTLA wasn’t all that, I discovered. However, the small, older buildings had character and smelled like history.

10 years later, one side of DTLA is what I expected it to be a while back with it’s high rise buildings, 5 star hotels and modernized malls. It is beautiful and what makes it even more so is that the other side still has the old architecture and historic vibe so you have a lovely juxtaposition of both worlds.