Walking L.A. #13, West Hollywood: a Study in Interior and Exterior Design, 2.5 miles.

In the 1800s the land that's now West Hollywood held railroad shops, car barns, and homes for RR employees. Today WeHo is one of the most progressive and multi-personality cities in the country and "the most walkable city in CA." Barbara and I started our mini-tour on Kings Road at the Schindler House (now the MAK Center for Art & Architecture). When Schindler designed this little home in 1922, it was an architectural oddity. No living room, dining room, or bedrooms! The L-shaped, 2-resident dwelling gave each tenant their own wing w/rooftop sleeping baskets and a meet-place in the middle—a design so radical at the time that the planning office hesitated to grant Schindler a building permit. Now it's an icon of modern architecture. South, then west on Melrose past a fabulously exclu$ive string of stores to do serious window shopping. We found THE shop to buy our Oscar dresses <as if> then crossed LaCienega to today's most colorful window dressing: mannequins backed by cereal boxes. Multiple "For Lease" signs bemoan the loss of quaint Melrose shops from the past, and steel/glass buildings stand in place of neighborhood landmarks like the Bodhi Tree. On to the 1975 Pacific Design Center at San Vincente and its green and red companions, all three can't-miss-'em sights from a distance. My one visit inside the Blue Whale was to a trés-exclusive WMG Grammy Party, circa 1990s. Across the street on San Vincente we passed West Hollywood Park where in a few weeks a tent will be constructed for the Elton John AIDS Academy Awards Party. Turning east on Santa Monica, Barbara and I entered the heart of gay West Hollywood, a string of colorful bars, restaurants, specialty shops, gyms, and coffee houses, and home to the annual WeHo Halloween Carnaval and the LA Pride Parade & Festival. A nostalgic stop for me at LaCienega and Santa Monica outside the former Voight Fitness & Dance where I spent most of the 90's in yoga, aerobics, and dance classes. High kicks. Running man. Tree pose. Sigh. We finished with a stroll through the Kings Road Park. A charmer with a bubbly fountain, meditation benches, dog park, and—what?—an actual working phone booth. Such a cool neighborhood.