New Reference Resource: HistoricPlacesLA Catalogues Over 25,000 of L.A.’s Most Significant Buildings and Sites

HistoricPlacesLA was formally launched today and runs on open source software discussed below.
From a Post on the The Getty’s Iris Blog by Ken Bernstein:

As the head of the City of Los Angeles’s historic preservation program, I’m amazed that I still sometimes get puzzled questions from people who think L.A. has no past. “Historic preservation in Los Angeles? Do you really have anything historic to preserve?”
Yes, it’s true that Los Angeles came of age later than most of its East Coast or international counterparts, but it’s a city of remarkable history and architectural heritage.  And for anyone who’s still somehow unconvinced, I now have a ready retort: HistoricPlacesLA, Los Angeles Historic Resources Inventory, launched today at HistoricPlacesLA.org.
Thanks to the leadership and generosity of the Getty, Los Angeles now has launched the most advanced cultural resource inventory management system in the United States.
HistoricPlacesLA.org contains tens of thousands of places of architectural, cultural, or social importance across Los Angeles—individual buildings as well as also parks, gardens, bridges, and streetscapes, along with information that connects them with the many stories of our city. It is free and easy to access online and is fully searchable by location and keyword.
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HistoricPlacesLA is also the first online information and management system specifically developed for the City of Los Angeles to map, inventory, and describe our significant cultural resources. For City government, HistoricPlacesLA gives us the tool we’ve long needed to use fuller knowledge of our built heritage to plan more effectively for our future.
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HistoricPlacesLA uses the Arches system—an open-source information platform built to inventory and ultimately protect cultural heritage places internationally, developed by the Getty and World Monuments Fund, and customized for Los Angeles. HistoricPlacesLA unites the Arches framework with the rich data collected for SurveyLA, along with information on thousands of designated historic resources in Los Angeles.

Read the Complete Blog Post
Direct to HistoricPlacesLA
Near the bottom of the homepage you’ll find details about the data itself.
Direct to Search Interface
Data can be downloaded in .csv and .shp formats. Click “Tools”
Direct to Data Access Using Map Interface
Note: There is no help documentation currently available.

Filed under: Data Files, Management and Leadership, Preservation, Resources