Take a walk on the deco side

“They don’t make them like this anymore,” Ruben Pardo,security guard for the Wilshire Tower, tells us as he shows off abrass-and-mahogany elevator. They sure don’t. The art decobuildings of 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s Los Angeles were thearchitectural equivalent of the era’s movie musicals – as sexilyprecise as a line of tap-dancing chorus girls. Wilshire Boulevard’s”Miracle Mile” boasted an especially splendid concentration of artdeco: Here showplaces like the Dominguez Wilshire and the MayCompany (now LACMA West) wowed with sleek façades andcloud-kissing towers. Happily, many of these buildings havesurvived to dazzle you today – as you’ll see on the Miracle Milewalking tours offered by the Art Deco Society of Los Angeles. Thetours, which run the third Saturday of every other month, give youa look at only-in-L.A. masterworks that may leave you tap-dancingyourself. – Michael Tennesen

Deco the halls

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The next Miracle Mile walking tour is at 10 a.m. Jul 17. $10,reservations required. www.adsla.org or310/659-3326.

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