In a city that keeps its secrets, these walls speak volumes

Barnsdall House
In the years after World War I, at a particularly low ebb in his career, Frank Lloyd Wright built a handful of experimental textile-block houses in the hills of Los Angeles, inspired by pre-Columbian architecture. It would be an understatement to say they haven't aged well. While salvage work continues on the monumental 1924 Ennis House, near Griffith Park, the 1921 Barnsdall House, owned and recently restored by the city, is the only Wright house in L.A. regularly open to the public. It's also known as the Hollyhock House, for the abstract floral pattern that runs along the top of the facade (323-644-6269; hollyhockhouse.net).

Downtown
While it will probably never feel like the center of Los Angeles, downtown has a new pulse these days. Old office buildings are being turned into lofts at a furious pace. Frank Gehry is designing a pair of hotel and condo towers across the street from his 2003 Walt Disney Concert Hall (111 S. Grand Ave.). And enough important new buildings have gone up that it's now possible to do a full architectural walking tour. Start at the top of Bunker Hill with Disney Hall, Arata Isozaki's 1986 Museum of Contemporary Art (250 S. Grand Ave.), and José Rafael Moneo's 2002 Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (555 W. Temple St.). Make your way down the hill to see Bertram Goodhue's 1926 Los Angeles Public Library (630 W. 5th St.), and peek in at the breathtaking interior of the 1893 Bradbury Building (304 S. Broadway). Cross the plaza of Thom Mayne's hulking 2004 Caltrans Building (100 S. Main St.) before finishing with Gehry's 1983 Geffen Contemporary, a MoCA satellite and one of the architect's most satisfying designs (152 N. Central Ave.).

Eames House
Ray Eames, who together with her husband, Charles, spent four decades creating a range of whimsical design objects (from chairs to toys) as well as short films and buildings, is the George Sand of the architecture world: It's a good idea to get her gender straight before you launch into any cocktail-party chatter about how besotted you are with mid-century modernism. The eucalyptus-dotted grounds of the couple's 1949 house in Pacific Palisades are open to the public (310-396-5991; eamesgallery.com).

Gamble House
In Pasadena, this 1908 icon of the Arts and Crafts style by the brothers Henry and Charles Greene is now open to the public following a $3.5 million restoration. Low-slung Craftsman houses of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with their brown shingles and overhanging roofs, were a hit among the working and moneyed classes alike and put Southern California architecture on the map (626-793-3334; gamblehouse.org).

Griffith Observatory
Although it was threatened by fire this spring, the 1935 Griffith Observatory, a model of streamlined Art Moderne style, is still in the middle of the city's architectural orbit after an extensive renovation. With new underground galleries to go with the famous walkways that James Dean crossed in Rebel Without a Cause, it remains the best place to look out over L.A. and take in its sprawling scale (213-473-0800; griffithobs.org).

Turning Green
The city may still be ruled by cars, but for a new generation of Angelenos, driving is an activity that produces not just exhaust but a fair amount of guilt. Two of the most talked-about architectural projects in recent months perfectly express this ambivalence. Fuel up your rented hybrid at the futuristic-looking BP Gas Station on the edge of Beverly Hills, at the corner of Robertson and Olympic boulevards—it features interior bamboo siding and low-flow toilets. Then steer into Southern California's first "green" parking garage, in Santa Monica, built with recycled materials and topped with solar panels (333 Civic Center Dr.).