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A Hollywood landmark and site of many a movie premiere, this white dome of interlocked triangles is LA’s most unusual movie theater. The world’s only concrete geodesic dome was built by Welton Beckett in 1963 to show Cinerama movies, a revolutionary wide-screen technique requiring three 35 mm projectors. Today, it is part of a brand new complex that also includes the ArcLight movie theaters (see ArcLight Cinemas & Cinerama Dome).

The centerpiece of this unique architectural metaphor is a shiplike Art Deco building that “sails” into a courtyard flanked by cottages in styles ranging from Spanish Colonial to German gingerbread. A quiet office complex, it was built in 1936 by Robert Derrah, who designed downtown’s Coca-Cola Bottling Plant.

Los Feliz is also home to the Hollyhock House, a community arts center. The Mayan-style mansion was designed by Frank Lloyd in 1921 for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall. Depictions of the holly-hock, her favorite flower, appear everywhere on façades and in furniture.

A night at the world’s largest natural amphitheater is as much part of Los Angeles summer tradition as backyard barbecues and fun at the beach. The world’s finest artists – from Sinatra to Pavarotti – have performed here since 1922. In 1924, Lloyd Wright designed the first concert shell, greatly improving acoustics.

Founded in 1899, this cemetery has the densest concentration of celebrity corpses in the world. The long list of those interred here includes Rudolph Valentino, Jane Mansfield, and Cecil B. De Mille. The grandest memorial, though, belongs to Douglas Fairbanks Sr. who, since 2000, has shared his marble tomb with his son, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Buy a map of the graves from the nearby flower shop.

This museum is housed in the 1895 barn where Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille set up Hollywood’s first major film studio in 1913. Originally located at Selma Avenue and Vine Street, De Mille shot Hollywood’s first full-length feature The Squaw Man here in 1913–14. Exhibits include a recreated studio as well as plenty of photographs, props, and memorabilia from the silent movie era.

The twin neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Los Feliz constitute one of Los Angeles’s oldest movie colonies with bohemian-chic dining, shopping, and nightlife scenes. The hills are studded with Modernist masterpieces such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1924 Ennis-Brown House and the Lovell House built by Richard Neutra.