Here, Edens Lost & Found presents excerpts from an interview with Eli Broad about his vision for Los Angeles.

We've learned a great deal in the last 50 years, especially here in Los Angeles. Remember, Los Angeles started, someone said, as 50 suburbs looking for a city because it did not have a vibrant center. Fifty years ago, we did not do the city regional planning that should have been done.

Twenty-five years ago we created a Museum of Contemporary Art just down the street from the Music Center. Then came the cathedral and then came, of course, Disney Hall which has been a great success.

Those projects are the cornerstone of the two major things going on downtown. One is what we call the Grand Avenue Project and that is going to create a park from City Hall to the Music Center -- a place where people from all communities, the West Side, the East Side, San Fernando Valley, all the areas, can come and enjoy free concerts -- perhaps even have film at night, celebrate Fourth of July, Cinco de Mayo; we haven't had that in downtown Los Angeles before.

In addition, the Grand Avenue Project is going to add several thousand rental and condominium housing units. Hopefully, an anchor that will give us something in addition to the museums there. And there'll be all sorts of interesting retail -- retail that will not be readily available in other parts of the city.

So we're calling that the civil and cultural district of Los Angeles, a region of 15 million people. And then south of us, you've got what I call the convention, sports and entertainment center. We're going to link all of that and we're going to have a downtown city center where people will want to spend an entire day, not simply drive down to see a game or drive down to see a concert and leave.

Older cities started with a vibrant center and grew out. Los Angeles started very differently. Now, more and more people want to live downtown because more and more is happening here. I think if you'll look at the history of cities you will not find a city that's been great that does not have a vibrant center where all people from all communities could gather -- whether it's for sports, entertainment or to celebrate events. We're creating that now.

Downtown really has not had the urban public space a city of this size deserves. So we're creating this 16-acre park. I wish it were 100 acres, but it's not. But 16 acres will have all sorts of uses 24 hours a day -- perhaps movies in the park and many of the things they do in Bryant Park in New York. Whether it's fashion shows, whether it's having the opera perform or practice there, all sorts of things will be going on. It'll be a way to get the 300,000 to 400,000 people working close by to have something to do during the day, during their lunch hour, and also have a place to go after work so everybody doesn't leave town at the same time and jam up the freeways.

Los Angeles is a great city. Culturally it's a great city. We've got a great symphony, we've got a great opera with Placido Domingo, we've got more theatrical productions than New York City and the museums here are very important. L.A. County Museum is the second most important encyclopedic museum in America. Great universities -- no city has universities the quality of Cal Tech, UCLA, USC and many others.

I can't complain about our climate either.

True, we haven't given enough thought to our transportation needs. That's all changed now. We have a subway, we have light rail, we have more and more people living closer to work now rather than wanting to have a quarter or half acre of land an hour away.

We will have a great park downtown, but let's remember we've already got Griffith Park, we've got the Santa Monica mountain parks. I believe we've got more parks surrounding our city than any other city in North America.

I think Los Angeles will be viewed as one of the four great cultural cities of the world together with Paris, London, New York because it has all the things they have and in some cases more. I see this city as being a mecca for cultural tourism.

I'm very optimistic about the future of Los Angeles. I have an apartment in New York City. I get to many cities in the world. This is the exciting city of the 21st Century. It's going to lead the way.

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