Los Angeles Panorama | 310m View Over the City | 360° Gigapixel Panorama

Los Angeles from 310 meters: a city spread between mountains and the coast

On November 4, 2019, the team arrived in Los Angeles from Shanghai — the first stop of "GigaExplorer Across America." From roughly 310 meters, the city looks nothing like New York or Shanghai. No single downtown defines the metropolis. Downtown, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the Westside, and the distant San Fernando Valley spread across mountains, basins, and the coast. Zoom out for structure; zoom in for neighborhoods and landmarks — gigapixel scale is especially suited to reading this dispersed megacity.

Start with the Hollywood Sign

Begin with the Hollywood Sign — nine white letters that open the frame. The surrounding hills reveal Hollywood Hills and communities tucked into slopes and valleys. Move southeast and the city densifies: Griffith Observatory, high in Griffith Park, is a key reference for the Los Angeles Basin, while Downtown's towers rise from the vast low-rise fabric below.

Downtown is only one piece of the puzzle

Zoom into Downtown and Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Broad, Grand Park, and nearby high-rises form one of the city's densest cores. Step beyond that cluster and low-rise neighborhoods, commercial streets, and freeways fan outward — Downtown is a node in a much larger network. Hollywood Hills, the Santa Monica Mountains, and other terrain divide the landscape; freeways and valleys connect it. From Downtown, look west toward the Westside, Beverly Hills, and the coast, or north along the hills toward Hollywood, Studio City, and the San Fernando Valley. A global metropolis with an unusually dispersed urban form.

Through glass, racing the sun

Skyspace is outdoors, yet safety glass surrounds the deck. Glass softens distant detail, creates reflections, and distorts near its edges. The team used light-blocking panels and towels to cut glare, and added shooting panels so the stitch could rely on the clearer center of each pane. November sunlight stayed south, leaving the southern side backlit; staged shooting helped, but that direction never matched the others. About six hours on site yielded 4,866 frames. Back in Shanghai, selection, color work, stitching, and restoration produced the 123-gigapixel panorama you explore today.

Zoom from the movie city into everyday streets

The Hollywood Sign is the easiest entry to cinematic Los Angeles; the real reward is zooming into roads, neighborhoods, valleys, and the continuous low-rise fabric between landmarks. Move from Hollywood toward Downtown, then toward the Westside and coast — Los Angeles is not a collage of attractions but an urban space that keeps unfolding. A gigapixel view does not only show landmarks; it places them back inside the city that surrounds them. Move slowly across the frame and mountains, streets, film culture, and everyday life share one endlessly zoomable landscape.