Watch Los Angeles get built, one building at a time (1880–2026)
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Interactive 3D map shows every surviving building in LA County by year built.
The page extrudes 1,129,558 building footprints from lidar and assessor data into 3D boxes, playing the city's construction from 1880 to 2026. Only buildings still standing appear, so demolished structures are absent. Colors indicate decade or height. Key findings: the 1950s is the decade with the most surviving buildings; the San Fernando Valley appears rapidly after WWII; downtown's 150-foot height limit was a hard ceiling until 1957. The map uses DuckDB spatial, tippecanoe, MapLibre, and static R2 files.
What commenters are saying
Commenters praised the project's technical execution but raised several issues. The dark map styling makes ocean, parks, and separate municipalities like Beverly Hills appear as indistinguishable empty black spaces, potentially misleading viewers. The map only shows surviving buildings, so older decades look deceptively sparse. Several commenters noted that LA's density (8,200/sqmi average) is the highest among major US urban areas, despite its single-family homes. A debate emerged about whether LA is a paradise paved over or a formerly underdeveloped wasteland transformed by industry. Suggestions included distinguishing water from land and incorporating building permit records for richer history.