DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Over at herbie the love blog (why am I so boring at naming?), kenny has good piece on the fortresses that are the Medici and Orsini.

There are a pair of luxury apartment buildings in downtown LA, with more on the way, built to look like vaguely Italian-type buildings, except that they're massive castles. They're impenetrable from the outside except for the small openings for visitor parking (where visitors can't actually park, unless they're there to see a leasing agent). A couple of my friends live in such buildings. Let's call them The Medici and The Orsini, because those are the silly, pretentious names that they actually have.

I have friends who live in both buildings, but I've never actually been inside them. I've walked and driven by, though, and definitely agree with the analysis of their street presence.

(Thanks to Jonah and the great LABlogs digests for the pointer)