This is a book about what the city leaves behind — and what people create in the gaps. Within the tangled grid of downtown Los Angeles, where glass towers stand beside decaying warehouses and sidewalks teem with contradiction, something unexpected flourishes: a sprawling, ephemeral gallery of street art, graffiti, texture, and light. These are the marks of a city in flux — layered, weathered, often overlooked — but together they tell a story more honest than any official history.

Photographed and assembled by designer/artist Austin Steele, Los Angeles Department of Public Works is a visual journey through the ten districts at the core of DTLA. Using 50 mega-pixel DSLR photography and digital blending techniques, Steele builds lush, full-spread collages that combine the physical details of the street with the invisible currents of time, memory, and human expression.

This book is both a record and a reinvention — a love letter to a city in layers. From the ghosts of Bunker Hill to the grit of Skid Row, from historic facades to fresh protest stencils, these pages invite you to slow down, look closer, and see what’s been there all along.