Los Angeles, CA Photo - The Bunker Hill Steps Linking Hope Street to Fifth Street in Los Angeles, CA

The Bunker Hill Steps linking Hope Street to Fifth Street is Los Angeles' architectural translation of Rome's Spanish Steps and, indeed, are often referred to as the "Spanish Steps." Designed by Lawrence Halprin, the 103 steps are divided by a raised, mock rock bottom cascading water channel that originates at the top of the stairs in a fountain featuring an idealized female form by the sculptor Robert Graham. Entitled "Source Figure," 1992, the small-scaled sculpture represents the fertile female and her symbolic association with the continuum of life, as expressed in the water she offers this ever-thirsty, semi-arid city. This continuum of life is also expressed in the lush, flowering plantings and in the social life that takes place on the terraced seating of the restaurants adjoining the Library Tower. To make the scene accessible to all, an elevator and escalator edge the steps.

Carol M. Highsmith (born 1946) is a photographer, author, and publisher who has photographed all 50 of the United States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico for 30 years. She specializes in documenting architecture, ranging from the monumental to the everyday and whimsical. Highsmith is donating her life ’s work of more than 100,000 images, copyright-free, to the Library of Congress, which established a rare one-person archive. Out of 14 million images, the Carol M. Highsmith collection is featured in the top six alongside of Mathew Brady and Dorethea Lange. Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Credit line: The Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.