During one of the many football games I watched this weekend, a Chik Fil-A commercial came on and I immediately recognized several downtown locations where it was filmed — including this process-shot two-fer at the end that I paused and snapped (click to enlarge):
See, this scene doesn’t actually exist in nature. The fire station central in the foreground (long defunct and privately owned, the last time I biked by it was empty and for sale) is west-facing and located on Santa Fe just south of 7th Street, which means that the sky behind it is entirely empty, not filled with civic center high rises from which rogue cows can drape illegal supergraphics… in large part because low buildings and the Los Angeles River pretty much occupy the space where those buildings have been placed (though the inclusion of the US Bank Tower’s reflection is a nice touch).
Don’t believe me? Google Maps Streetview doesn’t lie: