Mulholland Drive
— the high road that watches both sides of the city.
Not only on a wall.
“A two-lane road along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains, running west from the Cahuenga Pass above Hollywood toward the Pacific. The pavement was opened in 1924 and carries the name of William Mulholland, the engineer who brought water to Los Angeles. Pull-offs above the city face the basin one way and the San Fernando Valley the other; the lights come on in two separate grids.
Mulholland Drive, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Mulholland Drive runs along the ridge of the Santa Monica Mountains for roughly 34 kilometres, from the Cahuenga Pass near the Hollywood Bowl west to the Pacific Coast Highway at Leo Carrillo State Beach. The eastern paved section, about 21 miles between Cahuenga and the 405 freeway in Sepulveda Pass, carries most of the traffic and the famous overlooks. The road opened in 1924 and was named for William Mulholland, the chief engineer of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Past the 405, the road becomes Mulholland Highway and continues unpaved through dirt sections favored by hikers and mountain bikers.
The ridge sits between two basins, which is the whole point. From the Hollywood Bowl Overlook the city spreads south to the Pacific, the haze layer settling toward downtown in late afternoon; from the Universal City Overlook the San Fernando Valley grid stretches north under a different evening, often clearer and colder. The sun crosses the ridge end-to-end through the year. June and July hold the longest dusks, the marine layer pushing in from Santa Monica around eight; in late autumn the Santa Ana winds clear the air and the city pinpricks all the way to Long Beach.
The paved 21-mile stretch is free and open to public traffic dawn to dusk, with formal pull-offs at the Hollywood Bowl Overlook, the Universal City Overlook, the Jerome C. Daniel Overlook, and Stone Canyon. Several gated overlooks close after sunset because of noise complaints from the houses set along the ridge. The road has no commercial frontage; gas, food, and water all come from the boulevards below. The eastern overlooks are walkable from the Hollywood Bowl on a long evening; the western sections require a car and a slow afternoon.