But despite the fact that the sidewalks roll up at sunset, downtown L.A. has gotten hot. We know this sounds familiar–the neighborhood’s had more comebacks than Richard Gere. Now developers, spurred by tax incentives, are busy flipping dilapidated buildings into lofts, and young urban pioneers are moving in, lured by the affordable rents and the vague notion that urban living is cool. The first downtown movie studio has opened, at the old Unocal headquarters, where the prequel to “Terminator” is now shooting. The once fringy art scene–with struggling artists tucked into abandoned industrial spaces–is flourishing, and new galleries are turning up in Chinatown. The most avant-garde of L.A.’s design schools, SCI-Arc, moved downtown last year from the west side. And everyone’s talking about the hugely ambitious architecture projects going up. “The most innovative architects in southern California in the 2oth century were really involved in the private sector, doing domestic homes,” says Richard Koshalek, director emeritus of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA). “Now these talents are focused on the public realm.”

It’s not just that world-class architects like L.A.’s own Frank Gehry are building big here–it’s that they’re accommodating street life and pedestrians in a way this car-crazy city hasn’t done before. No project is more anticipated than Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall for the L.A. Philharmonic, on Grand Avenue next to the old Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Almost 15 years in the planning, its gorgeous stainless-steel sail-like shapes are now unfurling at the crest of Bunker Hill. Even though the opening’s a year away, the buzz has begun among design buffs and music lovers of all stripes (Jennifer Lopez just used it as a location for her new video “Jenny From the Block”). Down the street is MoCA, while a little farther north is the just-opened, controversial new cathedral, Our Lady of the Angels, designed by the eminent Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. The city fathers are putting a lot of faith in this cultural corridor–though a design scheme by Gehry, Moneo and MoCA architect Arata Isozaki, to make the avenue more pedestrian-friendly, never got off the ground. Still, Gehry’s making the concert hall alluring to the ordinary passerby. “On the corner I made an outdoor foyer, a public space where people could sit, maybe brown-bag it at lunch,” he says. Moneo’s amber concrete cathedral is less inviting: the church doors don’t even face the street but rather a private plaza in back, surrounded by fortresslike walls, with gates that shut at night. But throngs of people come during the day, including office workers at lunchtime who perch at the outdoor cafe. Meanwhile, a few blocks to the east, the ground’s been broken for the Caltrans center. A transportation agency doesn’t sound glamorous, but the design by L.A. architect Thom Mayne’s firm Morphosis will bring an edgy 21st-century scheme to the ‘hood. Mayne’s also planned a vast public plaza to encourage the kind of hanging out that pumps life into a city.

But the main way to keep the urban energy up is to get people to live there. “Downtowns aren’t built with Disney halls and cathedrals,” says developer Tom Gilmore, who’s been converting decaying historic buildings into loft apartments since the late ’90s. He’s attracted plenty of tenants, despite an urban grittiness right out of the movies: no one in his 237-unit Old Bank District lofts seems to mind the bird’s-eye view of Skid Row’s Midnight Mission. His latest project is the conversion of the 1913 Gothic Revival El Dorado Hotel, most recently a flophouse. He’s also involved in transforming the earthquake-shaken old cathedral, St. Vibiana’s, into an arts center and apartments. Today, there’re more than 5,000 downtown market-rate rentals, from $1,000 to $4,000 a month–with another 5,000 planned for the next three years, plus 8,500 affordable units. Still, that’s not a lot of residents, considering the daytime population of downtown swells to 300,000. When it comes right down to it, the future of downtown L.A. may hinge on a fancy supermarket: the nearest one is a seven-mile commute. But the first name-brand supermarket is still two years off, part of a $200 million mixed-use project by the CIM development group. Dry cleaners, laundries and other amenities are hard to come by, too. And can you live without a car? Mmmm, maybe. There are plans to extend the subway, which is essential to creating more street life.

Part of the area’s appeal is its diversity–Chinatown, Little Tokyo, the Latino shops along Broadway. “In many ways, L.A. is a segregated city,” says architect Eric Owen Moss, director of SCI-Arc. “But downtown those pieces bump together.” Still, it’s a fragile ecology, with many low-income residents–including artists who moved downtown years ago–being pushed out by rising rents. And stricter enforcement of anti-loitering laws is hurting the homeless. “They tell us no more sleeping in cardboard boxes, so we have to get moving by 4 a.m.,” says Terry Johnson, who’s lived on and off downtown streets for years. He maintains that without people like him, downtown will become “another Burbank.”

Burbank? We don’t think so. That ineffable “cool” factor seems to be sticking. Just look at the art and design scene. SCI-Arc is ensconced in its new downtown home east of Little Tokyo–in a former railroad-freight terminal that’s a quarter-mile long (some of the 470 students get from their studio desks to class on skateboards or scooters). Nearby is the Gehry-designed Geffen Contemporary Museum, and next door is the site of a future children’s museum designed by Thom Mayne. In Chinatown, along with artists’ studios and new galleries, a former restaurant is getting a makeover into a bar to cater to the art scene. (Who needs supermarkets–these downtown denizens need clubs!) “There’s been a steady stream of cool young people coming through,” says the Standard hotel’s owner, Andre Balazs. “You always had a kind of corporate infrastructure there, but until a young urban settler adopts the neighborhood, no urban center can go anywhere.” Consider the neighborhood adopted. Other observers agree that downtown L.A.’s moment has arrived at last. Fernando Torres-Gil, vice president of the city-planning commission under Mayor Tom Bradley, bought a condo opposite the new Gehry concert hall three years ago (it’s since doubled in value). “After decades of failed attempts,” he says, “we’re finally seeing the emergence of a 24-hour community right here in downtown.” And not just on the rooftop of the Standard.