The palm-lined Venice Beach boardwalk — with its sidewalk vendors, street musicians, roller skaters and Muscle Beach bodybuilders — has become synonymous with Los Angeles, appearing on film almost as often as local luminary Dennis Hopper. The movie veteran's Frank Gehry-designed compound is one of many architectural standouts in Venice, a community that serves as a magnet for L.A.'s actors, musicians, designers and artists.

A City by the Sea

Venice, California, was brought to idiosyncratic life by asthmatic tobacco tycoon Abbot Kinney, who was drawn by Southern California's healthful climate. In 1898 he set about turning a patch of marshland into a replica of Italy's landmark city, complete with canals and pleasure pier. Finished in 1905, the project opened to much fanfare, including camel rides and gondoliers, setting a carnival tone that has defined Venice Beach ever since.

Several piers and amusement parks have come and gone, battered by storms and fires. Now the performers congregate along the Venice boardwalk — skateboarders and stilt-walkers, musicians and magicians. Tattoo parlors, booths stuffed with sunglasses and beach clothes, and purveyors of street food line the scenic beachfront. Cyclists interweave between the pedestrians as the beat of conga drums fills the air. Basketball games on the beachside courts draw a crowd, especially on Saturday afternoons.

Venice Arts and Culture

Since its early days the city has attracted the odd and adventurous — artists and spiritual seekers, Beat poets and hippies. The best and bravest performers show their stuff on the beach's main stage; others vie with the vendors for sidewalk space to perform and hawk CDs and paintings. Local cultural highlights include the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), the literary center Beyond Baroque, and performance spaces at the Electric Lodge and the Pacific Resident Theatre.

Shopping, Dining and Nightlife

Just up from the boardwalk is Windward Avenue; movie fans will recognize its graceful colonnades from the opening sequence of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. Heading south, across Venice Boulevard, lie the Venice canals, with pretty little bridges and walking paths. Angling across town from Washington Boulevard to Main Street is Abbot Kinney Boulevard, a hotbed of Venice restaurants and night spots, including Axe, Gjelina, Hal's Bar and Grill, Joe's Restaurant, Primitivo Wine Bistro and Wabi Sabi. During the day, shoppers come for the mix of art galleries, clothing boutiques, home and garden shops, and health and beauty emporiums. On the first Friday of the month, shops stay open until 10pm; in late September, the boulevard closes to traffic for the Abbot Kinney Festival.

Just off the main drags are the narrow residential streets of Venice, a mix of lovingly restored bungalows, modest apartments and modernist architectural statements. Grass-lined streets, dog parks, recreational areas and well-tended gardens turn this densely populated neighborhood into a pleasant retreat. And if life gets too quiet, there's always the thriving buzz along the Venice Boardwalk, where Abbot Kinney's sense of showmanship lives on.