In the midst of the 101 Freeway to the north, Second Street to the south, Los Angeles Street to the east and the 110 Freeway to the west, a person can find the Civic Center District of Downtown Los Angeles.  The Civic Center District is located in the Northern region of downtown and borders Bunker Hill, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and the Historic Core of Downtown. 

The Civic Center area has the largest concentration of government employees in the United States outside of Washington D.C.. This is due to the fact that Los Angeles County is the largest county in the country and the second largest city in the United States.  In addition, Los Angeles houses many state and federal functions.  Upwards of 93,000 employees commute in and out of the Civic Center area every day and it is their work that maintains support to the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County. 

The Criminal Courts buildings, County Courthouse, Federal Courthouse, and the Hall of Justice are all located in the Civic Center District.  The city's big trials, inaugurations, parades and protests all unfold here.  However, the Civic Center area is not limited to just governmental functions; it is adjunct to all different cultural centers in the Downtown area. 
There is also a unique history to the Civic Center area.  When the 27-story City Hall was built in 1928, it was the tallest building in the city. Though much of the Downtown skyline now towers over it, this centerpiece of the Civic Center remains very much an icon - it doubled as the Daily Planet headquarters in TV's "Superman," and as the police station in "Dragnet." The structure is made exclusively from local materials: California granite in the façade; mortar mixed with sand from each county in the state, and water from each of its 21 Spanish colonial missions.

Radiating outward from City Hall in what planners call the 10-Minute Diamond are a bevy of county, state and federal buildings.  Among the new additions is the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, just north of the serious looking halls and courthouses. World-renowned Spanish architect José Rafael Moneo created a modern center for both worship and community gatherings; its plaza has become a brown bag lunch hotspot, if the business people can find bench space next to the priests. The award-winning California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) district headquarters, a modern slate gray behemoth designed by the architectural firm Morphosis, is the latest notable civic building to join the growing district.