Financial District, Financial district in Downtown Los Angeles, United States.

The Financial District, also called the Financial Core, is a neighborhood and central business district of Downtown Los Angeles bounded by the Harbor Freeway, First Street, Main and Hill Streets, and Olympic Boulevard and 9th Street. Its skyline is defined by the U.S. Bank Tower, Gas Company Tower and Ernst & Young Plaza, while Seventh Street keeps early-20th-century structures such as the 1904 Continental Building and the 1924 Financial Center Building in Beaux-Arts style.

What is now the Financial District was farmland, then a residential area, before businesses arrived around 1900 as Downtown expanded south along Broadway and west along Seventh Street. J. W. Robinson's built its flagship store there in 1915, and thirteen large office buildings opened between 1920 and 1928. The Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency created the district as an alternative to the old Spring Street financial district, which declined in the second half of the 20th century.

Seventh Street was downtown's upscale shopping corridor from about 1915, when J. W. Robinson's built its flagship store between Hope and Grand. Restored early-20th-century buildings such as the Beaux-Arts Financial Center Building (1924) and the Continental Building (1904) still line the street, and FIGat7th, opened in 1986 as Seventh Market Place, keeps a retail cluster there.

7th Street/Metro Center station is the main access point, served by the B, D, A and E lines. The district runs from First Street south to Olympic Boulevard and 9th Street, between the Harbor Freeway and Main and Hill streets. Seventh Street holds most of the restored early-20th-century buildings.

The 7th Street/Metro Center station, opened in 1991, links the district to four Metro Rail lines: the B, D, A and E. The district was created by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency as an alternative to the old Spring Street financial district, which declined in the second half of the 20th century.