La Ciénega Boulevard is a major north/south arterial road that runs from El Segundo Boulevard in El Segundo, California on the south to its end on the Sunset Strip/Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Within the City of Los Angeles, north of the 10-Freeway, it marks the border between the Westside and Mid-City Los Angeles and Greater Hollywood.
It is unusual among most Southern California roadways in that part of it was built to freeway standards in the late 1940s as part of the proposed Laurel Canyon Freeway, part of California State Route 170. The SR 170 freeway was never completed south of U.S. Route 101, and the stretch of La Ciénega from just north of Farview Blvd in Inglewood, through the Baldwin Hills and along the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area to Rodeo Road in Los Angeles is a divided, limited access highway with few traffic signals. As such, emergency call boxes like those found along the area's freeways were installed along that stretch in the 1970s.
From south of Fairview and from north of Rodeo, La Ciénega Boulevard is a regular surface street and one of Hollywood's major thoroughfares. Offices for A&E Network, The History Channel and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are located on La Ciénega as are the studios of KABC and KLOS, two of Los Angeles' biggest radio stations. A portion of La Ciénega near Hollywood is known as "Restaurant Row" for its large number of upscale restaurants.
La Ciénega Boulevard is named after "Rancho Las Ciénegas" the Spanish name for a rancho roughly in the region now called "West Los Angeles". The Spanish phrase la ciénaga translates into English as "the swamp" and the area named "Las Ciénegas" was a continual marshland due to the course of the Los Angeles River through that area prior to a massive southerly shift in 1825 to roughly its present course. The difference in spelling between "La Ciénega" and the term "ciénaga" originated with the name of the rancho.
There is also a reference to La Cienaga Boulevard on the popular Disney channel show, "The Proud Family", in which a character is named Lacienaga Boulevardez.
La Cienaga Boulevard is referenced in the Ryan Adams song, "La Cienega Just Smiled" on his album Gold.
