Exchange LA Club

Downtown, Los Angeles –

Housed inside the former Los Angeles Stock Exchange building, Exchange LA serves as a clear indication of Downtown’s nightlife resurgence. Actually, 1,700 indications, seeing as that’s how many dance-happy revelers regularly fill this multi-level club.

The décor is a mix of restored Art Deco styles and distinctly modern touches, from the massive bronze doors out front to the intricately painted forty-foot ceilings and the eye-popping LED screen composed of more than one million bulbs.

There’s a sofa-lined hallway and adjoining lounge at street level, but most of the trendy guests head straight up to the Trading Floor – so named because that’s what it used to be – where they let loose to trance, house, Top 40, or whatever other dance-friendly beats the DJ’s spinning that night.

Laser lights, wafer-thin house dancers, and pulsing fog machines are definitely not in short supply, but VIPs looking for a more intimate environment have several options, from the booths in the mezzanine to the chilled-out Rockefeller Room or the private dance floor in the top-level Sky Loft.

Six bars spread over four levels means grabbing a drink is less of a hassle than at other packed venues, and with reportedly more bathrooms than any other club in LA, getting rid of that drink is easier, too.

Add all that to a past lineup that includes Tritonal, Nicki Minaj, and Carl Cox, and it’s clear why Exchange LA has few substitutions.