Title Guarantee & Trust Building
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
A shot of the building as it stands today.
An historic Black and white shot of the building.
Backstory and Context
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The Title Guarantee & Trust Building is a large Art Deco structure that towers over the streets below. It is incredibly detailed and was designed by architects John and Donald Parkinson who took inspiration from the much-publicized 1926 Chicago Tribune Tower. In addition to Gothic touches such as shields and gargoyle-like drain spouts, the building is also topped with a Gothic tower complete with stylized flying buttresses.
The building is steel framed and is clad with glazed terra cotta, rising out of its granite base. The recessed windows are surrounded by piers, which accentuate the verticality of the structure and extend above the roofline to create a parapet effect. Everything above the twelfth floor is unoccupied space and was designed purposefully so that the building could be extended above the 150-foot height limit in effect at the time of its construction.
In 2012 the building was converted into loft-style apartments and is known as the Title Guarantee Building Lofts.
Sources
Title Guarantee Building. Emporis. Accessed July 20, 2017. https://www.emporis.com/buildings/116552/title-guarantee-building-los-angeles-ca-usa.
Vincent, Roger. Art Deco icon converting to condos as downtown L.A. faces shortage. LA Times. August 25, 2015. Accessed July 20, 2017. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-title-guarantee-condos-20150825-story.html.
Luce, Caroline. Title Guarantee and Trust Building - About this Commission. The Alliance for Networking Visual Culture. August 22, 2014. Accessed July 20, 2017. http://scalar.usc.edu/hc/hugo-ballins-los-angeles/title-guarantee-and-trust-building-about-this-commission.