Constructed in 1910, the Higgins Building is an early Modernist concrete-framed building designed in the Beaux-Arts style. It was commissioned by Thomas Higgins, an Irish American, as a 10-story building that could be used as office space. He hired architects Albert C. Martin, Sr. and A.L. Haley to handle construction. Although designed as an 8 story high building, it was decided during the construction stage to add two additional floors in order to hold the reputation as being the highest building in the city center.
Angels Flight, located on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles, enjoys significance for its role as an incline railway and its place within the city's broader transportation, culture, and environmental histories. Because of Bunker Hill's steep eastern slope in the downtown area, a railroad was built to transport people (mainly wealthy) to and from the commercial center. Dubbed "the shortest railway in the world," Angles Flight opened in 1901 as a narrow gauge funicular railway that stretched 298 feet (climbing 96 feet) and supported two rail cars that ran in opposite directions on a shared cable. The entrance archway and the station house are unique structures designed in the Beaux-Arts style. The railway closed in 1969 and then re-opened in 1996, a one-half block south of the original location, stretching 300 feet on a thirty-three percent grade.
Built in 1930, the Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building is an Art Deco style high rise building situated on Pershing Square. Designed by The Parkinsons, who were prolific architects and were responsible for many L.A. points of interest, including City Hall and Bullocks Wilshire, it was built on the site of the California Club building. Its original use was as an office building but it was later converted into loft apartments. In 1984, the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building was originally known as the Southern California Edison Company Building and was owned and occupied by a utility company. It was one of the first all-electrically heated and cooled buildings constructed in the western United States. Standing fourteen-stories high, the steel-framed building follows a classically inspired Art Deco design. The lower three stories are of solid limestone, while the upper stories and central tower are faced with buff-colored terra cotta. On the façade, the spandrels contain a cubic Art Deco pattern, repeated in the central tower, lobby floor and elevator ceilings. The exterior greenhouse-like structures were added in the 1980s and the street-level shopping corridor in 1993.
The PacMutual, despite its name, is actually made up of three interconnected structures that were built consecutively over two decades. The first to be constructed was in 1908. It was a six-story Beaux Arts building clad in white terra cotta with four-story Corinthian columnns. In 1921, a twelve-story Beaux Arts building was added. It was much larger than the 1908 building and featured a grand lobby with a barrel-vaulted ceiling and sweeping staircases in Italian Tavernelle marble. The third structure was finished in 1926 and is a two-story parking garage with offices and meeting rooms on the top floor. Today, the PacMutual Building houses a range of tenants such as attorneys and architects as well as the fashion firm Nasty Gal and Los Angeles Conservancy.
On February 2, 1930 it was announced that the soon-to-be constructed Sun Realty Building would continue the trend of local architecture by designing an exterior of colored terra cotta. In this case, the fluted terra cotta provided a beautiful blue-green finish, rising continuously for fourteen stories to the roofline before tapering to a crown of bronze at the top. It was designed by architect Claud Beelman, who is responsible for designing many buildings throughout the city including the Garfield Building, the Ninth and Broadway Building, and the Eastern Columbia Building. At the time of its construction, the lobby was outfitted with a marble floor and decorative plaster ceiling. The building was redesigned in the 1970s, but a few original fittings remain such as the original Art Deco elevator doors. The building is now known as the Los Angeles Jewelry Center.
Constructed in 1909, the Walter P. Story Building was designed in the Beaux Arts style by Major General of the California National Guard Walter Perry Story on a lot purchased by his father in 1895. His father was a successful cattle rancher from Montana and was the first person to drive cattle along the Bozeman Trail from Texas to Montana. The first three stories and the basement of the building were initially designed for retail, and the upscale clothier Mullen and Bluett occupied the space from 1910 through the 1960s. Walter P. Story and his wife lived in the penthouse. Today, the building is home to offices and businesses.
The Orpheum Theatre opened on February 15, 1926, as the fourth Los Angeles venue for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. The Orpheum's Beaux Arts facade was designed by movie theatre architect G. Albert Lansburgh and has a Wurlitzer organ, that is one of three pipe organs remaining in Southern California venues. The Orpheum theatres are named after the Greek mythological figure, Orpheus. Soon after it was opened, it was a popular venue for burlesque queen Sally Rand, the Marx Brothers, Will Rogers, Judy Garland (singing with her family as Frances "Baby" Gumm) and comedian Jack Benny, as well as jazz greats Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. Today, after a $4 million restoration in 2003, the Orpheum Theatre is a venue for live concerts, movie premieres and location shoots.
The Blackstone Building, which is now known as Blackstone Apartments, was constructed in 1916 and has been listed as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument since 2003. The Blackstone Department Store Building is one of architect John B. Parkinson's early works, designed in the Beaux Arts style and clad with grey terra cotta. The original Blackstone's, known as Blackstone's Dry Goods, opened in 1895 just down the street from this location. Owner Nathaniel Blackstone hired Parkinson to design this flagship store in 1917. It was sold to the Famous Department Store Company, and renovated by Morgan, Walls & Clements in 1939. In 2010, the Blackstone Building was converted into 82 apartments with ground-floor retail space and an underground parking garage.
Constructed in 1930, the Eastern Columbia Building, now known as the Eastern Columbia Lofts, is a thirteen-story Art Deco building that was designed by Claud Beelman. It cost around $1.25 million to build and it became the headquarters of the Eastern Outfitting Company a chain of furniture and clothing stores founded by Adolph Sieroty and family. The building is an amazing example of Art Deco architecture in the city and it is one of the most photographed structures. An $80 million renovation took place in 2006 and was undertaken by the KOR Group to turn the property into 147 condominiums. The project earned California Construction Magazine's Best Redevelopment in 2007.
Built in the early decades of the 20th century, the date of the Metropolitan Building's construction is unknown. Upon construction, it replaced a two-story, Romanesque Revival style building. Upon completion, it was known as the Mueller Building for its owner, Michail Mueller. Although the Muellers retained ownership of the property, they granted lease interest of the building to various persons or businesses over the years. The Metropolitan Building possess a high artistic value for its use of the Beaux Arts style in a district that contains some of the best examples of commercial architecture. It is thought the building was constructed by local architects, John Parkinson and Edwin Bergstrom, who were in professional partnership together from 1905 to 1915.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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This tour stops by a few historic structures demonstrating late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century architectural styles. The art deco and Beaux-Arts styles were popular around the same time Los Angeles was coming into prominence, and as the motion picture industry took off in the city.
