Downtown Art Deco

Los Angeles has a rich collection of Art Deco buildings because the city underwent a period of expansion in the 1920s and 1930s. Last month, I went on the L.A. Conservancy's downtown Art Deco walking tour and this post includes pictures of some of the buildings that we saw on the tour.

The Eastern Columbia Building (849 S. Broadway) was built by Architect Claude Beelman in 1930 as the headquarters and retail center for the Eastern & Columbia clothing and furniture companies. The building was converted into luxury residential condos in 2007. Bright blue terracotta tiles and gold trim decorate the building's exterior. The facade includes many zig-zag and chevron ("v" shape) patterns typical of the Art Deco style:

Art Deco architects sought to emphasize verticality as a symbol of modernity and progress. Strong vertical lines dominate the Eastern Columbia Building's facade and extend all the way up to the clock tower:

A turquoise and yellow terracotta sunburst decorates the vestibule over the front entrance of the building. The vestibule's ceiling also includes more of the ubiquitous Art Deco chevron patterns:

The Sun Realty Building (629 S. Hill St.) is another 1930 Claude Beelman building clad in colorful terracotta tiles and dominated by strong vertical lines:

Art Deco designs often drew inspiration from Mayan and Egyptian art and architecture. Here is a detail of the green terracotta tilework on the Sun Realty building that was inspired by an Egyptian papyrus motif:

Most of downtown L.A.'s Art Deco buildings are less brightly colored than the vibrant Eastern Columbia and Sun Realty Buildings. The Title Guarantee Building, located on the northeast corner of Pershing Square at 411 W. 5th St. and built by John and Donald Parkinson in 1929-1931, is clad in stone-colored terracotta tile:

The Title Guarantee Building's rooftop tower looks like a modern version of a Gothic structure and even includes stylized flying buttresses:

Architects Allison and Allison built the Southern California Edison Building (601 W. 5th St.) in 1930-1931. The building's octagonal entrance is topped with beautiful bas-relief friezes by artist Merrell Gage. Below the reliefs are more of the common Art Deco zig-zag patterns.

Here is a detail of the frieze depicting hydroelectric power. The flow of water from the urn is so stylized that it is almost a zig-zag:

Although this semi-nude figure in the central panel looks classical, his torch is illuminated with a modern light bulb rather than a flame:

The architectural details in these Art Deco buildings are beautifully designed and crafted. Here is a detail of the glass doors to the Oviatt Building (617 S. Olive St.), designed by architects Walker and Eisen in 1927-1928:

The exterior marquee and the interior of the Oviatt Building are decorated with glass made by French glass designer Rene Lalique. Here is a detail of a frosted glass panel from the interior of the building:

The terracotta grillework over the front entrance to Claude Beelmans' 1929 building at 850 S. Broadway uses stylized flower and vine motifs that were popular in Art Deco designs:

A detail from the beautiful bronzework over the front entrance to the William Fox Building (608 S. Hill St.) built by S. Tilden Norton in 1931:

Below is a map of the buildings included on the L.A. Conservancy's downtown Art Deco walking tour. The Art Deco tour leaves from Pershing Square at 10 AM every Saturday. The tours cost $5 for Conservancy members and $10 for non-members. If you participate in the tour, you also receive an excellent pamphlet produced by the Conservancy from which I obtained much of the information in this post. I highly recommend the tour for anyone interested in Art Deco architecture or downtown Los Angeles. I also recommend that people who are interested in historical preservation and conservation join the L.A. Conservancy (basic membership is $40).



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The Selig Retail Building

The Selig Clothing Store, built in 1931, is a small, one-story, black and gold Art Deco building on the corner of Western Avenue and Third Street. It housed a bank for several decades and is now being used as retail space again.
The street-level portion of the Selig Building is unremarkable, but the black and gold terracotta tiles, with their distinctive corn-cob pattern, are quite beautiful:



The Selig Building is of particular historical interest because it gives a sense of what the 12-story black and gold Art Deco masterpiece the Richfield Oil Building looked like before it was demolished in 1969 to make way for two modern office buildings in downtown Los Angeles. The demolition of the Richfield Oil Building, one of the most significant Art Deco buildings in the country, catalyzed the formation of the Los Angeles Conservancy which is dedicated to preserving L.A.'s historic buildings. To see more photos of L.A.'s many remaining Art Deco buildings, check out my posts on downtown L.A. Art Deco, the Wiltern Theater, and Bullocks-Wilshire.

Bullocks Wilshire

The Bullocks-Wilshire Department Store, which opened in Los Angeles in 1929, was one of the country's first major Art Deco buildings. The proprietors built Bullocks on Wilshire Boulevard about 3 miles west of downtown Los Angeles with the expectation that consumers would travel by automobile to shop at the upscale department store.


The main entrance to the store faced the back parking lot where shoppers arrived by automobile:

The structure is built with reinforced concrete clad in terracotta tiles and decorated with copper detailing.


The copper-topped tower is 241 feet high (74 meters):

Here is a detail of a copper spandrel (a decorative panel between windows):
Carved terracotta tiles over the building's Wilshire entrance:

Bullocks-Wilshire operated as a successful department store for 5 decades until the 1980s when the owners sold the business. The store stayed open until 1993 when it declared bankruptcy and closed its doors. A year later, in 1994, Southwestern Law School purchased the building and renovated it for use as its law school library. Southwestern did an excellent job with its renovation and the building is currently in great condition with many of its original decorative details intact. Here are some views of the main lobby:

The ceiling over the main parking lot entrance is decorated with a mural entitled "The Spirit of Transportation" by Herman Sachs. The mural includes images of steam trains, ocean liners, planes, and giant blimps:

The building's silhouette with its elegant vertical lines and tapering tower is quite beautiful:
Bullocks-Wilshire is located at Wilshire and Westmoreland (2 blocks east of Vermont). Southwestern Law School opens the building for architectural tours once a year. If you are interested in Art Deco architecture, check out my earlier posts on downtown L.A. and the Wiltern Theater.

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The Wiltern Theater

The Wiltern Theater and the attached Pellissier Building are one of many beautiful Art Deco landmarks on L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard. Architects Morgan, Walls, and Clements built the theater/office building in 1930-1931 and sheathed the structure in turquoise terracotta tiles.

The narrow windows and strong vertical lines of the facade create the illusion that the building is higher than its 12 stories:

The theater entrance is flanked by two vertical neon signs:

There is an elaborate white plaster starburst pattern above the ticket booth and a simple but more colorful starburst in faux-marble terrazo on the floor:
The carved mahogany doors are surrounded by intricate Art Deco detailing:

A detail from the carved doors:

The Wiltern's terracotta tiles use many common art deco motifs such as chevrons, zig-zags, scallops, and fronds. Here are a few details of the tiles:

The Wiltern is still a functioning theater and is operated by LiveNation.




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Union Station

Union Station in downtown Los Angeles serves as the city's main train, metro, and bus transit hub. The station, which was built between 1934 and 1939 by a team of architects including John and Donald Parkinson, was the last of the great rail passenger depots built in the United States.


At the end of the 19th century, many Californian artists and writers romanticized the eras of Spanish and Mexican rule, which they envisioned as an idealized, pastoral time before the arrival of the Yankees and the beginning of the industrial age. This interest in the past encouraged Californians to begin conserving, restoring, and then emulating the style of the old Spanish missions. By the early 20th century, the Mission Revival style, which drew inspiration from the missions' tiled roofs, curved archways, arcades, and unadorned white plaster surfaces, was the most popular architectural style in California.

In Union Station, the architects combined traditional Mission Revival forms with a modern, streamlined, Art Deco aesthetic. The main waiting hall has a floor made with inlaid marble and teracotta tiles, 6 iron chandeliers weighing 3000 lbs. each, and original leather Art Deco arm chairs:

A detail of one of the black iron chandeliers and the intricately painted ceiling. The ceiling appears to be constructed of traditional beamed wood, but is actually made of concrete that was painted to resemble wood:

The station is decorated throughout with glossy marble and tile work:

Union Station's integration of indoor and outdoor space is unusually successful for a large urban train station. Doors along both sides of the main waiting hall open out to pleasant outdoor courtyards. The North courtyard's tables, chairs, and benches are an ideal spot for lunch and the South courtyard (pictured below) is a more formal rose garden:

Detail of a tiled bench in the North courtyard:



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Griffith Park Observatory

Griffith J. Griffith (1850-1919) was a Welsh immigrant who made a fortune in mining in Southern California at the end of the 19th Century. In 1896, he donated 3,015 acres of his land to the City of Los Angeles to establish a public park that is five times the size of NYC's Central Park. In 1903, Griffith shot his wife during a dispute and he subsequently served 2 years in San Quentin for attempted murder. After his release, he donated money to the city to build a grand public observatory in the park. Architect John C. Austin (1870-1963) built the observatory in 1935 on the West slope of Mount Hollywood overlooking the Los Angeles basin.

Here is a view of the Griffith Observatory from Los Feliz with the peak of Mount Hollywood to the right:

The exterior of the observatory was originally going to be decorated with elaborate teracotta tiles. However, after the Long Beach earthquake of 1933 caused extensive damage to many local tiled buildings, the architects revised the design and built the observatory in plain reinforced concrete.

The Public Works of Art Project, one of the federally funded New Deal initiatives, comissioned the Astronomers Monument in front of the observatory in 1933. The monument was designed by Los Angeles artist Archibald Garner and includes depictions of the six great astronomers: Hipparchus (about 150 B.C.), Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), Isaac Newton (1642-1727), and William Herschel (1738-1822).

Here is the copper-plated dome of the central planetarium with the downtown skyline in the background:

A view of the dome that houses the nighttime viewing telescope:

The dome that houses the solar telescopes:

The interior rotunda is decorated with murals painted in 1935 by Hugo Ballin (1879-1956) depicting the history of science:

A detail of the panel "Navigation":

Trails from the observatory lead up to the peak of Mount Hollywood with views over Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley on the other side of the hills. Here is a view from the Mount Hollywood trail looking back down to the observatory:

Many movies and television shows have been filmed at the observatory but the first major movie that the observatory starred in was "Rebel Without a Cause." In front of the observatory, there is a 1955 bronze bust of James Dean by artist Kenneth Kendall:

The observatory underwent a major renovation between 2002 and 2006 and is now open to the public again. I highly recommend that tourists to Los Angeles and people who just moved to Los Angeles visit the Griffith Observatory. Admission to the building and exhibits are free but there is a fee for planetarium shows. The telescopes are open to the public free of charge on clear nights. Be warned that there is limited parking and the observatory tends to get very crowded on weekends. If you drive on a weekend, arrive early or take a shuttle from Los Feliz.

The Griffith Observatory is very kid-friendly with lots of interactive exhibits, shows, etc ...



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