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Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz/Artefaqs Corporation
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Formerly: Library Tower
Formerly: First Interstate World Center
Formerly: Library Tower
Built:
1988- 1990
Cost: $350,000,000
Designed by: Pei, Cobb Freed & Partners; Harold Fredenburg
Type: Skyscraper
Stories: 73
Maximum height: 1017 feet / 310 meters
Location: 633 West Fifth Street
City: Los Angeles
State: California
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E
very city has a landmark that is the pinnacle of its architectural greatness and exemplifies its stature on a world scale. For Los Angeles, this is it. At 1,017 feet it is the tallest building between Chicago and Hong Kong, beating out the Chase Tower in Houston by just 15 feet, though it is two floors shorter. It can be described as a series of overlapping spiraling cubes. The result is a building that is both circular and square. Its shape is aesthetically pleasing to the public, and provides numerous high-priced corner offices that are so important to make such a massive undertaking financially successful.
At its peak is a structure sometimes called a crown or "lighthouse" for lack of a better term. It was originally called the "Library Tower" because of its proximity to the city's beloved Central Library and because it and the Gas Company Building had to purchase the library's air rights in order to exceed the height limit imposed on the area. For a while it was called "First Interstate World Center" after being bought by First Interstate bank. That bank has since merged with Wells Fargo and the "Library Tower" moniker was restored for a number of years before the building changed hands again in 2005 and was renamed "U.S. Bank Tower."
**When U.S. Bank moved in to this buidling in 2003 on a 12-year lease, it took the space vacated by the Andersen accounting firm, even buying the old company's furniture.
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