LOS ANGELES | Library Tower | 1,018 FT / 310 M | 73 FLOORS | 1988
Originally conceived as the tallest building in a seismic zone 4, Maguire Thomas Partners traded air rights to the much delapitated LA Central Library to develop two fabulous skyscraping architectural dynamos: the Library Tower and the Gas Company Tower.
The Library Tower (orginally First Interstate World Center) was designed by Henry Cobb of PeiCobbFreed. The design is based on a series of overlapped squares inscribed within circles. The resulting shapes, along with certain setbacks create a fantastically intricate facade culminating in a full glass star-shaped crown.
The crown is brightly lit white most days, but also other color schemes for holidays and sports.
The building is across the street from Bertram Goodhue's LA Central Library (a true gem) and wedged between the deco classic Edison Building and Lawrence Halprin's Bunker Hill Steps.
In 200(4)? US Bank became a large tenant in the building and also bought naming rights. They bastardized the crown with not only a logo, but also a name plate which is highly unfortunate looking. It may now be called the US Bank Tower...but will likely always be known as the Library Tower.
So I share my photos from over the years...
How's this for old skool? Check the First Interstate logo at the top (removed in 1992 when Wells Fargo took over FI)
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Even if you are 1 in a million, there are still 8,000 people just like you...
^Agree. I never call it anything but the Library Tower when speaking or writing about it.
I dislike logos across the top of buildings, also. But hanging one on The Library Tower's crown is sacraligious. Hope it is ok, Plinko, but I took one of your pictures and returned the crown to it's intended state.
btw, thanks Plinko for the thread and all the great pics!
Last edited by DowntownCharlieBrown; May 9, 2008 at 6:50 PM.
I've said it before, and i'll say it again; I think that having a couple more crowns and an Antennae to top it off would look great; if only people would agree with me though.
I dunno DowntownCharlieBrown, having no logos on it makes it look....plain.
^You young kids that were brought up on MTV and Video games have had your retinas over stimulated. So your generation is looking for "flashy, bright, constant movement, more, more, more" and may confuse "plain" with "pure".... Gawd, I'm talking like an old man.
Last edited by DowntownCharlieBrown; May 9, 2008 at 7:15 PM.
^You young kids that were brought up on MTV and Video games have had your retinas over stimulated. So your generation is looking for "flashy, bright, constant movement, more, more, more" and may confuse "plain" with "pure".... Gawd, I'm talking like an old man.
Heck yes Entertainments is getting to intense we need more more more
There is more X's than an episode of Divorce Court.
pics not showing up? Hmmm...it's Photobucket and I pay for it so they should be there...anybody else having problems?
JDR, architecture is rarely developed to account for logos and other such things. Sometimes...but rarely. In the case of this building...I'm sure Henry Cobb loathes the USBank logo up there even more than most of us do!
At least the gold First Interstate sign (one of my favorite corporate icons of all time) was fairly subtle and was proportionally OK. That USBank garbage is just that...
__________________
Even if you are 1 in a million, there are still 8,000 people just like you...
^ Now I can see them thanks. The US Bank is the ESB of the west. It is a iconic skyscraper in the sense that it is one of LA's trademarks. It is the focal point of many tv shows, music videos, commericals, and yadda yadda.
I love it. It has such a strong, almost humanoid shape. And JDR..antenne and other crowns is a shitty idea. Remove the logo. Addition by subtraction.
This has always been my favorite building outside of Manhattan. It's a very iconic tower that has been in pop culture countless times. I love the Downtown LA skyline in general. It's like a painting.
__________________ "I'm going there, but I like it here wherever it is.."
I've never seen anything to like about this building.
Really? Ah this is like my favorite Skyscraper of all time! Imma big fan of postmodernism.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Easy
Speaking of the logo, I had read that this was the tallest building in the world with a logo on top. Is that true?
Yes it is, unless you count the sign attached between the CITIC Plaza's Spires in China.
Some shots of the US Bank Tower (Ah yes, I refer to it as the US Bank Tower, dont hurt me ) I took on my horribly short trip back home to the Southland, back in post-christmas 2007, pre-new year 2008.
And here are some I took in 2003 (before the US Bank logos!)
love this building. The facade really has a lot of texture and the crown is beautiful. This is kind of like the cousin of 311 South Wacker Dr. in Chicago.
Does anyone know what the top floors are being used for? I noticed the uppermost floor is a complete circle of what looks to be floor to ceiling glass, and the floor just below it has over sized windows as well...
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) I took on my horribly short trip back home to the Southland, back in post-christmas 2007, pre-new year 2008.
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