California Club Building, Los Angeles: architect, style and history

The California Club Building at 532-538 South Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles was designed by architect Robert D. Farquhar in the Renaissance Revival/Mediterranean Revival style for the California Club, an invitation-only private club incorporated in 1888. Candidates for membership need invitations from at least six existing members plus interviews and background checks, and the club has long been described as one of the city's most exclusive institutions.

the building

Rankings of exclusivity. In 2005, sociologist G. William Domhoff ranked the club 13th nationally in his 'Centrality Rankings' of social clubs and policy-planning groups, and it has been cited as the third most exclusive private club in the United States.

the style

Farquhar designed the clubhouse in the Renaissance Revival/Mediterranean Revival idiom, a formal, classically derived style suited to a club once described by the Los Angeles Times as belonging to "the people who own Los Angeles."

significance

The building is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #43 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, designated on November 2, 1966, recognizing both its architecture and its role housing one of the city's oldest private clubs since 1888.

nearby

Richfield Tower 250 ft · Art Deco · 1929
Los Angeles Central Library Building and Grounds 400 ft · International Style · 1926
General Petroleum Building 420 ft · Mid-Century Modern
Hilton Checkers Los Angeles 0.1 mi · Mission Revival
Engine Company No. 28 0.1 mi · Renaissance Revival
U.S. Bank Tower 0.1 mi · Postmodernism · 1989

All 315 buildings in Los Angeles