Capitol Records Building, Los Angeles: architect, style and history

The Capitol Records Building is a 13-story tower just north of Hollywood and Vine, designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket Associates and completed in April 1956, soon after EMI acquired Capitol Records in 1955. Built from Naidorf's graduate school drawings, it is considered the world's first circular office building, and it houses Capitol Records' West Coast operations along with the recording studios and echo chambers of Capitol Studios. Nicknamed 'The House That Nat Built' for the vast sales generated by Nat King Cole, it is both a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, designated in 2006, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

the building

The world's first circular office tower. The Capitol Records Building is considered the first circular office building ever constructed, its cylindrical form -- developed by Louis Naidorf from his own graduate school drawings -- a textbook example of the flamboyant, futuristic Googie style applied to a corporate headquarters.

Capitol Studios and the echo chambers. Beneath its office floors, the tower houses Capitol Studios' recording facilities and echo chambers, the working recording spaces that made the building the base of Capitol Records' West Coast operations after EMI's 1955 acquisition of the label.

the style

The tower is a textbook exemplar of Googie architecture, the 1950s style built around futuristic, attention-grabbing forms meant to be read at speed from a passing car -- its circular massing at Hollywood and Vine is immediately legible from the sidewalk as a design built to stand out.

the architect

Louis Naidorf designed the tower for Welton Becket Associates, developing the circular form from drawings he had made in graduate school; Welton Becket was a historically important Los Angeles architect whose firm carried out the commission.

significance

The Capitol Records Building was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, sitting within the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District.

nearby

Avalon Hollywood 340 ft · Spanish Colonial Revival · 1927
Halifax Apartments 0.1 mi · Renaissance Revival
Hallmark Building 0.1 mi · Chateauesque · 1922
Regal Shoes Building 0.2 mi · Streamline Moderne · 1939
Hollywood Plaza Hotel 0.2 mi · Renaissance Revival · 1925
Leed's Building 0.2 mi · International Style

All 315 buildings in Los Angeles