Janss Investment Company Building
- Architect
- Allison & Allison
- Year
- 1929
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
Completed in 1929 as the first building in the newly platted Westwood Village, the Janss Investment Company Building — better known as the Janss Dome — served as headquarters for developers Edwin and Harold Janss, who built the Mediterranean-themed shopping and cinema district to serve the adjacent University of California, Los Angeles. Designed by the firm Allison & Allison, which also designed UCLA's Royce Hall and Kerckhoff Hall, the building's second floor doubled as the university's first male dormitory.
the building
The signature dome. The octagonal building is topped by its namesake dome, patterned in a Moorish-style aqua-and-white zigzag with gold leafing and crowned by a cupola — one of the most recognizable landmarks in Westwood Village.
Portico and arched windows. A high portico and arched windows mark the building at the five-way intersection of Westwood Boulevard, Kinross Avenue, and Broxton Avenue, the literal center of the village the Janss brothers built.
the style
The Janss Dome anchors Westwood Village's Mediterranean theme, its octagonal form and dome finished in a Moorish-inspired aqua-and-white zigzag pattern with gold leafing — an exotic flourish atop an otherwise Spanish-inflected commercial building.
the architect
Allison & Allison, the Los Angeles firm behind the Janss Dome, also designed UCLA's Royce Hall and Kerckhoff Hall, placing this Westwood Village commission alongside some of the university's signature buildings.
significance
Individually designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 364 in 1988, the Janss Dome is documented as the first building erected in Westwood Village and remains one of its most recognizable landmarks.
nearby
- Bratskeller - Egyptian Theater (Ralphs Grocery Store)
- Regency Village Theatre
- Majestic Crest Theatre
- Wilshire Federal Building
- Strathmore Apartments
- UCLA MacDonald Medical Research Laboratory