Los Angeles City Hall
- Architect
- John C. Austin
- Year
- 1928
- Style
- Art Deco
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
- Collection
- l.a. deco
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Los Angeles City Hall was completed in 1928 as the seat of city government, designed by a team of John Parkinson, John C. Austin, and Albert C. Martin Sr. At 454 feet and 32 floors, it was the tallest building in Los Angeles from 1928 until 1966, and its tower was modeled after the ancient Mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
the building
A civic-minded pour of concrete. The concrete in the tower was mixed with sand gathered from each of California's 58 counties and water drawn from its 21 historical missions, turning the building material itself into a statement that the whole state had a hand in building it.
Seismic retrofit. Between 1998 and 2001, the building underwent a seismic retrofit that base-isolated the structure, letting it move independently of the ground during an earthquake; it remains the tallest base-isolated building in the world, engineered to stay functional after a magnitude 8.2 quake.
A tower borrowed from antiquity. City Hall's distinctive stepped tower was modeled after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, translating an ancient burial monument into the silhouette of a modern city government.
the style
City Hall is a widely cited example of civic Art Deco, its stepped massing and tower proportions built to read as a genuine landmark on the downtown skyline rather than a purely functional office block.
More on Art Decothe architect
John C. Austin worked alongside John Parkinson and Albert C. Martin Sr. on City Hall, a major civic commission for a Los Angeles architect whose career centered on the city's major public and commercial buildings of the era.
significance
City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles from 1928 to 1966 and, after its 1998-2001 seismic retrofit, remains the tallest base-isolated structure in the world. It is Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #150, designated in 1976.
nearby
- Spring Street Courthouse
- Caltrans District 7 Headquarters
- Los Angeles County Hall of Records
- Higgins Building
- Saint Vibiana's Cathedral
- Pico House