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May Company Building

Architects
Samuel Abraham Marx Albert C. Martin, Sr.
Year
1939
Style
Streamline Moderne
City
Los Angeles, CA
May Company Building
Photo: MichaelJLocke, CC BY-SA 4.0
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The May Company Building opened in 1939 on the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in the Miracle Mile, designed by Samuel Abraham Marx and Albert C. Martin, Sr. It operated as a May Company department store until 1992, when May merged with J. W. Robinson's to form Robinsons-May, and the Los Angeles Conservancy calls it 'the grandest example of Streamline Moderne remaining in Los Angeles.' After sitting vacant, LACMA acquired the building as LACMA West, and since 2021 it has housed the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

the building

The gold-tiled corner tower. The building's signature feature is its gold-tiled cylindrical section, wrapped around the corner where Wilshire Boulevard meets Fairfax Avenue — the detail the Los Angeles Conservancy singles out in calling it the grandest Streamline Moderne building left in the city.

From department store to film museum. May Company operated the store from 1939 until 1992, when the chain merged with J. W. Robinson's. The building later sat vacant for two years before LACMA acquired it as LACMA West, and since 2021 it has been the home of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

the style

The building is a celebrated example of Streamline Moderne, called by the Los Angeles Conservancy 'the grandest example of Streamline Moderne remaining in Los Angeles' — its gold-tiled cylindrical corner is the style's rounded, aerodynamic language at full department-store scale.

More on Streamline Moderne

the architect

Albert C. Martin, Sr., who designed the building with Samuel Abraham Marx, also designed the Million Dollar Theater and Los Angeles City Hall, placing the May Company Building among the landmark commissions of his career.

significance

The May Company Building was deemed a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1992 and now houses the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, following a stretch as LACMA West after the department store closed.

nearby

All 315 buildings in Los Angeles