Southern California Gas Company Complex
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Los Angeles, CA
The Southern California Gas Company Complex on Flower Street in Downtown Los Angeles began as the utility's headquarters, with the main building completed in 1925 to designs by John and Donald Parkinson in the Renaissance Revival style. In 1942, Robert V. Derrah added a six-story extension at 820 S. Flower Street in the Art Deco style; the offices were later converted to lofts.
the building
Derrah's 1942 extension. The six-story addition Robert V. Derrah designed at 820 S. Flower Street breaks from the main building's Renaissance Revival front: two curved concrete side sections wrap around a recessed glass center, an Art Deco insertion grafted onto a 1925 office block.
the style
The 1925 main building reads in Renaissance Revival dress, the style of choice for a major utility's headquarters at the time, while Derrah's 1942 wing shifts to Art Deco, giving the complex two distinct architectural moments seventeen years apart on the same street front.
More on Renaissance Revivalthe architect
John and Donald Parkinson designed the main 1925 building; Robert V. Derrah designed the 1942 extension, each credited with a separate piece of the complex built seventeen years apart.
significance
The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and holds Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status, recognizing both the 1925 Parkinson building and the 1942 Derrah extension as a single historic property despite their stylistic split.
nearby
- South Park Lofts
- Brockman Building
- Roosevelt Building
- Giannini Place
- Fine Arts Building
- Garfield Building