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U.S. Bank Tower

Architect
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
Year
1989
Style
Postmodernism
City
Los Angeles, CA
U.S. Bank Tower
Photo: unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0
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U.S. Bank Tower, known locally as the Library Tower, rose 1,018 feet in the Financial District of downtown Los Angeles, built between 1987 and 1989 for $350 million and designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. It remains the second-tallest building in Los Angeles and one of the most photographed towers on the city's skyline.

the building

Height records. At 1,018 feet, the tower is the third-tallest building in California and the 24th-tallest in the United States, and it appears so often in film and television establishing shots that it has become shorthand for the Los Angeles skyline.

Ownership and grounds. The tower was sold in 2013 for $367.5 million to OUE Ltd, a Singapore-listed firm run by Indonesian billionaire Stephen Riady, in a deal that also included the adjacent Maguire Gardens park and a parking lot, bought from Los Angeles-based MPG Office Trust.

the style

Cobb's postmodern design gave the tower a distinctive stepped crown and glass skin quite different from the boxy International Style towers that dominated downtown's earlier skyline, a shape that has made it instantly recognizable in the city's skyline shots.

More on Postmodernism

the architect

Henry N. Cobb designed the tower through Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the firm co-founded with I.M. Pei that built its reputation on large-scale postmodern office towers such as this one.

significance

One of the most recognizable buildings in Los Angeles, it stands as the second-tallest building in the city and the third-tallest in California.

nearby

All 315 buildings in Los Angeles