Monday, May 21, 2007

LA's Tallest Building: a comparison in time

Remember when it was easy to declare what LA's tallest building was?


Now, there is question as to whether the US Bank building - the current reigning champ - will remain as such. The US Bank Building (aka Library Tower due to its use of the Central Library's air rights) is 73 stories and just over 1018 feet tall. It was built in 1989 at the tail end of the 1980s boom in Downtown LA. Second behind it the Aon Center built in 1974 coming in at 62 stories and just under 858 feet. What's interesting is that after that, the buildings vary in floor number and height, so that a building at 55 floors (Bank of America Plaza) is actually shorter than the 52-floor California Plaza. So, floor number and height are not directly related, as often is presumed. The real question is, how long with the Library Tower hold the title?

Here are two great guides to show the comparisons of the leading buildings in LA:


Emporis

I still like City Hall the best - but I guess that's why I'm an LA City Nerd.

1 comment:

Militant Angeleno said...

The Skyscraper Formerly Known as Library Tower will be the tallest building in Los Angeles for quite a while, it has stood for nearly 20 years already, and I anticipate it'll stand as the tallest for some 20 more years after that. Despite the building boom in DTLA, the majority are midrise and medium-level highrises, none of which are anticipated to overtake 633 W. 5th St. Add to that that most of these buildings are residential and not commercial, as evidenced in the '80s-'90s building boom that resulted in the skyline we see today. I would tend to believe a new tallest building in Los Angeles would be (mostly) commercial; I doubt that most people in Los Angeles would want to live in a supertall no matter how seismically-resistant it is (working in a supertall is a another matter).