One Bunker Hill

Place

The CalEdison

One of the first all-electrically heated and cooled buildings constructed in the western United States, this fourteen-story, steel-framed 1931 treasure follows a classically inspired Art Deco design.

Place Details

Address

601 W. Fifth St. Los Angeles, CA 90071
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Architect

Year

1931

Property Type

Community

One Bunker Hill

Photo by Annie Laskey/L.A. Conservancy | Photo by Annie Laskey/L.A. Conservancy

Originally the home of a utility company, the Southern California Edison Company Building was one of the first all-electrically heated and cooled buildings constructed in the western United States.

The fourteen-story, steel-framed building follows a classically inspired Art Deco design. The lower three stories are of solid limestone, while the upper stories and central tower are faced with buff-colored terra cotta. On the façade, the spandrels contain a cubic Art Deco pattern, repeated in the central tower, lobby floor and elevator ceilings. On the entry façade allegorical figures by sculptor Merrell Gage represent, light, power and hydroelectric energy. In the two-story lobby, classical elements are treated with an Art Deco flavor.

Below the thirty-foot high coffered ceiling, the floor and walls are composed of at least seventeen different types of marble. At the end of the lobby is a mural by Hugo Ballin titled “Power.” The exterior greenhouse-like structures were added in the 1980s and the street-level shopping corridor in 1993.