Aon Center | Los Angeles Conservancy
Photo by Larry Underhill

Aon Center

When this sixty-two-story tower opened in 1973 as United California Bank, it soared above downtown as the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River. It now ranks third in the city after the Wilshire Grand Center (2017) and the U.S. Bank Tower (1989). 

Dismissed decades ago as a nondescript vertical shaft by critics David Gebhard and Robert Winter, the Charles Luckman-designed building has come into its own as one of L.A.'s most recognizable skyscrapers.

Catastrophe was averted on May 4, 1988 when a fire broke out at night on the twelfth floor of what was known then as the First Interstate Bank tower.

While live television beamed frightening pictures of flames climbing toward workers trapped on upper floors, firefighters braced for the possibility of losing the entire building. Though one person perished, the firefighters managed to contain the damage to five floors, saving many other lives.

Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

Psychoanalytic Building

Designed by Charles Moore with partner William Turnbull, this two-story office building was completed in 1971 expressly for use by psychologists and psychiatrists.
Photo courtesy Architectural Resources Group

George's 50s Diner

An iconic building with all the essential ingredients of the drive-in diner with a building that served as its own best advertising at the busy intersection of Atlantic Avenue and San Antonio Drive.