Los Angeles Superior Court Tower | Los Angeles Conservancy
Los Angeles Superior Court Tower
By Jeremy Sternberg on Flickr

Los Angeles Superior Court Tower

You may not immediately notice the CNA Park Place Tower (now the Los Angeles Superior Court Tower) as you drive down Commonwealth Avenue, since the mirrored-glass building sometimes appears to blend directly into the sky. But a glance down to the building's base reveals it sits on sculptured granite buttresses that ground it firmly to the earth, in a larger pedestrian plaza of granite and concrete.

This remarkable building was designed by the architectural firm of Langdon and Wilson and was completed in 1972 to serve as the headquarters for CNA Financial Corporation. It stands nineteen stories tall at the edge of Lafayette Park, its mirrored glass skin reflecting the ever-changing light and color of the sky, from blue to dusky orange to purple. The tower is set diagonally on its site on the corner of Commonwealth and Sixth Street, opening the area up for pedestrians. The organic, wave-like buttresses that support it flow down into a granite-paneled plaza, becoming part of a thoughtful landscape designed by Emmet L. Wemple and Associates. CNA Park Place's landscape blends into the larger park below with trees, grass, and planters. As a result, the enormous skyscraper does not loom over the greenery of the park, but seems to sprout up from the earth itself like a geometric glass flower.

Hanna-Barbera Building
Photo by Jessica Hodgdon/L.A. Conservancy

Hanna-Barbera Building

The Modern buildings of the Hanna-Barbera Studio on West Cahuenga were the birthplace of some of the most-loved cartoons of a generation, including The Flintstones, Scooby Doo, and The Jetsons.
Bank of America Chinatown Branch, 2020. Photo by Jenna Snow.

Bank of America Chinatown Branch

Designed by Gilbert Leong and Richard Layne Tom in the 1970s, the Chinatown Branch of Bank of America is significant for its architecture and connection to L.A.'s growing Chinese American community. The property is being considered for Historic-Cultural Monument listing.
Friars Club Building
Photo courtesy ICF International

Friars Club Building (Demolished)

An innovative Modern design that was ahead of its time, it was an intact example of the work of master architect Sidney Eisenstaht until it was demolished in 2011.