There are several remarkable buildings in Los Angeles that were designed by well-known architects. It’s rare to see two identical buildings in a row of Los Angeles structures. So, without further ado, here are the top 25 Must-See Architectural Landmarks in Los Angeles.
Griffith Park
With 4,210 acres on the eastern slope of the Santa Monica Mountains, Griffith Park is California’s largest state park. There are golf courses, tennis courts, hiking trails, and other attractions nearby, including the Los Angeles Zoo, Griffith Observatory, a planetarium, a Greek theatre, a riding facility built for the 1984 Olympic Games, and golf courses, tennis courts, and other attractions. Hiking pathways and scenic drives into the mountains provide views of the city and beyond. The Griffith Observatory is a free interactive attraction that is one of the city’s most exciting.
Getty Center
For decades in Pacific Palisades, the J. Paul Getty Trust’s vast art collection was housed at what is now known as the Getty Villa. When the Getty Center in Brentwood opened in 1997, all of that changed. It’s a one-of-a-kind construction made up of travertine and white metal-clad pavilions. Inside, you’ll find ornate French furnishings, classic Impressionist works, and a series of rotating exhibitions. It’s not the most convenient location, but the breathtaking views, which stretch from the hills and beach to Downtown in the east, make up for it.
Walt Disney Concert Hall
The Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Frank Gehry-designed house is undoubtedly the cultural heart of downtown L.A. Despite its international popularity, there is one little-known secret about it: Staircases run along the steel curves of its façade, allowing visitors to ascend its peaks.
The Watts Towers Arts Center
The Watts Towers Arts Center physically raises modern art to new heights. The display contains 17 towers constructed by Italian-American artist Simon Rodia and is located within the Simon Rodia State Historic Park. The exhibit is located on his Los Angeles property and is included on the Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument list as well as the National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles.
The Broad
The Broad, which opened in 2015, is a museum dedicated to contemporary art. On the surface, it isn’t particularly stunning. It resembles a large white cheese grater, according to legend. To truly appreciate architect Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s “veil and vault” design, you must come up close. The white honeycomb covering is suspended over the inside box, allowing natural light in while shielding the art from direct sunlight.
The Theme Building at LAX
If you’re flying into town, the Theme Building at LAX is the first structure you’ll notice. The Encounter Restaurant was housed in the space-age building, which was erected in 1961, but is now vacant until a new tenant is found. The observation deck on top is only open on weekends while the restaurant is closed.
Petersen Automotive Museum
After a comprehensive renovation, the Petersen Automotive Museum reopened in late 2015, quickly becoming one of LA’s most distinctive structures. The red-painted box building’s outside is made up of 308 shiny stainless-steel ribbons designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. Most people don’t notice it while passing, but if you look at the building from the other corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, you’ll see the shape of a race car careening around the corner, as shown above. It looks fine during the day, but when lit from the inside under a twilight sky, it’s quite breathtaking.
Union Station
Los Angeles Union Station is the main train station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States. The Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, which replaced La Grande Station and Central Station, opened in May 1939. Today, the station serves almost 110,000 people each day, making it a key transportation hub for Southern California. It is the busiest rail station in the Western United States, as well as the fifth busiest Amtrak station and the eleventh busiest train station in North America.
Capitol Records building
The 1956 Welton Becket and Associates tower looks like a stack of records waiting to be played. This architectural marvel takes the flaming cake if the city’s adoration for a landmark is assessed in direct proportion to the number of times it is destroyed on video.
Hollywood sign
As a promotion for a new subdivision, L.A. Times publisher Harry Chandler constructed letters spelling Hollywoodland in 1923. In the decades since, the “land” has been removed, and pranksters have altered the sign to spell “Hollyweed” and “Holywood” (during a papal visit, for example). The eternal white capitals perched on a hillside today remind us not just of where we are, but also of what we must do: keep dreaming.
Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
This great library and art collection, gifted to the city by railroad magnate Henry E. Huntington, is today one of Los Angeles’ most famous attractions. Between the library holdings, the art, and the gorgeous outdoor settings, there’s certainly enough to see to fill a full afternoon—indeed, it’s probably best handled at a leisurely pace rather than a frantic sprint. From a Gutenberg Bible to an artfully planned Japanese garden, almost every inch of the estate’s grounds and collection is significant.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art
L.A. ‘s flagship arts institution brings together so many Southern California icons in one spot, including William Pereira’s architecture, Robert Irwin’s plant-based work, and a forest of street lamps.
The Pico House
The Pico House is a historic structure in Los Angeles, California, that dates back to when the city was a tiny village in Southern California. It’s on 430 North Main Street, across from Olvera Street and the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, and across from the historic Los Angeles Plaza.
The Saint Basil Catholic Church
One of the most well-known brutalist constructions in Los Angeles is the Saint Basil Catholic Church, which is located on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Kingsley Drive. With its inornate outer surface and cavernous yet inviting interior, the structure was supposed to resemble early monasteries.
The Saint Basil Catholic Church, like many of the other historic Los Angeles structures on this list, is an award-winning structure. In 1973, the American Institute of Architects gave it the Merit Award.
Fox Plaza
Fox Plaza (also known as 20th Century Studios Plaza) is a 34-story skyscraper in Century City, Los Angeles, California, with a height of 493 feet (150 metres). [5] The Irvine Company, situated in Orange County, owns it. Engineers are well-known for the building’s unusual structure. It has a lot of structural redundancy, including four enormous chillers, which is three more than most structures have. Redundancies were put in place to make the building look better on camera.
Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
The 101 Freeway is overlooked by one of the world’s largest cathedrals. The light-filled design by Spanish Pritzker Prize winner José Rafael Moneo, studded with odd geometric protrusions, hardly matches the classic silhouette of a church; the only giveaway is the large cross placed into the façade’s central window.
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre
For naming rights purposes, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is renamed TCL Chinese Theatre and is located at 6925 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, California, on the iconic Hollywood Walk of Fame. You can drive by, stop and look closer, take a Chinese Theatre Tour, or go via the Red Line Behind the Scenes Walking Tour.
Eastern Columbia Building
This is one of the most unique structures in downtown Los Angeles. It exemplifies the Art Deco style’s grandeur. Experts consider it to be one of Los Angeles’ finest examples of Art Deco architecture. The structure is tough to miss within Los Angeles’ Historic Core, with its vivid terra cotta tiles and massive clock tower.
Cinerama Dome
This 70-foot-high modernist movie theatre, designed by Welton Becket & Associates and completed in 1963 as the world’s first concrete geodesic dome, contains 3,000-pound panels welded together using a technology pioneered by Buckminster Fuller.
The Pacific Design Center
The Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood, designed by Cesar Pelli, was developed in phases over nearly two decades. The Blue building first opened its doors in 1975, whereas the Red building only opened its doors in 2012. The 14-acre complex is a showcase for the interior design industry, but it also includes public galleries and a large amount of public art. You are free to picture the outside as much as you want, however photographing the inside is not permitted.
John Lautner’s Chemosphere house
The ultimate L.A. pad, this spaceship of a home is a modern city getaway surrounded by an untamed environment. The midcentury architecture, completed in 1960 for aerospace engineer Leonard Malin and accessible via personal funicular from the hillside, has appeared in a number of films, most notably Brian De Palma’s “Body Double.”
Culver City Hayden Tract
Until the mid-1980s, when developers Frederick and Laurie Samitaur Smith commissioned architect Eric Owen Moss to revitalise the Hayden Tract, it was a decaying, post industrial section of Culver City. Over the years, high-profile commercial tenants such as Nike and Beats by Dre have flocked to the strange, sci-fi-inspired building.
Stahl House
Between the 1940s and 1960s, the Case Study House project was part of an effort to develop cheap dwellings that kept up with the rising demand for housing following World War II.
Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, and Ralph Rapson, among the most well-known architects of the day, all contributed to the project.
One of the best remaining examples of these architecture is the Stahl House. It was created in a modernist style by Pierre Koenig (as was customary for the Case Study Houses). The Stahl House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, recognising its historical significance.
Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl, which is still one of the city’s most popular entertainment venues, would be absent from any discussion of Los Angeles architecture history. Due to its location within a natural auditorium, the outdoor amphitheatre is popular for outdoor festivals and events.
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites is the largest hotel complex in Los Angeles. It’s a work of Postmodern architecture. Authors and critics like Frederic Jameson have spent a lot of time delving into how it represents Postmodern America.