PCAD - Los Angeles Convention Center, Downtown, Los Angeles, CA

Structure Type: built works - social and civic buildings - convention centers

Exterior view of the Los Angeles Convention Center, following the tornado of 0301/1983, Los Angeles, CA. From Committee on Natural Disasters, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council, The Los Angeles, California Tornado of March 1, 1983, (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1983), p. 32

Exterior view of the West Exhibit (Yorty) Hall, Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2018. From Google Maps/Street View

Floor plan of the South (Tom Bradley) Exhibition Hall and nearby rooms, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2014. From the Los Angeles Convention Center 2014 Brochure

Floor plan of the West Exhibition Hall and nearby rooms, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2014. From the Los Angeles Convention Center 2014 Brochure

Satellite view of the Los Angeles Convention Center (center), Los Angeles, CA, c. 2019. From Google Maps/Street View

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1201 South Figueroa Street
Downtown, Los Angeles, CA 90015-1308

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Building History

Charles Luckman and Associates directed the design of the first building stage of the Convention Center, completed between 1969 and 1971.

Building Notes

A freak F2 tornado damaged portions of Downtown Los Angeles. between 7:40 and 8:05 a.m. on 03/01/1983. The tornado followed a path about 3-and-3/4-miles in length moving southwest to northeast, and about 1/3-of-a-mile wide roughtly paralleling the course of Route 110 through Downtown Los Angeles, just to the east. It damaged portions of the upper walls and roof of the twelve-year-old Los Angeles Convention Center at about 8:01 a.m, causing about $3 million in damage. At least two unreinforced masonry buildings, built prior to 1934 earthquake codes, collapsed, due to inadequate connections anchoring walls and roofs. Due to this storm, electrical power for some customers was not restored for five days.

Alterations

Three other additions were made to the Los Angeles Convention Center in 1981, 1993 and 1997. Gruen Associates (Ki Suh Park, Partner in Charge) directed the 1981 alterations. James Ingo Freed of Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, in association with Gruen Associates, supervised expansion done between 1986-1993.

The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) introduced the idea of building a football stadium and additional convention facilities on land occupied by portions of the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2002 and 2012. The second, known as "Farmers Field," named for its sponsor, the Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Group, would have erected a $1.2 billion football stadium and new convention center space all designed by the architectural firm Gensler. Both the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers National Football League teams preferred another stadium site in Inglewood, that made the second AEG proposal moot. By 2014, the Los Angeles City Council voted to support a project to expand the Convention Center again, but drop its allegiance to the Farmers Field siting.

In 2019, the Los Angeles Convention Center complex consisted of these main components: South Exhibit Hall (the site of the Mayor Tom Bradley Exhibit Hall), Kentia Hall (beneath the South Exhibit Hall), West Hall (the site of the Mayor Sam Yorty Exhibit Hall), Neil Petree Hall (nearby to Yorty Hall), Concourse, a parking garage, and three food courts.

PCAD id: 207

Los Angeles Convention Center, Downtown, Los Angeles, CA (1969-1971)