AKA: LA Coliseum, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA
Structure Type: built works - recreation areas and structures - stadiums
Designers: Howard Needles Tammen and Bergendoff (HNTB) (firm); Moore, Walter P., and Company, Engineers (firm); Parkinson and Parkinson, Architects (firm); Ruben Bergendoff (architect); Ernest Emmanuel Howard (architect); Terry Miller (engineer); Walter P. Moore Sr. (engineer); Walter P. Moore Jr. (engineer); Enoch Ray Needles (civil engineer); Donald Berthold Parkinson (architect); John Parkinson (architect); Henry C. Tammen (architect)
Dates: constructed 1921-1923
Sponsors of the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles constructed the Los Angeles Coliseum for track and field competition. It was reused during the 1984 Olympics, with modifications and upgrades. At this time (1984), Los Angeles sculptor Robert Graham (1938-2008) produced the "Olympic Arch" sculpture in bronze and granite outside of the stadium. The arch has more than a touch of classicism about it (to complement that of the Coliseum), with its two headless nudes standing atop a dolmen; the dolmen's vertical supports had vaguely Attic figures repeated in series on them. Thereafter, multiple sports--football, track and field and baseball-- have been played at the Los Angeles Coliseum, with football teams being the most frequent tenants. The Los Angeles Dodgers, the National League baseball team, when they first moved to the city from Brooklyn, used the Memorial Coliseum in 1958.
The LA Coliseum served as the home field for the University of Southern California football team for many years;
Originally designed by John and Donald Parkinson in 1923, the same architects were asked to expand the design of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to host the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics; the Coliseum has been renovated numerous times; extensive changes and upgrades were made to host competition in the 23rd Olympics in Los Angeles, beginning 07/28/1984; the sports wing of the architecture firm Howard Needles Tammen and Bergendorf (HNTB), in association with the Houston, TX-based engineering firm, Walter P. Moore, proposed greatly enlarging and expanding the Coliseum; because of a serious recession at the time, the ambitious plan was never undertaken. Extensive repair was required after the 01/17/1994 Northridge Earthquake that cracked several rows of arches; renovation plans were also discussed in 2006, when potential owners of a new National Football League franchise were looking for possible venues in Southern California.
California Historical Landmark: 960
PCAD id: 3262