AKA: Litton Industries, Headquarters Building, Beverly Hills, CA; Global Crossing, Ltd., Headquarters Building, Beverly Hills, CA

Structure Type: built works - commercial buildings - corporate headquarters

Designers: Shipley, Phillip, Landscape Architect (firm); Williams, Paul R., Architect and Consultant (firm); Phillip Shipley (landscape architect); Paul Revere Williams (architect)

Dates: constructed 1940

2 stories

Burton Way, between Crescent and Rexford Drives
Beverly Hills, CA

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Los Angeles architect Paul R. Williams (1894-1980) produced this Georgian Revival office complex in the heart of Beverly Hills for Julian Caesar Stein (later known as "Jules C. Stein," 1896-1981), an opthalmalogist-turned-entertainment agent, who, by the late 1930s, served as the representative of many major film stars and musical groups. Stein began his career in 1920s Chicago, providing work for musical acts in legitimate performance venues as well as speakeasies. His business of supplying musicians for one-night stands or extended gigs grew rapidly to include branch offices in New York, NY, Cleveland, OH, Dallas, TX, and Los Angeles. He moved his headquarters to Southern CA in 1937 to expand his business into lucrative representation of movie stars. MCA became the dominant agent for much of the mid-20th century and diversified entertainment company, buying Universal Studios in 1958 at about the time antitrust litigation was forcing Stein to divest MCA's agency monopoly.

Office building, done in an English Georgian Style, was sold by MCA to conglomerate Litton Industries, in 1964; Global Crossing, Ltd., the ill-fated telecommunications company, bought the building in the 1990s.

Litton Industries underwrote renovations executed by Paul R. Williams and Associate in 1968-1972, including the construction of a Georgian, three-floor office wing and parking structure; a central fountain was added to the property by Phil Shipley, Landscape Architect, in 1972; Gary Winnick, Chief Executive Officer of Global Crossing, Ltd., renovated the building in the 1990s when it was his firm's headquarters.

PCAD id: 380