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Building History

The New York architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver designed a number of high-profile buildings in CA, including the Biltmore Hotel (1923) in Los Angeles, the Hunter-Dulin Building (1927) in San Francisco and the 1925 Subway Tower. The building has the look of an imposing and well-financed New York highrise, its interiors filled with authentically-detailed Classical ornamentation and rich marble, brass and terrazzo surfaces.

The North Hollywood subway line that linked the downtown with the North Hollywood area since 1925 was discontinued in 1955.

Building Notes

The Subway Tower's design was based on 16th-century Italian palazzi.

Alteration

The Cleveland-based real estate development giant, Forest City, undertook a rehabilitation of the Subway Tower between 2005 and 2007, rechristening it as "Metro 417," an apartment tower. Alteration work was done by the San Francisco construction company, Swinerton Builders. Julia Wick, writing for the LAist.com, stated that Forest City had meant to renovate the main basement, sub-grade mezzanine and ground floor in addition to the above-grade offices which were turned into apartments. She wrote in 05/2016: "The Downtown News reports that Cleveland-based developer Forest City is at work on a plan to transform the old terminal into a retail and creative office complex, repurposing the 130,000 square feet of space available in the building's ground floor and two underground levels. The subway tunnel that once ran under the building has long been closed to both trains and the public. After being vacant for more than a decade, the building's upper floors were turned into fancy apartments back in 2005, but the recession halted Forest City's original plans to develop the below-ground space. The gorgeous Art Deco-styled 40,000 square-foot ground floor, with its ornate columns and soaring copper ceilings, will soon house an open market of vendors, 'flanked by office space and larger eateries,'" (See Julia Wick, LAist.com, "L.A.'s First Subway Terminal Is Being Resurrected As A Shopping Center," accessed 11/28/2016.)