Capital Records Building
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The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a 13-story tower building in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Designed by Louis Naidorf of
Welton Becket Associates Welton David Becket (August 8, 1902 – January 16, 1969) was an American modern architect who designed many buildings in Los Angeles, California. Biography Becket was born in Seattle, Washington and graduated from the University of Washingt ...
, it is one of the city's
landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...
s. Construction began soon after British music company EMI acquired Capitol Records in 1955, and was completed in April 1956. Located just north of the Hollywood and Vine intersection, the Capitol Records Tower houses the consolidation of
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
' West Coast operations and is home to the recording studios and echo chambers of
Capitol Studios Capitol Studios are recording studios located at the landmark Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, California. The studios, which opened in 1956, were initially the primary recording studios for the American record label Capitol Records. While t ...
. The building is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and sits in the
Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District consists of twelve blocks between the 6200 and 7000 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. This strip of commercial and retail businesses is recognized for its historical significan ...
. It has been described as the "world's first circular office building." The building is known as "The House That Nat Built" due to the vast numbers of records and amounts of merchandise Nat King Cole sold for the company.


Design

The building's design is on the graduate school drawings of Lou Naidorf who, as the primary architect, designed the first circular office building when he was 24 years old. The wide curved awnings over windows on each story and the tall spike emerging from the top of the building resembles a stack of records on a turntable with the spindle pointing skyward. This resemblance, however, was coincidental, as Welton Becket kept the client's identity secret. Upon first seeing the design, Capitol Records' president Glen Wallichs insisted on a rectangular building, so Naidorf provided Wallichs with both. Wallichs presented both designs to his lender, who felt the round design would attract attention, which would make it easier to lease. Wallichs conceded, choosing Naidorf's initial round design. The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure, joined to the tower after completion. The 13-story conforms to the zoning height limit in place at the time of its construction. Height restrictions were lifted in 1956. The
thirteenth floor The thirteenth floor is a designation of a level of a multi-level building that is often omitted in countries where the number is considered unlucky. Omitting the 13th floor may take a variety of forms; the most common include denoting what wo ...
of the tower is the "Executive Level" and is represented by an "E" in the building's two elevators.


Notable features

The blinking light atop the tower spells out the word "Hollywood" in
Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
. (.... --- .-.. .-.. -.-- .-- --- --- -..) This was an idea of Capitol's then-president,
Alan Livingston Alan Wendell Livingston (born Alan Wendell Levison; October 15, 1917 – March 13, 2009) was an American businessman best known for his tenures at Capitol Records, first as a writer/producer best known for creating Bozo the Clown for a series ...
, who wanted to advertise Capitol's status as the first record label with a base on the west coast. It was switched on by Leila Morse, granddaughter of Samuel Morse. During 1992, the light blinked "Capitol 50," in honor of the label's fiftieth anniversary. A black-and-white graphic of the building appeared on the albums of many Capitol recording artists, with the phrase, "From the Sound Capitol of the World". In April 2011, Capitol Records and artist
Richard Wyatt Jr. Richard Wyatt Jr. (born 1955) is a contemporary muralist best known for his public art in and around the city of Los Angeles. His murals can be found at the Watts Towers, the Capitol Records Building, White Memorial Hospital, the Ontario Airport, ...
restored his Hollywood Jazz Mural on the south wall of the Capitol Records building. Restored in hand-glazed ceramic tile, the mural spans Entitled "Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972", it presents "larger than life" images of a number of notable jazz musicians.


Capitol Studios

The building houses the Capitol Studios, a recording facility which includes eight echo chambers engineered by guitarist
Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype ...
and three main studios, A, B, and C.
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
had a close association with the studios, and the Georg Neumann
U 47 The Neumann is a large-diaphragm condenser microphone. It is one of the most famous studio microphones and was Neumann's first microphone after the Second World War. The original series, manufactured by Georg Neumann GmbH between 1949 and 1965 ...
microphone he carried around with him is there, often used and maintained for studio sessions. The first album recorded in the tower was '' Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color''. In 2012, Studio A received a new AMS Neve 88R mixing console, designed and built for Al Schmitt and Paul McCartney.


Recent history

In September 2006, EMI sold the tower and adjacent properties for US$50 million to New York developer Argent Ventures. The studio claimed that noise from construction of a
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
threatened it, as well as an underground parking lot by building firm Second Street Ventures would have heavy equipment working within of its renowned underground echo chambers, which are themselves over below ground level. In November 2012, Steve Barnett was announced as the new Chairman and CEO of the Capitol Music Group and the company stated his office would be in the building. This coincided with Capitol Music Group becoming part of Universal Music Group, assuring its new parent company two Los Angeles headquarters.


Gallery

File:Aerial Capitol Records Building.jpg, An aerial view of the Capitol Records Building File:CapitolRecords.jpg, Viewed from Hollywood and Vine, 1997 File:Capitol Records Building LA.jpg, Parking lot mural titled ''Hollywood Jazz'' File:Capitolrecords 032806 kdh.jpg, Taken on 2006-03-28


References


External links


Capitol Studios official website
{{LAHMC Buildings and structures in Hollywood, Los Angeles Capitol Records Skyscraper office buildings in Los Angeles Headquarters in the United States History of Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Office buildings completed in 1956 Welton Becket buildings Futurist architecture Modernist architecture in California Round buildings 1956 establishments in California