The Los Angeles County Hall of Records sits in the northern end of the Civic Center in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is ...

. The high-rise building by

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. He ...

(co-designed by Robert Alexander) is an example of international style architecture. The building includes louvers similar to the

Kaufmann Desert House The Kaufmann Desert House, or simply the Kaufmann House, is a house in Palm Springs, California, that was designed by architect Richard Neutra in 1946. It was commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, Sr., a businessman who also commissioned Fallingw ...

. Additionally, the screen to the right of the louvres was a feature by sculptor Malcolm Leland to incorporate ornamentation into modernist buildings. The previous Hall of Records was immediately south of the current one, built in 1911 and demolished in 1973.

Description

The Hall of Records was estimated to cost $13.7 million in 1961. Counter proposals were made by the Los Angeles County Chief Administrative Officer to preserve the old Hall of Records and move it to the Temple Street location, however, it was estimated that the cost of moving the building would be prohibitively high--$1.5 million to move, and much more to renovate. Originally envisioned as two separate buildings, one for storing records and the other for workers, Neutra and Alexander combined the buildings into one. The T-shaped building has odd number floors on the north side, with double high ceilings and tall windows. The records block on the south side, has floors at 8-ft intervals. Currently, no vital records accessible to the public are in the building, and the windowless south records block designed for storage has been converted to office cubicles. In 1991, the County Recorder's office moved to Norwalk following merging the office with the County Registrar and County Clerk by the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their first ...

. The Hall of Records houses offices for the Alternative Public Defender, Probation Department, Regional Planning, Sheriff's Department, and the Los Angeles County District Attorney. The Los Angeles County archives are below the building, and there are publicly accessible tunnels to the

Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration (abbreviated HOA), formerly the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, completed 1960, is the seat of the government of the County of Los Angeles, California, and houses the Los Angeles County Board of Supe ...

. There are terraces on the 13th and 15th floors, and at ground level. The upper terraces were designed for a dining room and lounge with panoramic views of downtown. Accessible from the 13th floor, they are currently only accessible to workers. The escalators from the ground through 3rd floor are flanked by grilles and screens designed by Malcolm Leland, also known for his work in the

ModulArt Modular art is art created by joining together standardized units (modules) to form larger, more complex compositions. In some works the units can be subsequently moved, removed and added to – that is, ''modulated'' – to create a new work of art ...

movement. The building was designed to be energy efficient, with large aluminum louvers on the south face running the height of the building. Originally, they turned with the angle of the sun throughout the day to allow more indirect light into the building. No longer operable, they are now locked in one position. The Temple Street side of the building features a Mosaic Mural titled ''Topographical Map of Water Sources in County of Los Angeles'' by

Joseph Young (artist) Joseph Young (1919–2007) was an artist well known for his public artwork, which included mosaic murals, stained glass windows, monuments and public sculptures in granite, concrete, and bronze. Over the course of his career Young completed over s ...

. The mural and reflecting pool were restored in 2007, and again in 2017. The Civic Center/Tom Bradley subway station serviced by the

Metro D Line The Metro D Line is a bus rapid transit line in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. The route primarily operates on Fremont and Chicago Avenues from Brooklyn Center through Minneapolis to the Mall of America in Bloomington. As part of BRT ser ...

and Metro B Line is directly behind the Hall of Records.

Critical reception

The original design drawings were praised as "contemporary and at the same time unusual" by County Engineer John A. Lambie in 1958.

David Gebhard David S. Gebhard (1927 – 1 March 1996) was a leading architectural historian, particularly known for his books on the architecture and architects of California. He was a long-time faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara ...

and

Robert Winter Dr. Robert W. Winter (July 17, 1924 - February 9, 2019) was an architectural historian. He was the Arthur G. Coons Professor of the History of Ideas, Emeritus, at Occidental College, Los Angeles. He is particularly known for his contributions ...

describe the design of the building as "disorganized" in their guide to Los Angeles Architecture. The Los Angeles Times called the Hall of Records "Striking" in the week after it opened. The building was nominated for the 1964 R. S. Reynolds Memorial Award by the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

."8 Southland Buildings in Running for Award" Los Angeles Times, Feb 16, 1964. pg O9.

Reyner Banham Peter Reyner Banham Hon. FRIBA (2 March 1922 – 19 March 1988) was an English architectural critic and writer best known for his theoretical treatise ''Theory and Design in the First Machine Age'' (1960) and for his 1971 book ''Los Angeles: Th ...

's ''Los Angeles: The Architecture of Four Ecologies'' (1971), mentions the Hall of Records in passing, in the midst of a broader critique of downtown Los Angeles as "where the action cannot possibly be" (190). Banham concludes his thoughts on downtown with the following, placed below an image of the Hall of Administration: "They are, frankly, a gutless–looking collection but not gracious with it; they are neither tough-minded nor sensitive, nor architectural monuments, nor Pop extravaganzas. Above all they are not Los Angeles, but memorials to a certain insecurity of spirit among timid souls who cannot bear to go with the flow of Angeleno life."
192

References

External links

Analysis of Richard Neutra's Los Angeles Hall of Records Building by Barbara Lamprecht

Flickr Set of the Hall of Records by Kansas Sebastian

County Arts Commission site on Hall of Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Los Angeles County Hall Of Records Richard Neutra buildings Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles Government buildings in Los Angeles Government of Los Angeles County, California Government buildings completed in 1962 1962 establishments in California 1960s architecture in the United States Modernist architecture in California Skyscraper office buildings in Los Angeles

Description

Critical reception

See also

References

External links