The Los Angeles Convention Center is a

convention center A convention center (American and British English spelling differences, American English; or conference centre in British English) is a large building that is designed to hold a Convention (meeting), convention, where individuals and groups ...

located in the southwest section of

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California, United States. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies.

History

The convention center, designed by architect

Charles Luckman Charles Luckman (May 16, 1909 – January 26, 1999) was an American businessman, property developer, and architect known for designing landmark buildings in the United States such as the Theme Building, Prudential Tower, Madison Square Garden, ...

, opened in 1971 and expanded in 1981, 1993 and 1997. It was originally built as a rectangular building, between Pico Boulevard and 11th Street (now

Chick Hearn Francis Dayle "Chick" Hearn (November 27, 1916 – August 5, 2002) was an American sportscaster who was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association for 41 years, as well as the team's assistant ge ...

Ct.) on

Figueroa Street Figueroa Street is a major north-south street in Los Angeles County, California, spanning from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington, Los Angeles, Wilmington north to Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, Eagle Rock. A short, unconnected continuation of ...

. The northeast portion of the center was demolished in 1997 to make way for the

Staples Center Crypto.com Arena (originally and colloquially known as Staples Center) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in downtown Los Angeles. Opened on October 17, 1999, as Staples Center, it is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex along F ...

. The Convention Center Annex of green glass and white steel frames, mainly on the south side of Pico, was designed by architect James Ingo Freed. The area in front of the convention center is known as the Gilbert Lindsay Plaza, named for the late councilman who represented the Downtown area of Los Angeles for several years. A -high monument honoring "The Emperor of the Great 9th District" was unveiled in 1995. The drive between Figueroa Street and the convention center building is also named after Councilman Lindsay. On March 1, 1983, a tornado caused damages to the roof and upper-level panels. The building was repaired and new convention center lettering signs were installed at a total cost of $3 million. On September 15, 2008, the convention center became the first in the U.S. and first Los Angeles City building of its age and size in the U.S. to be

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

(LEED) certified for Existing Buildings from the United States Green Building Council. In 2010, the Anschutz Entertainment Group and businessman

Casey Wasserman Casey Wasserman (né Myers; June 28, 1974) is an entertainment executive and sports agent. He is the founder and CEO of Wasserman, a sports marketing and talent agency, the chairman of LA28, the 2028 LA Olympics organizing committee, and a l ...

proposed construction of Farmers Field, a US$1 billion combination football stadium and convention center, meant to attract the return of a

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) team to the Los Angeles area. The development proposal was abandoned in March 2015 as plans for

SoFi Stadium SoFi Stadium ( ) is a domed multi-purpose stadium in Inglewood, California, U.S., a suburb of Los Angeles. SoFi occupies the former site of the Hollywood Park Racetrack and neighbors the Kia Forum and Intuit Dome. Opened in September 2020, the ...

and a later rejected NFL stadium proposal in Carson started to get off the ground. In 2013, the Los Angeles City Council voted to let

Anschutz Entertainment Group Anschutz Entertainment Group, Inc. (AEG), also known as AEG Worldwide, is an American global sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of the Anschutz Corporation. It is the world's largest owner of sports teams and sports ...

manage the convention center.

Expansion plans

A proposal was developed in 2015, approved by city hall and a design team was chosen. A new convention hall, called "LACOEX", would be built, with a connection to the south hall. The

January 2025 Southern California wildfires From January 7 to 31, 2025, a series of 14 destructive wildfires affected the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County in California, United States. The fires were exacerbated by drought conditions, low humidity, a buildup of ve ...

impacted plans for the expansion of the convention center. Expansion could start in the years prior to the 2028 Olympics, with a brief pause prior to the games, then resuming afterwards with the goal of a 2029 completion.

Events

The convention center hosts annual events such as the

Los Angeles Auto Show The Los Angeles Auto Show, also known as the LA Auto Show, is an auto show held annually at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is open to the public for ten days, filling of exhibit space. Since 2006 ...

, the Abilities Expo, and the

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first we ...

Grammy Week

During the week leading up to the annual

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

, the convention center typically hosts several Grammy week events. Since 2005, the convention center has hosted the

MusiCares Person of the Year Person of the Year is an annual gala presented by MusiCares, a 501(c)(3) public charity and affiliate of The Recording Academy (the organization that distributes the Grammy Awards), to raise funds for MusiCares’ mission and to honor recordin ...

tribute, which takes place two days prior to the Grammy Awards. It also hosted the pre-telecast portion of the Grammy Awards (preceding the main telecast at the Crypto.com Arena) until 2013, when the pre-telecast was moved to the

Peacock Theater The Peacock Theater, formerly Nokia Theatre and Microsoft Theater, is a music and theater venue at L.A. Live in the Downtown Los Angeles, downtown core of Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater auditorium seats 7,100 and holds one ...

. The 2021 awards were held in and around the convention center, owing to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Emmy Week

Following the annual

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Owned and operated by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the P ...

s ceremony, the convention center hosts the Governors Ball, one of the major Emmy after-parties.

Sports

The

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference. The team plays its home games at Crypto.co ...

played 11 of their 16 home games during the 2021 WNBA season at the convention center due to scheduling conflicts at their main home venue, the

, as a result of the

's delays in other league schedules. The convention center was configured with limited seating and drew an average of 1,144 spectators per game.

2028 Summer Olympics & Paralympics

The convention center will host five sports during the

2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad and commonly known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA 28, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place July 14–30, 2028, in the United States. Los Angeles ...

. It will host

Fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

Taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

Table Tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

and

wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

. It will also host, Wheelchair fencing, table tennis, boccia and goalball during the Paralympics. It will be a part of the downtown sports park area, including a "Olympic way" live site down Figueroa St.

Features

The convention center is one of the largest convention centers in the United States with over of exhibition space, of meeting space, of parking, and a 299-seat theater. The lobby floors in the north half of the building feature two large multicolor maps of inlaid

terrazzo Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of chips of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable material, poured with a cementitious binder (for chemical bind ...

. The project was installed by artist Alexis Smith in 1993. A

map A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on ...

of the world centered on the

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The '' Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geological Pacific Ring of Fire. List ...

covers the entire floor of the main lobby, while a

of the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

s around the north

celestial pole The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to observers at ...

covers the floor of the upstairs lobby. * South Hall ( Tom Bradley (Mayor) Exhibit Hall, ) * Kentia Hall (beneath South Exhibit Hall, can be converted into a 415-car parking garage) * West Hall ( Sam Yorty (Mayor) Exhibit Hall, ) * Neil Petree Hall * Concourse (two-story meeting room bridging over Pico Boulevard) * 3 food courts * On-site parking for 5,600 vehicles including electrical charge stations

References

External links

Los Angeles Convention Center website
{{Authority control 1971 establishments in California Commercial buildings completed in 1971 Convention centers in California Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Electronic Entertainment Expo Multi-purpose stadiums in the United States South Park (Downtown Los Angeles) Charles Luckman buildings Venues of the 2028 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis venues Olympic fencing venues Olympic taekwondo venues Olympic judo venues Olympic wrestling venues