Five Great Art Deco Buildings in Los Angeles

A Guide to Outstanding Examples of the Art Deco Style in L.A

Los Angeles is not known for any one architectural style in particular.  It is a city that contains modern glass curtain skyscrapers and buildings that look like giant hot dogs.  But Los Angeles does have several of the best example of the Art Deco architectural style to be found anywhere.  Here is a guide to some of these sites not to be missed.

Pasadena City College, 1570 East Colorado Blvd., Pasadena

After an earthquake in 1933, building codes in California were updated to prevent structural damage from these inevitable natural shakes.  Pasadena Junior College, as it was known then, had to shut down its three major buildings for restructuring compliance.  These buildings had been named after early 20th century notables: Horace Mann, a social engineer attributed with conceiving the plan for our modern education system; Jane Addams, a proponent of the women's suffrage movement and co-recipient of the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize, and; Dr. Louis Agassiz, a Harvard naturalist who proved the earth had an Ice Age.  None of these notables had any particular connection to Pasadena, or Los Angeles, for that matter.  When the school rededicated its buildings in 1937, it renamed these structures with the bland labels of Buildings C, D and E.  The campus may have lost some names, but it gained a dramatic new quad area.  With the help of funding from the Federal Administration of Public Works, Pasadena City College blossomed into an impressive Art Deco site which is still in evidence today.  The three main buildings are made even more impressive by the campus reflecting pools, or "mirror ponds" as the school refers to them.  This quad area makes a perfect photo opportunity.

Oviatt Building, 617 S. Olive Street, Los Angeles