Hollywood Locations Mgmt

Located in the Westlake District of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Center Studios is a multipurpose facility that includes the former Unocal Center building (opened as Union Oil Center in April 1958) and the surrounding area. Architects William Pereira and Charles Luckman designed the Miesian-style hexagonal tower as part of a complex including a rectangular inner courtyard, two low tower-adjacent wings, a large subterranean parking garage, and elevated pedestrian bridges connecting to an auditorium and cafeteria building. The tower has distinctive angled front and rear façades covered with a grid of thin aluminum louvers protecting the offices within from the sun. When the building was designed there was a moratorium on the height of the buildings in downtown Los Angeles. A municipal ordinance, intended to give the city "harmonious lines", prohibited the construction of buildings taller than 13 stories or 150 feet in height until the late 1950s'allowing LA's City Hall to tower over the rest of the city. Upon its 1958 completion, the Union Oil Center added its twelve stories to its already-lofty site at the corner of Fifth and Boylston Streets. Since the site was on a hill, it became the highest building in downtown Los Angeles.