Bank of America Plaza Building

The Bank of America Plaza Building is an International Style skyscraper designed by AC Martin & Associates and built between 1973 and 1975 in Los Angeles, CA.

Bank of America Plaza Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• Security Pacific Bank Building between 1974 and 1991.
• BP Plaza.
• ARCO Center.

Its precise street address is 301-333 South Hope, Los Angeles, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

The square-shaped building is positioned at a 45-degree angle relative to the city grid, allowing for better solar control and, consequently, savings in lighting, heating, and air conditioning.

The building only occupies 16% of the 4 acre lot where it stands. This allows for a large open spaces, particularly on the South-West side of the building. This plaza has over a hundred plants including eucalyptus, orange, jacaranda, and ornamental pear trees. The garden culminates in a ring of trees highlighted by three 7m waterfalls at the heart of the square.

The Four Arches sculpture by Alexander Calder is located in front of the entrance, just as in the Kluczynski Federal Building in Chicago.

Both the inside of the building and the surrounding plaza have served as a backdrop for numerous films, including ones which were not actually set in Los Angeles.

It has been used as the fictional headquarters of Mattel in the movie "Barbie," as an office building in the film "Pretty Woman," or in the series "Dynasty." Its exteriors were filmed, among others, as an adjacent building to the Crystal Tower in the film "The Towering Inferno," which was shot in San Francisco, or in "The Night of the Comet". .

AC Martin & Associates was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

AC Martin & Associates was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Bank of America Plaza Building a reality:

• A.C. Martin & Associates in charge of Structural Engineering
• Turner Construction Company as the Main Contractor
• Brookfield Properties as the Main Developer

The Bank of America Plaza Building can be categorized as an International Style building.

The Bank of America Plaza Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade of the building however, is load bearing. This doesn't imply that it is a traditional load-bearing wall. Rather, it means that the structure's exterior pillars have been pushed to the very edges, becoming integrated with the facade, and therefore, technically, a part of it.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features 10 massive columns on each side that run from ground level all the way to the top of the building. These columns are clad in granite and create 9 bays on each side of the building. These bays are then covered with a dark-colored curtain wall.

The top of the building is also crowned by a ribbon clad in granite, where the corporate logo of the building is displayed.

Other materials found at the Bank of America Plaza Building include, bronze, found in the striking entryway, granite, found not only on the facade, but also in the interior walls of the public spaces, with a light flame-finished and opalescdent polished on floors, and dark wood, found on the lobby's ceiling, which rises 8 meters from ground level.