Pellissier Building

Pellissier Building
  1. About the Pellissier Building in Los Angeles
    1. Building Catalogations
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectural style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Pellissier Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Morgan, Walls & Clements, and built in 1931 in Los Angeles, CA.

Pellissier Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Wiltern Center.

Its precise street address is 3780 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

The Pellissier Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Los Angeles and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the Pellissier Building was officially included in the National Register of Historic Places on February 23rd 1979, and was also included in the Los Angeles Register of Historic Places on May 16th 1973.

The building underwent a major restoration between 1983 and 1985. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Brenda Levin.

Building's timeline

Construction completed
1931
93
Added to the Los Angeles RHP
1973
51
Added to the NRHP
1979
45
a
Restoration
1985
39
years ago
2024
  1. 1983 to 1985 - Renovation. The architect in charge was Brenda Levin.

Architect and team

Morgan, Walls & Clements was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

But that's not all, there was also a whole team of architects involved, which included: Gino Rossetti, Levin and Associates, and Octavius Weller Morgan.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving 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 Pellissier Building a reality:

  • William Simpson Construction Company as the Main Contractor
  • Henry De Roulet as the Main Developer
  • Heinsbergen Decorating Company in charge of Interior Design
  • Antoon B. Heinsbergen as the collaborating Artist

Architectural Style

The Pellissier Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.

Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.

The Pellissier Building was completed in 1931, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

The Pellissier Building reaches an architectural height of 154ft (47m). It has a total of 12 floors.

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1931, the Pellissier Building has mainly been used as Commercial space, with other complementary uses such as cultural space.

154ft (47m)

Materials & Structure

The Pellissier Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and 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.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a turquoise terra cotta cladding. Even though the color has been often refered as "Pellissier Green", it is similar to the one found at the Eastern Columnbia Building finished just one year before. The facade also has geometric and foliage ornamentation typical of the art-deco sytle throught the facade, particularly on the spandrels.

Sources

  • npgallery.nps.gov