Wilshire Grand Center

The Wilshire Grand Center is a Contemporary skyscraper designed in 2009 by AC Martin Partners, and built between 2013 and 2017 in Los Angeles, CA.

Its precise street address is 900 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

The Wilshire Grand Center has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 2017. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• Award of Excellence 2019 CTBUH in 2019
• Los Angeles Architectural Awards - Award of Excellence (Mixed-Use) in 2018
• 2020 American Institute of Steel Construction - IDEAS2 Awards in 2020

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

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 Wilshire Grand Center a reality:

• Thornton Tomasetti, and Brandow & Johnston Inc. in charge of Structural Engineering
• Turner Construction Company as the Main Contractor
• Otis Elevator Company as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Korean Air as the Main Developer
• Glumac in charge of MEP Engineering
• Do Ho Suh as the collaborating Artist

The Wilshire Grand Center can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

The Wilshire Grand Center uses a trussed tube-in-tube structure , with concrete and steel columns and beams.

A trussed tube-in-tube structure uses a central core, known as inner tube, which usually holds stairs, lifts and installations, and a perimeter of columns around it, which form the exterior tube. The interior tube is tipically more massive (often made of reinforced concrete), and the exterior tube is "lighter" (made of steel or concrete columns). Both tubes are conencted via horizontal elements which make up the floors and also transmit any horizontal froces from the facade to the core.

The facade employs a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame at the edges of the floor slabs. The perimeter columns are set back slightly from the facade, allowing them to remain independent of the curtain wall system.

This configuration enables a completely free design of the curtain wall, unencumbered by structural elements, thus providing greater flexibility in aesthetic choices and maximizing the visual impact of the exterior.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features an all-glass curtain wall with floor-to-ceiling windows, only interrupted by a structural lattice along part of the 11th floor.

The sail-shaped crown with a curved roof contrasts with the neighboring buildings, and other modern skyscrapers in general, which tend to be prismatic and have flat tops.