City National Plaza vs MCI Center

Comparing the City National Plaza and the MCI Center is interesting because they both stand in Los Angeles, CA, and were completed just one year apart, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

The City National Plaza is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 699ft (213m) with 52 floors above ground, while the MCI Center reaches 413ft (126m) with 31 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the City National Plaza and the MCI Center were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the International Style style.

Both buildings were completed when the International Style style was already past its peak. This makes them feel like late echoes of the movement, more reflective of continuity or nostalgia than of cutting-edge design at the time.

Both the City National Plaza and the MCI Center were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

The City National Plaza also provides 2485 parking spaces.

The two buildings opted for different structural and facade solutions.

The City National Plaza uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, which combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns, while the MCI Center uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

And when it came to the facade, the Window Wall went with a Window Wall facade, which uses panels fitted between floor slabs, leaving slab edges visible, while the MCI Center opted for a Curtain Wall facade, that uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure.