Dominguez–Wilshire Building vs Richfield Tower

Comparing the Dominguez–Wilshire Building and the Richfield Tower is especially interesting because they share much in common. Both rise in Los Angeles, CA both were designed by Morgan, Walls & Clements, and they were completed just one year apart.

This overlap gives us a unique opportunity to understand how Morgan, Walls & Clements approached different commissions in the same urban context and historical context during a short period.

The Richfield Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 371ft (113m) with 12 floors above ground, while the Dominguez–Wilshire Building reaches 0ft (m) with 10 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 Dominguez–Wilshire Building and the Richfield Tower were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Morgan, Walls & Clements and Morgan, Walls and Clements followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

Both the Dominguez–Wilshire Building and the Richfield Tower were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.