Gas Company Tower vs Westin Bonaventure Hotel

Comparing the Gas Company Tower and the Westin Bonaventure Hotel is interesting because they both rise in Los Angeles, CA, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and John C. Portman Jr., and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than a decade apart.

This contrast within the same city allows us to see how different creative minds interpreted the evolving needs of Los Angeles across time.

Let's take a closer look!

The Gas Company Tower is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 748ft (228m) with 52 floors above ground, while the Westin Bonaventure Hotel reaches 387ft (118m) with 33 floors above ground.

Gas Company Tower also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 1,781,748 sqf (165,530m²), which is about 194,030 sqf (18,026m²) more than what the Westin Bonaventure Hotel offers.

The Gas Company Tower also concentrates more floor area on its site, indicating a higher floor area ratio.

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 Gas Company Tower and the Westin Bonaventure Hotel were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

The Gas Company Tower was designed at a moment when the Postmodernism style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel style was already in decline, making it more of a lingering expression of the movement. In contrast, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel was built when the style still carried greater cultural weight.

The Gas Company Tower is primarily commercial, while the Westin Bonaventure Hotel is primarily hotel.

The Westin Bonaventure Hotel incorporates a 4-star hotel with 1354 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

Both the Gas Company Tower and the Westin Bonaventure Hotel rely on a Frame structural system.

A frame structure uses a grid of columns and beams to carry the building's loads. This frees the walls from structural duties, allowing for flexible floor plans and larger windows.

They also employ the same type of facade, a Curtain Wall facade.

A curtain wall is a non-load-bearing facade hung from the structural frame. It is anchored to floor slabs and transfers only its own weight and wind loads, allowing for sleek, glassy exteriors.