Long Beach Main Post Office Building vs Dominguez–Wilshire Building

Comparing the Long Beach Main Post Office Building and the Dominguez–Wilshire Building is interesting because they both stand in Los Angeles, CA, and were completed within 4 years of each other, 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.

Both the Long Beach Main Post Office Building and the Dominguez–Wilshire Building 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 Louis A. Simon and Morgan, Walls & Clements followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Long Beach Main Post Office Building is primarily government, while the Dominguez–Wilshire Building is primarily commercial.

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