Long Beach Professional Building vs James Oviatt Building

Comparing the Long Beach Professional Building and the James Oviatt Building 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 James Oviatt Building is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 161ft (49m) with 13 floors above ground, while the Long Beach Professional Building reaches 0ft (m) with 8 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 Long Beach Professional Building and the James Oviatt 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 William Douglas Lee and Walker & Eisen 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 Professional Building is primarily medical, while the James Oviatt Building is primarily commercial.

Originally, the Long Beach Professional Building was designed for commercial, but over time it was converted to medical. The James Oviatt Building by contrast has maintained its original role.

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