Los Angeles General Medical Center vs James Oviatt Building

Comparing the Los Angeles General Medical Center and the James Oviatt Building is interesting because they both stand in Los Angeles, CA, and were completed within 5 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.

These two towers present an interesting contrast in their proportions. The James Oviatt Building rises higher at 161ft (49m), while the Los Angeles General Medical Center reaches 0ft (m). However, the Los Angeles General Medical Center accommodates more floors with 19 levels above ground, compared to 13 floors in the James Oviatt Building.

This suggests different approaches to interior space design. The James Oviatt Building has an average floor-to-floor height of approximately 3.8m, while the Los Angeles General Medical Center has more compact floors averaging around 0m each. The taller building's more generous floor heights might indicate grander interior spaces, higher ceilings, or different programmatic requirements.

These different proportions likely reflect the specific needs each building was designed to serve, whether driven by zoning regulations, client requirements, or the intended use of the spaces within. The contrast shows how architects can achieve different spatial experiences even when working with similar overall building scales.

Both the Los Angeles General Medical Center 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 Allied Architects Association 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 Los Angeles General Medical Center is primarily medical, while the James Oviatt Building is primarily commercial.

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