Park Plaza Hotel vs Dominguez–Wilshire Building

Comparing the Park Plaza Hotel 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 Park Plaza Hotel 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 Curlett & Beelman 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 Park Plaza Hotel is primarily cultural, while the Dominguez–Wilshire Building is primarily commercial.

Originally, the Park Plaza Hotel was designed for hotel, but over time it was converted to cultural. The Dominguez–Wilshire Building by contrast has maintained its original role.

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