The Beaudry Tower vs Wilshire Grand Center

Comparing the The Beaudry Tower and the Wilshire Grand Center is interesting because they both rise in Los Angeles, CA, yet they were conceived by two different design teams, Marmol Radziner and AC Martin Partners, and were completed at different points in time. They were finished more than 6 years 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 Wilshire Grand Center is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 932ft (284m) with 73 floors above ground, while the The Beaudry Tower reaches 696ft (212m) with 64 floors above ground.

Wilshire Grand Center also offers more total built-up area, a total fo 2,100,037 sqf (195,100m²), which is about 1,308,191 sqf (121,535m²) more than what the The Beaudry Tower offers.

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 The Beaudry Tower and the Wilshire Grand Center were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Contemporary style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Marmol Radziner and AC Martin Partners followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Wilshire Grand Center follows a mixed-use model, combining hotel, commercial and retail. In contrast, the The Beaudry Tower has remained primarily residential.

The Wilshire Grand Center incorporates a 4-star hotel with 889 rooms. More information is available at the official website.

The The Beaudry Tower offers 785 residential units.

The The Beaudry Tower also provides 831 parking spaces.

The two towers rely on different structural systems, reflecting distinct engineering strategies.

The The Beaudry Tower uses a Frame structural system, which relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight, while the Wilshire Grand Center uses a Trussed Tube In Tube system, that combines a central core with a perimeter tube reinforced by diagonal bracing.

Yet, when it comes to their facade, they both employed the same solution, 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.