USC will continue its takeover of Downtown later this year, when the giant AT&T sign atop what has, for the last few years, been known as AT&T Center is replaced with one for—what else?—USC. Downtown News reports that the signage replacement comes as part of a new lease agreement, which sees the university renting an additional 30,000 square feet. The Trojans now have an enormous footprint in the building, with 245,000 square feet of offices for the Marshall School of Business, the School of Social Work, and the classical radio station KUSC (not quite the coolest college radio station around).
Designed by WIlliam Pereira, one of the seminal Los Angeles architects—you can thank him (often along with Charles Luckman) for LAX's Theme Building, the original waterworld LACMA, Disneyland Hotel, and CBS Television City, among many, many other things—the International-style building was completed in 1962, for the Occidental Life Insurance Company. At the time of its completion, it was the second-tallest building in Los Angeles, just behind City Hall. Obviously, it no longer holds that distinction, but it's still an important element in Downtown's skyline, especially as facsimiles of the same forty-story glass tower spring up all over South Park. —Ian Grant
· USC Gets Signage on Downtown Highrise [DN]
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