Aon Center

Aon Center
Alternative names	United California Bank Building First Interstate Tower
General information
Type	Commercial offices
Location	707 Wilshire Boulevard Los Angeles, California
Coordinates	34°02′57″N 118°15′25″W / 34.049167°N 118.256944°W / 34.049167; -118.256944Coordinates: 34°02′57″N 118°15′25″W / 34.049167°N 118.256944°W / 34.049167; -118.256944
Construction started	1970
Completed	1973
Height
Roof	261.52 m (858.0 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	above ground: 62 below ground: 5
Floor area	116,128 m2 (1,249,990 sq ft)
Elevators	32
Design and construction
Owner	Broadway 707 Wilshire Fee LLC
Architect	Charles Luckman
References
[1][2][3][4]

Aon Center is a 62-story, 262 m (860 ft) Modernist office skyscraper located at 707 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, California. Designed by Charles Luckman, and completed in 1973, the rectangular black building with white trim is remarkably slender for a skyscraper in a seismically active area. It is the second-tallest building in Los Angeles, and the second tallest in California. The logo of the Aon Corporation, its anchor tenant, is displayed at the top in red.

History

Aon Center was originally named the United California Bank Building from its completion in 1973 until 1984, when it became First Interstate Tower. It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River when built, until surpassed by the Texas Commerce Tower in 1982. It remained the tallest building in Los Angeles until 1989 when Library Tower (now U.S. Bank Tower) was completed. Between 1998 and 2003, there were no logos on the building.

Fire

On May 4, 1988, a fire that began on the 12th floor just after 10:00 PM PST burned for four hours, destroyed five floors, injured 40 people, and left one maintenance worker dead when the elevator the worker was riding opened onto the burning 12th floor.^[5] The fire was so severe because the building was not equipped with a sprinkler system, which was not required for office towers at the time construction was completed in 1973. A sprinkler system was 90% installed at the time of the fire, however, the system was inoperative, awaiting the installation of water flow alarms.^[5] The fire was eventually contained at 2:19 AM, and caused $50 million in damages. Repair work took four months. Because of the fire, Los Angeles building codes were changed, requiring all high-rises to be equipped with fire sprinklers. This modified a 1974 ordinance that only required new buildings to contain fire sprinkler systems, grandfathering older buildings.

See also

Los Angeles portal

• List of tallest buildings in Los Angeles
• Aon Center (Chicago)

References

Further reading

• Cameron, Robert (1990). Above Los Angeles. San Francisco: Cameron & Company. ISBN 0-918684-48-X. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aon Center (Los Angeles)

• First Interstate Bank Fire Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Archive