![]() Bellamy conjures up “a twentieth-century public building” offering “a vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above. Wyman, according to the widely repeated legend, drew inspiration for the design from “Looking Backward,” a futuristic novel by the utopian visionary Edward Bellamy which became a popular sensation in the early 1890s. “In an architecture of steel and glass, marble, tile and movement, George Wyman envisioned and presented the material dream of Southern California as a technology flooded by sunlight,” writes California historian Kevin Starr. Bradbury, who, having made his fortune in gold-mining, spared no expense in the construction of this monument to his legacy, one originally estimated at $175,000 and opened just months after his death at the final cost of a then-staggering $500,000.Īny work of the Bradbury Building's distinction, splendor, and sheer cost will get people telling stories. It all came together at the behest of millionaire Lewis L. The patterned Italian marble staircases, Mexican floor tiles, intricate French wrought-iron work, operator-staffed birdcage elevators, and the then-largest plate-glass windows in Los Angeles all under a fifty-foot-high atrium made its image as a refuge of architectural taste and dignity in a city elsewhere regarded even when the building opened in 1893 as an unprecedented concentration of architectural vulgarity. Its interior, and specifically its Victorian court lobby, made the Bradbury Building a movie star. It found that place thanks, in large part, to its celebration by influential Southern California architectural historian and Arts & Architecture Magazine contributor Esther McCoy, who launched her campaign in 1953, a decade after the building made its cinematic debut in “China Girl” and six decades after it first opened.Īny work of the Bradbury Building's distinction, splendor, and sheer cost will get people telling stories. Anyone seeking to satisfy an interest in Los Angeles architecture, though, will hear about the Bradbury Building's place in its canon before they hear about anything else. These and other roles may demonstrate the structure's versatility, but they've surely also caused some confusion as to its actual location. Later films placed the Bradbury Building elsewhere: “Caprice” in Paris, “Wolf” in New York, “Murder in the First” in San Francisco. ![]() The following year, in ‘The White Cliffs of Dover,’ it played a London military hospital overflowing with wounded soldiers.” ![]() “The earliest appearance I know came in 1943: in ‘China Girl,’ it played the Hotel Royale in Mandalay, Burma. ![]() “The movies discovered the Bradbury Building before the architectural historians did,” says its narrator. Though most moviegoers will have seen a lot of Bradbury Building, they may not recognize it as a landmark of Los Angeles architecture – unless, of course, they've seen Thom Andersen's documentary “ Los Angeles Plays Itself,” which devotes a solid block of its nearly three-hour runtime to the many roles it has played onscreen. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |