The Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library is perhaps the city's most beloved architectural monument. Based on a singular design by Bertram Goodhue and built in the mid-twenties, the library incorporates Byzantine, Spanish and Egyptian styles with bold modern expressions of geometry, especially the cube and the prism. The pyramidal tower, with its torch symbolizing "The Light of Learning," ties together the many contributions from sculptors, muralists and engravers. In the early 1980's the Community Redevelopment Agency financed an exacting renovation and extensive addition by the firm of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. Particular care was given to the restoration of the ornately decorated interior of the original building.

Be sure to see the second floor Rotunda with its great chandelier representing the solar system and elaborate murals by Dean Cornwall depicting a romanticized vision of Los Angeles' past. Another mural worth a detour is Albert Herter's in the Children's Room. The new addition, dominated by a Glass-roofed Atrium, is also enlivened with several pieces of art, most conspicuously, the bright fiberglass and aluminum chandeliers designed by Therman Statom (1993), representing the Natural, Technological and Ethereal worlds.

Also helping to finance the library expansion and refurbishing, were the proceeds from the sale of the city's "air rights" above the library. These rights provided a zoning credit so the Library Tower across Fifth Street could be built a little bigger and a little taller.

The Los Angeles Public Library
630 West Fifth Street
Open seven days a week
Please call for hours:
213-228-7000

Exit through the library's west doors to arrive at the...