Architecture

#278: Friend Lacey House (Pasadena)

#278: Friend Lacey House (Pasadena)

February 28, 2026
The modest Friend Lacey House is representative of the middle-class housing that sprouted up in Pasadena in the 1890s, a period of huge growth for the newly-incorporated city. It was built in 1893 by Robert Lacey (the namesake of De Lacey Avenue) for his son Friend, and occupied by various factions of this pioneering family for decades.
#276: Standard Oil Building (Whittier)

#276: Standard Oil Building (Whittier)

January 10, 2026
The Standard Oil Building is one of Whittier's oldest office buildings, dating from an era when the hills just east of Whittier were covered in oil derricks. Since Standard left in 1930, it's had a second and third life as a college dorm and a restaurant/retail complex. But it's still got many of the charms of its original mission revival design.
#275: Bradbury Building (Downtown)

#275: Bradbury Building (Downtown)

December 25, 2025
The Bradbury Building is the oldest commercial building in Los Angeles, and yet it still feels like a vision of the future. Its interior is music as much as it is architecture, with endless rhythms of balconies and balustrades, archways and staircases, composing and re-composing themselves as your eye moves around the atrium. If you haven't gazed up at the Bradbury's glass canopy, you haven't lived.
#272: Hotel Hoover (Whittier)

#272: Hotel Hoover (Whittier)

November 19, 2025
For 95 years now, the old Hotel Hoover has housed travelers, permanent residents and low-income elderly folks. The building itself is a fine (if loose) interpretation of Spanish colonial architecture. Also worthy of your attention is the story of the Oak Room, the steakhouse downstairs that gave Whittier its first cocktail lounge, helping to lubricate this formerly dry town.
#271: John L. Hartwell House (Pasadena)

#271: John L. Hartwell House (Pasadena)

November 6, 2025
The John L. Hartwell House is a fine example of a modest Victorian home in Pasadena, representative of the growth of the city's northwest neighborhoods in the 1880s. But way more interesting than the architecture is the colorful cast of characters who've called this place home.
#265: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Exposition Park)

#265: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Exposition Park)

August 28, 2025
The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has witnessed countless milestones in international sports, politics and culture. It's the only stadium to have hosted the opening and closing ceremonies at two Olympics, with a third on its way in 2028. But the stories behind the building itself – its evolving architecture, the goals of its construction, its governance, its preservation – are every bit as important to its history as what’s happened inside it.
#264: Frank Thomas House (La Cañada Flintridge)

#264: Frank Thomas House (La Cañada Flintridge)

August 15, 2025
This gorgeous mid-century modern residence was once the home of Frank Thomas, one of Disney's elite group of animators called the "Nine Old Men." Thomas worked on key scenes in Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book and more. And when he was done with another day of making 2D drawings come alive, Thomas came home to this light and wood-filled nest, designed by architect Ted Criley.
#260: Oviatt Building (Downtown)

#260: Oviatt Building (Downtown)

June 24, 2025
The Oviatt Building was commissioned by James Oviatt, haberdasher to the stars. It once housed LA's finest luxury department store – and in his 12th floor penthouse, Oviatt had LA's first art deco residence.
#258: Higgins Building (Downtown)

#258: Higgins Building (Downtown)

June 2, 2025
The 1910 Higgins Building pioneered the use of reinforced concrete in LA. Its occupants over the years included famed attorney Clarence Darrow, the socialist leader Job Harriman, General Petroleum Co. and the LA County Bureau of Engineering.
#257: San Dimas Hotel / Walker House (San Dimas) 

#257: San Dimas Hotel / Walker House (San Dimas) 

May 20, 2025
In its original incarnation as a hotel, this exuberant 30-room Queen Anne mansion never had a paying guest. But it would house six generations of the Walker family, pioneers of the San Dimas citrus industry. Its upper floor is now occupied by the San Dimas Historical Society, which helps to preserve all the history that happened here.