U.S. Bank Tower (Los Angeles)

U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles is the tallest North American building west of Chicago.

The U.S. Bank Tower is the tallest skyscraper in Downtown Los Angeles, California and the tallest west of Chicago (in North America). Standing at 310 m (1,018 ft) high, it is also one of the tallest in the world. Until the construction of Taipei 101, it was also the tallest structure in an actively seismic region; its structure was designed to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter Scale. It consists of 73 stories above ground and two stories below ground. Construction was begun in 1987 and was completed in 1990. It is located at 633 West Fifth Street and cost $350 million to build. It was designed by the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.

It was formerly known as Library Tower due to its proximity to the Los Angeles Central Library and because the Central Library built it as part of the Library's $1 billion redevelopment plan after a fire damaged a significant portion of the Library. It was also known for a time as First Interstate World Center after being bought by First Interstate Bank. The name Library Tower was restored after Interstate merged with Wells Fargo, until March 2003, when it was bought by U.S. Bancorp and renamed U.S. Bank Tower.

The tower has a large glass "crown" at its top that is illuminated at night. The crown is lighted with red and blue on the 4th of July and red and green during the Christmas holiday season. On February 28, 2003, two 75 foot (23 m) "U.S. Bank" signs were installed on the crown.

In the movie Independence Day it was the first thing destroyed by the aliens. In Constantine, when John Constantine is in hell, one can see the destroyed U.S. Bank Tower. The building is featured in the video game True Crime: Streets of LA, but the building is incorrectly represented and doesn't look much like the real U.S. Bank Tower.

On June 16, 2004, the 9-11 Commission reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks called for the hijacking of ten planes, one of which was to be crashed into U.S. Bank Tower. However, because of its durable construction to withstand an 8.3 earthquake (as mentioned above), the chances of it collapsing as the World Trade Center towers did is doubted.

U.S. Bank Tower from street level on Figueroa Street.

U.S. Bank Tower is frequently shown on the television series Angel, which is set in a fictionalized Los Angeles.

See also

• 50 Tallest buildings in the U.S.
• List of skyscrapers

External links

• Skyscraper.com's site on this building
• Outline of the 9-11 Plot (Staff Statement No. 16, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks)