In his 1971 monograph titled Los Angeles. The Architecture of Four Ecologies, architectural historian Reyner Banham observed, “No city has ever been produced by such an extraordinary mixture of geography, climate, economics, demography, mechanics, and culture; nor is it likely that an even remotely similar mixture will ever occur again.” In explaining the phenomenon of Los Angeles, Banham drew attention to the city’s four ecologies, which still exist in its freeways, foothills, beaches, and suburbs. In a 1976 documentary, Banham compared Los Angeles to London, and Paris, reasoning that, “It takes a city to support style and craft, but it takes a very great city indeed to impose that kind of style on the rest of the world. And from the Hollywood movies, to pop art, to custom car painting, to the design of surfboards and so-on, Los Angeles has done just that.”

The city’s landscape has evolved dramatically since Banham’s day, as illustrated by the interactive Los Angeles Times photo essay that matches black and white photos from 1951 to views taken last year from the same vantage point on the observation deck of the Los Angeles City Hall. A companion article to the photographs observed, “From the landmark tower, Los Angeles’ history unfolds below: the pueblo that the city founders created, the grid of streets that first carried trolleys and horses and eventually cars, the imposing stone low-rise towers of L.A.’s prewar period, followed by freeways, parking lots, and several generations of skyscrapers reaching even higher.”

Los Angeles is home for eight of the 10 tallest buildings in California. The city’s tallest skyscraper is the 73-story U.S. Bank Tower, which was completed in 1989. At the time of its completion, the U.S. Bank Tower was designed to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter scale, making it the tallest structure in a major active seismic region. The tower was constructed as part of a $1 billion redevelopment of the Los Angeles Central Library, which is one of the largest publically funded library systems in the world. Dwarfed by its neighboring skyscrapers, the library was designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue to resemble the architecture of ancient Egypt.

The city’s second tallest skyscraper, the 62-story Aon Center, was L.A’s tallest building from the time of its completion in 1974 until 1989. Recognizable for its black glass sides and white stone chamfers extending from the ground to its roof, the Aon Center’s lower levels and front entrance were recently refurbished using a low volatile organic compound (VOC) fluoropolymer coating system from Tnemec. The existing coating was removed from the building’s anodized aluminum exterior, which was thoroughly scarified with a 1.0 to 2.0 mil profile prior to receiving a prime coat of Series L69 Hi-Build Epoxoline II, a versatile, polyamidoamine epoxy. Series 1070V Fluoronar, a high-solids fluoropolymer coating, was specified as the finish coat. “Series 1070V Fluoronar is the perfect solution in providing exceptional color and gloss retention in L.A.’s strong sun,” according to Tnemec coating consultant Dustin Kaatz. “It has the ability to resist the damaging effects of ultraviolet (UV) light and its resin is more stable than acrylic or conventional polyurethane resin. Also, with less than 100 grams per liter of VOCs, the topcoat meets South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) regulations in the Los Angeles basin.”

Under SCAQMD, the maximum VOC content of paints and coatings that fall into the Industrial Maintenance Category is 100 grams per liter. Noncompliance with this requirement, which applies to the seven southern counties in and around the Los Angeles metropolitan area, can lead to severe fines and the potential for disruptive project delays. This has led to a new generation of low-VOC coating technologies that promote equal or superior performance to products used in other parts of the country. “Currently, Tnemec is the only coating manufacturer that offers a solid-color, field applied, ultra-low VOC fluoropolymer,” Kaatz noted.

Notable public venues in Bunker Hill include the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels constructed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect José Rafael Moneo Vallés, the Museum of Contemporary Art designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall which is home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. 

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