Capitol Records Building

The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a 13-story tower building in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket Associates, it is one of the city's landmarks.[4] Construction began soon after British company EMI acquired Capitol Records in 1955, and was completed in April 1956. Located just north of the Hollywood and Vine intersection, the Capitol Records Tower houses the consolidation of Capitol Records' West Coast operations and is home to the recording studios and echo chambers of Capitol Studios. The building is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and sits in the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District. It has been described as the "world's first circular office building."[5]

Capitol Records Building
Alternative namesCapitol Records Tower
Capitol Tower
General information
TypeCommercial offices
Architectural styleGoogie architecture
Location1750 Vine Street
Los Angeles, California
Coordinates34.103085°N 118.326189°W / 34.103085; -118.326189
Construction started1955
Completed1956
OwnerArgent Ventures
Height
Antenna spire46 m (151 ft)
Technical details
Floor count13
Lifts/elevators3
Design and construction
ArchitectWelton Becket and Associates
DesignatedNovember 15, 2006
Reference no.857
References
[1][2][3]

The building is known as "The House That Nat Built"[6] due to the vast numbers of records and amounts of merchandise Nat King Cole sold for the company.

Design

The building's design is on the graduate school drawings of Lou Naidorf who, as the primary architect, designed the first circular office building when he was 24 years old.[7][8] The wide curved awnings over windows on each story and the tall spike emerging from the top of the building resembles a stack of records on a turntable with the spindle pointing skyward.[9] The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure, joined to the tower after completion.

The 13-story conforms to the 150-foot (46 m) zoning height limit in place at the time of its construction. Height restrictions were lifted in 1956.[10] The thirteenth floor of the tower is the "Executive Level" and is represented by an "E" in the building's two elevators.[11]

Notable features

The blinking light atop the tower spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code[12]. This was an idea of Capitol's then-president, Alan Livingston, who wanted to advertise Capitol's status as the first record label with a base on the west coast. It was switched on by Leila Morse, granddaughter of Samuel Morse.[9] During 1992, the light blinked "Capitol 50," in honor of the label's fiftieth anniversary.[13] A black-and-white graphic of the building appeared on the albums of many Capitol recording artists, with the phrase, "From the Sound Capitol of the World".

In April 2011, Capitol Records and artist Richard Wyatt Jr. restored his Hollywood Jazz Mural on the south wall of the Capitol Records building.[14] Restored in hand-glazed ceramic tile, the mural spans 26 by 88 feet (7.9 by 26.8 m)[15] Entitled "Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972", this masterpiece presents "larger than life" images of a number of notable jazz musicians.

Capitol Studios
Main article: Capitol Studios

The building houses the Capitol Studios, a recording facility which includes eight echo chambers engineered by guitarist Les Paul and three main studios, A, B, and C. Frank Sinatra had a close association with the studios, and the Georg Neumann U 47 microphone he carried around with him is there, often used and maintained for studio sessions. The first album recorded in the tower was Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color. In 2012, Studio A received a new AMS Neve 88R mixing console, designed and built for Al Schmitt and Paul McCartney.[16]

Recent history

In September 2006, EMI sold the tower and adjacent properties for US$50 million to New York developer Argent Ventures. The studio claimed that noise from construction of a condominium threatened it, as well as an underground parking lot by building firm Second Street Ventures would have heavy equipment working within 18 feet (5.5 m) of its renowned underground echo chambers, which are themselves over 20 feet (6.1 m) below ground level.[17]

In November 2012, Steve Barnett was announced as the new Chairman and CEO of the Capitol Music Group and the company stated his office would be in the building.[18] This coincided with Capitol Music Group becoming part of Universal Music Group, assuring its new parent company two Los Angeles headquarters.

  • In the 1979 film The Muppet Movie the Muppet gang in their Hippie bus drives past the building on their way to a film studio.
  • In Earthquake, starring Charlton Heston, an earthquake destroys the building. A clip of this scene is in the pilot episode of Galactica 1980, as Cylon spacecraft fire at the building.
  • In the 1990 film The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, the protagonists climb down the outside structure of the building while fleeing the antagonist's henchman.
  • In the music video "Closer Than You Know" and "Touch The Sky", Hillsong United performed at the top of the tower.
  • In the 1994 arcade game Primal Rage, the building appears in ruins.
  • In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, a tornado damages the building.
  • In the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the building appears in the city of Los Santos as the Blastin' Fools Records Building. The building would also appear in Grand Theft Auto V as the Badger Building.
  • In the 2005 video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, the building appears in the Hollywood level.
  • In the 2008 television series Life After People, the building collapses after 175 years without maintenance. The echo chambers underneath the buildings survive for years after the main tower collapses.
  • In the 2008 film Hancock, the title character pierces the building's pinnacle with a car in the opening scene.
  • In a 2014 episode of the television series Mad Men titled "The Runaways" set in 1969, the building appears in the background as a character makes a call from a telephone booth.
  • The video to Rod Stewart's 2015 song "Love Is" is shot at the top of the Capitol Records building.
  • In 2019, the building appeared in Lana del Rey's "Doin' Time" music video.
  • In 2019, the building appeared in Todrick Hall's "Dripeesha" music video.
  • An aerial view of the Capitol Records Building
  • Viewed from Hollywood and Vine, 1997
  • Parking lot mural titled Hollywood Jazz
  • Taken on 2006-03-28

References
  1. Capitol Records Building at Emporis
  2. Capitol Records Building at Glass Steel and Stone (archived)
  3. "Capitol Records Building". SkyscraperPage.
  4. Hawthorne, Christopher (29 May 2011). "Critic's Notebook: Hollywood landmark at a crossroads". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 9 January 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  5. "World's First Circular Building Readied Here". Los Angeles Times (1923-1955). April 8, 1956. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  6. Congressional Record. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  7. MillenniumHollywood (23 October 2012). "Millennium Hollywood: Lou Naidorf" (Video upload). YouTube. Google, Inc. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  8. Hundley, Jessica (16 January 2003). "A star was born". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  9. Huell Howser; Sue Satriano (1988). Exploring L.A. with Huell (video). Hollywood, California: KCET. Archived from the original (mp3) on 8 December 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2010.
  10. Masters, Nathan (23 May 2012). "L.A.'s Changing Skyline: A Brief History of Skyscrapers in the City of Angels". KCET. KCETLink. Archived from the original on 3 February 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  11. "About". Capitol Records Building. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  12. "Capitol Records Building Morse Code". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  13. MacMinn, Aleene (1992-05-28). "Pop/rock". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  14. "Capitol Records Jazz Mural restored!". Millennium Hollywood. Millennium Hollywood Partners. 30 January 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-05-25. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  15. Lewis, Randy (18 February 2013). "'Hollywood Jazz' mural lives on more brightly". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 20 February 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  16. Brown, August (1 November 2012). "Capitol Studios". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 19 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  17. Pool, Bob (June 18, 2008). "Capitol Fears For Its Sonic Signature". Los Angeles Times. p. B2.
  18. Brown, August (26 November 2012). "Steve Barnett to lead Capitol Music Group". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 29 November 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
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