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Photo, Print, Drawing Parker Center, 150 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA Police Facilities Building

[ Drawings from Survey HABS CA-2923  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS CA-2923  ]
[ Photo Captions from Survey HABS CA-2923  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Parker Center, 150 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

Other Title

  • Police Facilities Building

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Becket, Welton
  • Cornell, Ralph D.
  • Stanton, J. E.
  • Parker, William H.
  • Welton Becket & Associates
  • Los Angeles Police Department
  • City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works, Bureau of Construction and Building Maintenance
  • Blakely, W. R.
  • Ford J. Twaits Company
  • Morrison-Knudson, Associated General Contractors
  • William F. Stockwell Architects
  • Bigham, J. C.
  • Woodard, Maynard
  • Runcy, Francis
  • Erick, Murray
  • Jeffers, Paul Eells
  • Philips, Ralph E.
  • Young, Joseph Louis
  • Rosenthal, Bernard J. (Tony)
  • Premier Tile & Marble
  • Schafer, Stephen D., photographer
  • Yates, Timothy, historian
  • Roderick, Margaret, historian
  • Castaneda, Katrina, historian
  • ICF, contractor
  • City of Los Angeles, sponsor
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  police stations
  • -  law enforcement
  • -  International Style architectural elements
  • -  public sculpture
  • -  mosaics
  • -  California--Los Angeles County--Los Angeles

Latitude / Longitude

  • 34.052264,-118.241353

Notes

  • -  For additional documentation, see also Parker Center (HALS CA-138)
  • -  Significance: Parker Center is significant for its association with Los Angeles Police Department Chief William H. Parker, as an important example of International Style architecture, and as the work of architect Welton Becket. An influential figure in Los Angeles history, Parker served as Chief of Police from 1950 to his sudden death in 1966. Parker distinguished himself as a pioneer of the police professionalism movement who shaped modern police administration and procedure through his leadership of the Los Angeles Police Department. Parker Center embodies both the chief's effort to centralize law enforcement facilities and Welton Becket's "Total Design" philosophy. Known today for Los Angeles works such as the Capitol Records Building, the Beverly Hilton, the Cinerama Dome, and the Los Angeles Music Center, Becket led a team of architects, a landscape architect, and artists who designed every aspect of Parker Center. Architect J. E. Stanton and landscape architect Ralph D. Cornell played large roles in its design. The high-rise police headquarters is an important example of the International Style that, upon its completion in 1955, influenced the design of such facilities elsewhere in the United States.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2382
  • -  Survey number: HABS CA-2923
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1952-1953 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1957-1958 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1999 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 2006 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 2010 Subsequent Work
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1971 Subsequent Work

Medium

  • Photo(s): 67
  • Measured Drawing(s): 30
  • Data Page(s): 18
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 12

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS CA-2923

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • ca4333

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS CA-2923
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

If Digital Images Are Displaying

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  • Data Pages
    • Make note of the Call Number in the catalog record.

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  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
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  • Hire a freelance researcher to do further selection for you (a list of researchers in available at: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/resource/013_pic.html).
  • You can purchase copies of various types, including quick copies, through Library of Congress Duplication Services (price lists, contact information, and order forms for Library of Congress Duplication Services are available on the Duplication Services Web site):
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      As a preservation measure, we generally do not serve an original item when a digital image is available. If you have a compelling reason to see the original, consult with a reference librarian. (Sometimes, the original is simply too fragile to serve. For example, glass and film photographic negatives are particularly subject to damage. They are also easier to see online where they are presented as positive images.)
    • No, the item is not digitized. Please go to #2.
  2. Do the Access Advisory or Call Number fields above indicate that a non-digital surrogate exists, such as microfilm or copy prints?

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Welton Becket, Ralph D Cornell, J. E Stanton, William H Parker, Welton Becket & Associates, Los Angeles Police Department, et al., Schafer, Stephen D, photographer. Parker Center, 150 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County California Los Angeles, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/ca4333/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Becket, W., Cornell, R. D., Stanton, J. E., Parker, W. H., Welton Becket & Associates [...] City Of Los Angeles, S., Schafer, S. D., photographer. (1933) Parker Center, 150 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. Los Angeles County California Los Angeles, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/ca4333/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographer by Schafer, Stephen D. Parker Center, 150 North Los Angeles Street Los Angeles Civic Center, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/ca4333/>.