Capitol Records Building | |
---|---|
Alternative names | Capitol Records Tower Capitol Tower |
General information | |
Type | Commercial offices |
Architectural style | Googie |
Address | 1750 Vine Street Hollywood, California 90028 |
Coordinates | 34°06′11″N118°19′34″W / 34.103085°N 118.326189°W |
Construction started | 1955 |
Completed | 1956 |
Owner | Argent Ventures 50% Universal Music Group 50% [1] |
Height | |
Antenna spire | 46 m (151 ft) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 13 |
Lifts/elevators | 3 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Welton Becket and Associates |
Designated | September 26,2024 |
Reference no. | 100010883 |
Designated | November 15, 2006 |
Reference no. | 857 |
References | |
[2] [3] [4] |
The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a 13-story tower building in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket Associates, it is one of the city's landmarks, [5] and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Construction began soon after British music 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." [6]
The building is known as "The House That Nat Built" [7] [8] due to the vast number of records and amount of merchandise Nat King Cole sold for the company.
The building's design is based 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. [9] [10] 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. [11] This resemblance, however, was coincidental, as Welton Becket kept the client's identity secret. Upon first seeing the design, Capitol Records' president Glen Wallichs insisted on a rectangular building, so Naidorf provided Wallichs with both. Wallichs presented both designs to his lender, who felt the round design would attract attention, which would make it easier to lease. Wallichs conceded, choosing Naidorf's initial round design. [12] The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure, joined to the tower after completion.
The 13-story building conforms to the 150-foot (46 m) zoning height limit in place at the time of its construction. Height restrictions were lifted in 1956. [13] The thirteenth floor of the tower is the "Executive Level" and is represented by an "E" in the building's two elevators. [14]
The blinking light atop the tower spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code. (.... --- .-.. .-.. -.-- .-- --- --- -..) [15] 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. [11] During 1992, the light blinked "Capitol 50," in honor of the label's fiftieth anniversary. [16] 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. [17] Restored in hand-glazed ceramic tile, the mural spans 26 by 88 feet (7.9 by 26.8 m) [18] Entitled "Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972", it presents "larger than life" images of a number of notable jazz musicians.
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. [19]
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. [20]
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. [21] This coincided with Capitol Music Group becoming part of Universal Music Group, assuring its new parent company two Los Angeles headquarters.
Capitol Records, LLC, and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note in the United States in 1942 by Johnny Mercer, Buddy DeSylva, and Glenn E. Wallichs. Capitol was acquired by British music conglomerate EMI as its North American subsidiary in 1955. EMI was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2012, and was merged with the company a year later, making Capitol and the Capitol Music Group both distributed by UMG. The label's circular headquarters building is a recognized landmark of Hollywood, California.
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by Rolling Stone magazine in 2018. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
Hollywood and Vine, the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, California, became known in the 1920s for its concentration of radio and movie-related businesses. The Hollywood Walk of Fame is centered on the intersection.
Ella Mae Morse was an American singer of popular music whose 1940s and 1950s recordings mixing jazz, blues, and country styles influenced the development of rock and roll. Her 1942 recording of "Cow-Cow Boogie" with Freddie Slack and His Orchestra gave Capitol Records its first gold record. In 1943, her single "Get On Board, Little Chillun", also with Slack, charted in what would soon become the R&B charts, making her one of the first white singers to do so. Morse stopped recording in 1957 but continued to perform and tour into the 1990s. In 1960, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Frederick Charles Slack was an American swing and boogie-woogie pianist and bandleader.
Huell Burnley Howser was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing California's Gold and his human interest show Visiting... with Huell Howser, produced by KCET in Los Angeles for California PBS stations. The archive of his video chronicles offers an enhanced understanding of the history, culture, and people of California. He also voiced the Backson in Winnie the Pooh (2011).
The Hollywood Palladium is a theater located at 6215 Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It was built in a Streamline Moderne, Art Deco style and includes an 11,200-square-foot (1,040 m2) dance floor including a mezzanine and a floor level with room for up to 4,000 people. The theater was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. The Palladium was designated Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument No. 1130 on September 28, 2016.
Canter's Deli is a Jewish-style delicatessen, opened in 1931 in Boyle Heights, and later moved to the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California, near the border of West Hollywood. It has been frequented by many movie stars and celebrities.
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Gold Star Studios was an independent recording studio located in Hollywood, California. In its entire history, Gold Star was one of the most successful commercial recording studios in the world.
Julius Shulman was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph "Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman's photography spread the aesthetic of California's Mid-century modern architecture around the world. Through his many books, exhibits and personal appearances his work ushered in a new appreciation for the movement beginning in the 1990s.
Ann Richards was an American pop and jazz singer. She was the second wife of bandleader Stan Kenton. She had a short career in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Capitol Studios is a recording studio located at the landmark Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, California, United States. The studios, which opened in 1956, were initially the primary recording studios for the American record label Capitol Records. While they are still regularly used by Capitol recording artists, the facilities began to be made available to artists outside the label during the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The studios are owned by Universal Music Group, the parent company of Capitol Music Group.
Hugo Ballin was an American artist, muralist, author, and film director. Ballin was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Academy of Design.
The Wilshire Boulevard Temple, known from 1862 to 1933 as Congregation B'nai B'rith, is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 3663 Wilshire Boulevard, in the Wilshire Center district of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. Founded in 1862, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles.
The Old Warner Brothers Studio, now known as the Sunset Bronson Studios, is a motion picture, radio and television production facility located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The studio was the site where the first talking feature film, The Jazz Singer, was filmed in 1927.
Wallichs Music City was a record store in Hollywood, California, US, founded by Glenn E. Wallichs, that also had stores in West Covina, Lakewood, Canoga Park, Costa Mesa, Torrance, Buena Park, and Hawthorne from 1940 to 1978 and was one of the first to display cellophane-sealed albums in racks. Wallichs stayed open until 2 a.m.
Electro-Vox Recording Studios is a recording studio formerly in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. It was historically located on Melrose Avenue across from the Paramount Pictures gate. In 2009, it was purchased by American musician Woody Jackson, who has since moved its operations to Tucson, Arizona.
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