U.S. Bank Tower
LA sold the sky above a fire-gutted library to fund its own rebuilding — and got its second-tallest tower in the bargain.
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Henry N. Cobb designed this 1,018-foot skyscraper, completed in 1989, as part of the Central Library redevelopment after two fires tore through the library in 1986. The City sold air rights to the developers specifically to pay for the library's reconstruction. Now owned by Larry Silverstein, a 2023 renovation added a new lobby and art installation. The building appears so relentlessly in film and TV establishing shots of Los Angeles that you've almost certainly already seen it without knowing its name.
What to look for
- Maguire Gardens — the small park adjacent to the tower, acquired alongside the building in 2013, sits at street level
- The 2023-renovated lobby, which includes an art installation and flexible workspaces open to tenants
- The building's silhouette against the downtown skyline: at 72 floors it is the second-tallest structure in Los Angeles
In the Financial District of downtown LA; Maguire Gardens alongside the base is accessible at street level without entering the office tower.
U.S. Bank Tower is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Los Angeles, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Los Angeles pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Los Angeles
- Hollywood Walk of Fame2,850 names pressed into pink terrazzo underfoot — actors, inventors, fictional characters, all at six-foot intervals for 1.3 miles.
- Dolby TheatreThe red carpet runs up these stairs every awards season — where Hollywood officially crowns its year.
- SoFi StadiumA million-square-foot canopy embedded with 27,000 LED pucks bright enough to be seen from planes descending into LAX.
- Hollywood SignA 1923 real-estate billboard that refused to come down — and ended up owning the word "Hollywood" itself.
- Rose BowlA century-old sunken oval where the 1994 World Cup Final was settled — and the 2028 Olympics will return to do it again.
- Los Angeles Memorial ColiseumThe only stadium that will have hosted the Summer Olympics three times — and it was commissioned in 1921 as a memorial to Los Angeles veterans of World War I.