Bradbury Building
Encyclopedia
The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark
in Los Angeles, California
. The building was built in 1893 and is located at 304 South Broadway (at 3rd Street) in downtown
.
, Mexico—who became a real estate developer in the latter part of his life. He planned in 1892 to construct a five story building at Broadway and Third Street in Los Angeles, close to the Bunker Hill
neighborhood.
A local architect, Sumner Hunt
, was first hired to complete a design for the building, but Bradbury dismissed Hunt's plans as inadequate to the grandeur of his vision. He then hired George Wyman
, one of Hunt's draftsmen
, to design the building.
Wyman at first refused the offer, but then supposedly had a ghostly talk with his brother Mark Wyman (who had died six years previously), while using a planchette board with his wife. The ghost's message supposedly said "Mark Wyman / take the / Bradbury building / and you will be / successful" with the word "successful" written upside down. After the episode, Wyman took the job, and is now regarded as the architect of the Bradbury Building. Wyman's grandson, the science fiction publisher Forrest J. Ackerman, owned the original document containing the message until his death. Coincidentally, Ackerman was a close friend of science fiction author Ray Bradbury
.
Wyman was especially influenced in constructing the building by the 1887 science fiction book Looking Backward
by Edward Bellamy
, which described a utopian society in 2000.
In Bellamy's book, the average commercial building was described as a "vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above ... The walls and ceiling were frescoed in mellow tints, calculated to soften without absorbing the light which flooded the interior." This description greatly influenced the Bradbury Building.
A restoration and seismic retrofitting by developer Ira Yellin and project architect Brenda Levin Associates was undertaken in 1991. As part of the restoration, a storage area at the south end of the building was converted to a new rear entrance portico, connecting the building more directly to Biddy Mason Park and the adjacent Broadway Spring Center parking garage. The building's lighting system was also redesigned, bringing in alabaster
wall sconces
from Spain
.
and panels of terra cotta
details, in the "commercial Romanesque Revival
" that was the current idiom in East Coast American cities. But the magnificence of the building is the interior: reached through the entrance, with its low ceiling and minimal light, it opens into a bright naturally lit great center court.
Robert Forster
, star of the TV series Banyon
that used the building for his office, described it as "one of the great interiors of L.A. Outside it doesn't look like much, but when you walk inside, suddenly you're back a hundred and twenty years."
The five-story central court features glazed brick, ornamental cast iron, tiling, rich marble, and polished wood, capped by a skylight that allows the court to be flooded with natural rather than artificial light, creating ever-changing shadows and accents during the day.
The elevators, which go up to the fifth floor, are cage elevators that are surrounded by wrought-iron grillwork rather than masonry.
The entire main building features geometric patterned staircases at all ends. Ornately designed wrought-iron railings are used abundantly throughout the building to create the illusion of hanging vegetation.
The wrought-iron was created in France
and displayed at the Chicago World's Fair
before being installed in the building. Freestanding mail-chutes also feature ironwork.
The walls are made of pale glazed brick. The marble used in the staircase was imported from Belgium
, and the floors are Mexican
tiles.
to bolster the building and allow its construction to continue.
The initial estimate for the construction of the building was $175,000, but the final costs at completion was over $500,000—an extremely large amount for those times. Using the GDP Deflator method, this amount translates to more than $11 million in 2008 dollars.
Sadly, Lewis Bradbury died months before the building opened in 1893, although it stands as a testament to his and George Wyman's vision. It is Wyman's most acclaimed building.
in 1977.
From 2001 to 2003 A+D Museum: Los Angeles
had its home in the building.
Today the building serves as headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department
's Internal Affairs
division and other government agencies. Several of the offices are rented out to private concerns, including Red Line Tours. The retail spaces on the first floor currently house Ross Cutlery (where O.J. Simpson purchased a stiletto
that figured in his murder trial), a Subway
sandwich restaurant, a Sprint
cell phone store, and a real estate sales office for loft conversions in other nearby historic buildings.
about the building. Visitors are allowed up to the first landing but not past it. Brochure
s and tours are also available. It is close to three other downtown Los Angeles Landmarks: the Grand Central Market and the Million Dollar Theater
(across the street) and Angels Flight
(two blocks away). The building is accessible from the Los Angeles MTA Red Line via the Civic Center exit, which is three blocks away. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the upper balconies were accessible to the public, one of the office doors had an opaque glass pane that read "Sam Spade
, Private Detective."
The Bradbury Building is featured prominently as the setting in a wide range of popular media—particularly in the science fiction genre -- including films, television, literature, and music videos. Most notably, the building is the setting for both the climactic rooftop scene of the 1982 cult classic Blade Runner
, as well as the set of the character J. F. Sebastian's apartment in which much of the film's story unfolds.
The Bradbury Building appeared prominently in the 1953 film noir I, The Jury
. Joseph Losey
's 1951 remake of M
, starring David Wayne
, contains a long search sequence filmed in the building, and a spectacular shot through the roof's skylight. The famed 5-storey atrium also substituted for the interior of the seedy skid-row hotel depicted in the climax of the Jack Lemmon
comedy Good Neighbor Sam
(1964), supposedly set in San Francisco but filmed, save for some establishing shots and rear-projection footage, entirely in Los Angeles.
The Bradbury also featured in the 1994 film Wolf
(starring Jack Nicholson
), the Charles Bronson
movie Murphy's Law
(1986), Chinatown (1974), Lethal Weapon 4
(1998), Marlowe (1969), Avenging Angel
(1985), as well as The Indestructible Man (1956), Pay It Forward (2000), the 1972 made-for-television movie The Night Strangler
, and the Michael Douglas
and Demi Moore
vehicle, Disclosure
(1994). In (500) Days of Summer (2009) the building features in the last scenes as the location of an architectural firm.
Television series that featured the building include the 1964 Harlan Ellison
written episode "Demon with a Glass Hand
" for The Outer Limits
. During the Season Six episodes (1963–64) of the series 77 Sunset Strip
, Stuart "Stu" Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the only remaining recurring cast member) had his office in the Bradbury. In Quantum Leap the building is seen carrying the name "Gotham Towers" in "Play it again, Seymour", the last episode of the first season (1989). The building appeared in at least one episode in each of the following television series: Banyon
(1972–73), City of Angels
(1976), Mission: Impossible
(1966–73), as well as in the "Ned and Chuck's Apartment" episode of Pushing Daisies
, which debuted in 2007. The building was also the setting for a scene from the series FlashForward
in the episode "Let No Man Put Asunder". In 2010 the building was transplanted to NYC for a 2 part episode of CSI NY. The Bradbury Building and a fake New York City subway entrance across the street were also used to represent the exterior of New York's High School for the Performing Arts in the opening credits of the television series "Fame."
The Bradbury appeared in music videos from the 1980s by Heart
, Janet Jackson
, Earth Wind and Fire and Genesis
, and a Pontiac Pursuit commercial. Part of Janet Jackson
's 1989 film short Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 was filmed in the building as well. The interior appears in the music video for the Pointer Sisters
' 1980 song, "He's So Shy
". The Bradbury Building was also used for Tony! Toni! Toné!
's "Let's Get Down" music video.
The building featured in the photography on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 box, while the personal computer game
SimCity 3000
shows the building as one of many being built in the so-called Medium Commercial zones.
The Bradbury has been frequently alluded to in popular literature. In Gravity's Rainbow
by Thomas Pynchon
, the protagonist refers to Philip Marlowe, who will "feel homesick for the lacework balconies of the Bradbury Building." In the Star Trek novel The Case of the Colonist's Corpse: A Sam Cogley Mystery, the novel's main character works from the Bradbury Building, set four hundred years in the future. Other allusions occur in The Man With The Golden Torc by Simon R. Green, and the science fiction multiple novel series The World Of Tiers by Philip Jose Farmer.
DC Comics
and Marvel Comics
(which maintains offices in the real Bradbury Building) both published comics series based on characters that work from the historic landmark. The building serves as the headquarters for the Marvel Comics
team The Order
. In the DC universe, the Human Target
runs his private investigation agency from the building.
Landmark
This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The building was built in 1893 and is located at 304 South Broadway (at 3rd Street) in downtown
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, United States, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area...
.
History
The building was commissioned by Lewis L. Bradbury (November 6, 1823–July 15, 1892), for whom it is named. Bradbury was a mining millionaire—he owned a mine named Tajo in SinaloaSinaloa
Sinaloa officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 18 municipalities and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales....
, Mexico—who became a real estate developer in the latter part of his life. He planned in 1892 to construct a five story building at Broadway and Third Street in Los Angeles, close to the Bunker Hill
Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California
Bunker Hill, in the downtown area of Los Angeles, California, is a short, developed hill with its peak located roughly around 3rd Street. It is located directly east of the Harbor Freeway...
neighborhood.
A local architect, Sumner Hunt
Sumner Hunt
Sumner P. Hunt was an architect in Los Angeles from the 1890s to the 1930s.-Practice:In partnership with architect Silas Reese Burns he designed such regional landmarks as the original building of the Southwest Museum, the Casa de Rosas, Ebell of Los Angeles, the Bradbury Building, the Los Angeles...
, was first hired to complete a design for the building, but Bradbury dismissed Hunt's plans as inadequate to the grandeur of his vision. He then hired George Wyman
George Wyman
George Herbert Wyman was an American architect, most noted for designing the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles....
, one of Hunt's draftsmen
Technical drawing
Technical drawing, also known as drafting or draughting, is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or has to be constructed.Drafting is the language of industry....
, to design the building.
Wyman at first refused the offer, but then supposedly had a ghostly talk with his brother Mark Wyman (who had died six years previously), while using a planchette board with his wife. The ghost's message supposedly said "Mark Wyman / take the / Bradbury building / and you will be / successful" with the word "successful" written upside down. After the episode, Wyman took the job, and is now regarded as the architect of the Bradbury Building. Wyman's grandson, the science fiction publisher Forrest J. Ackerman, owned the original document containing the message until his death. Coincidentally, Ackerman was a close friend of science fiction author Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
.
Wyman was especially influenced in constructing the building by the 1887 science fiction book Looking Backward
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
by Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
, which described a utopian society in 2000.
In Bellamy's book, the average commercial building was described as a "vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above ... The walls and ceiling were frescoed in mellow tints, calculated to soften without absorbing the light which flooded the interior." This description greatly influenced the Bradbury Building.
A restoration and seismic retrofitting by developer Ira Yellin and project architect Brenda Levin Associates was undertaken in 1991. As part of the restoration, a storage area at the south end of the building was converted to a new rear entrance portico, connecting the building more directly to Biddy Mason Park and the adjacent Broadway Spring Center parking garage. The building's lighting system was also redesigned, bringing in alabaster
Alabaster
Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals, when used as a material: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; generally, the latter is the alabaster of the ancients...
wall sconces
Sconce (light fixture)
A sconce is a type of light fixture affixed to a wall in such a way that it uses only the wall for support, and the light is usually directed upwards. It does not have a base on the ground...
from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
.
Architecture
The building itself features an Italian Renaissance Revival -style exterior facade of brown brick, sandstoneSandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
and panels of terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
details, in the "commercial Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
" that was the current idiom in East Coast American cities. But the magnificence of the building is the interior: reached through the entrance, with its low ceiling and minimal light, it opens into a bright naturally lit great center court.
Robert Forster
Robert Forster
Robert Forster is an American actor, best known for his roles as John Cassellis in Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool, and as Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, the latter of which gained him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.- Early life :Forster was born Robert Wallace...
, star of the TV series Banyon
Banyon
Banyon is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC as part of its 1972-73 television schedule, though a standalone two-hour television movie was broadcast first in March 1971. The series was a Quinn Martin Production Banyon is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC...
that used the building for his office, described it as "one of the great interiors of L.A. Outside it doesn't look like much, but when you walk inside, suddenly you're back a hundred and twenty years."
The five-story central court features glazed brick, ornamental cast iron, tiling, rich marble, and polished wood, capped by a skylight that allows the court to be flooded with natural rather than artificial light, creating ever-changing shadows and accents during the day.
The elevators, which go up to the fifth floor, are cage elevators that are surrounded by wrought-iron grillwork rather than masonry.
The entire main building features geometric patterned staircases at all ends. Ornately designed wrought-iron railings are used abundantly throughout the building to create the illusion of hanging vegetation.
The wrought-iron was created in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and displayed at the Chicago World's Fair
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
before being installed in the building. Freestanding mail-chutes also feature ironwork.
The walls are made of pale glazed brick. The marble used in the staircase was imported from Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, and the floors are Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
tiles.
Construction
During construction an active spring was found beneath the work-site, posing a threat to ongoing work on the building by weakening the foundation. However, Mr. Bradbury was very committed to the project, which he believed to be the greatest monument possible to his memory. Consequently, he imported massive steel rails from EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
to bolster the building and allow its construction to continue.
The initial estimate for the construction of the building was $175,000, but the final costs at completion was over $500,000—an extremely large amount for those times. Using the GDP Deflator method, this amount translates to more than $11 million in 2008 dollars.
Sadly, Lewis Bradbury died months before the building opened in 1893, although it stands as a testament to his and George Wyman's vision. It is Wyman's most acclaimed building.
Building today
The building has operated as an office building for most of its history. It was designated a National Historic LandmarkNational Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1977.
From 2001 to 2003 A+D Museum: Los Angeles
A+D Museum: Los Angeles
A+D Museum, also known as Architecture and Design Museum, Los Angeles, is a museum for architecture and design in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard in Museum Row in the Miracle Mile district, next to the Peterson Automotive Museum.- History :A+D Museum was co-founded by...
had its home in the building.
Today the building serves as headquarters for the Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department
The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...
's Internal Affairs
Internal affairs (law enforcement)
The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...
division and other government agencies. Several of the offices are rented out to private concerns, including Red Line Tours. The retail spaces on the first floor currently house Ross Cutlery (where O.J. Simpson purchased a stiletto
Stiletto
A stiletto is a knife or dagger with a long slender blade and needle-like point, intended primarily as a stabbing weapon. The stiletto blade's narrow cross-section and acuminated tip reduces friction upon entry, allowing the blade to penetrate deeply...
that figured in his murder trial), a Subway
Subway (restaurant)
Subway is an American restaurant franchise that primarily sells submarine sandwiches and salads. It is owned and operated by Doctor's Associates, Inc. . Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with 35,519 restaurants in 98 countries and territories as of October 25th, 2011...
sandwich restaurant, a Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
cell phone store, and a real estate sales office for loft conversions in other nearby historic buildings.
Tourism
The building is a popular tourist attraction. Visitors are welcome daily and greeted by a government worker who provides historical facts and informationInformation
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
about the building. Visitors are allowed up to the first landing but not past it. Brochure
Brochure
A brochure is a type of leaflet. Brochures are most commonly found at places that tourists frequently visit, such as museums, major shops, and tourist information. Brochure racks or stands may suggest visits to amusement parks and other points of interest...
s and tours are also available. It is close to three other downtown Los Angeles Landmarks: the Grand Central Market and the Million Dollar Theater
Million Dollar Theater
The Million Dollar Theater at 307 S. Broadway in downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in February 1918...
(across the street) and Angels Flight
Angels Flight
Angels Flight is a landmark funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It has two funicular cars, Sinai and Olivet ....
(two blocks away). The building is accessible from the Los Angeles MTA Red Line via the Civic Center exit, which is three blocks away. In the 1970s and 1980s, when the upper balconies were accessible to the public, one of the office doors had an opaque glass pane that read "Sam Spade
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....
, Private Detective."
In popular culture
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, as well as the set of the character J. F. Sebastian's apartment in which much of the film's story unfolds.
The Bradbury Building appeared prominently in the 1953 film noir I, The Jury
I, the Jury
I, The Jury is Mickey Spillane's first novel featuring private investigator Mike Hammer.-Plot summary:New York City, summer 1944. Although she runs a successful private psychiatric clinic on New York's Park Avenue, Dr. Charlotte Manning — young, beautiful, blonde, and well-to-do —...
. Joseph Losey
Joseph Losey
Joseph Walton Losey was an American theater and film director. After studying in Germany with Bertolt Brecht, Losey returned to the United States, eventually making his way to Hollywood...
's 1951 remake of M
M (1931 film)
M is a 1931 German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It was Lang's first sound film, although he had directed more than a dozen films previously....
, starring David Wayne
David Wayne
David Wayne was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.-Early life and career:...
, contains a long search sequence filmed in the building, and a spectacular shot through the roof's skylight. The famed 5-storey atrium also substituted for the interior of the seedy skid-row hotel depicted in the climax of the Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
comedy Good Neighbor Sam
Good Neighbor Sam
Good Neighbor Sam is a 1964 American comedy movie co-written and directed by David Swift and starring Jack Lemmon and Romy Schneider.It was based on the novel by Jack Finney. The screenplay was the motion picture debut of James Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum, who had written many American...
(1964), supposedly set in San Francisco but filmed, save for some establishing shots and rear-projection footage, entirely in Los Angeles.
The Bradbury also featured in the 1994 film Wolf
Wolf (film)
Wolf is a 1994 American horror film directed by Mike Nichols and written by Jim Harrison, Wesley Strick, and an uncredited Elaine May, with music by Ennio Morricone and cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno....
(starring Jack Nicholson
Jack Nicholson
John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson is an American actor, film director, producer and writer. He is renowned for his often dark portrayals of neurotic characters. Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award twelve times, and has won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice: for One Flew Over the...
), the Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson , born Charles Dennis Buchinsky was an American actor, best-known for such films as Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the popular Death Wish series...
movie Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law (film)
Murphy's Law is a thriller film directed by J. Lee Thompson from a screenplay by Gail Morgan Hickman. It was released by Cannon Films to the United States on April 18, 1986. The film stars Charles Bronson and Kathleen Wilhoite in lead roles with a supporting cast that includes Carrie Snodgress,...
(1986), Chinatown (1974), Lethal Weapon 4
Lethal Weapon 4
Lethal Weapon 4 is a 1998 American action film directed by Richard Donner, starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock and Jet Li. It is the third sequel in the Lethal Weapon series of films. -Plot:...
(1998), Marlowe (1969), Avenging Angel
Avenging Angel (1985 film)
Avenging Angel is a 1985 film directed by Robert Vincent O'Neill and written by Robert Vincent O'Neill with Joseph Michael Cala. The movie is a sequel to 1984's Angel and was followed by the 1988 film Angel III: The Final Chapter and Angel 4: Undercover...
(1985), as well as The Indestructible Man (1956), Pay It Forward (2000), the 1972 made-for-television movie The Night Strangler
The Night Strangler (film)
The Night Strangler is a made for television movie which first aired on ABC on January 16, 1973 as a sequel to The Night Stalker.-Plot:...
, and the Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
and Demi Moore
Demi Moore
Demi Guynes Kutcher , known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress. After minor roles in film and a role in the soap opera General Hospital, Moore established her career in films such as St...
vehicle, Disclosure
Disclosure (film)
Disclosure is a 1994 thriller directed by Barry Levinson, starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. It is based on Michael Crichton's novel of the same name.The cast also includes Donald Sutherland, Rosemary Forsyth and Dennis Miller...
(1994). In (500) Days of Summer (2009) the building features in the last scenes as the location of an architectural firm.
Television series that featured the building include the 1964 Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
written episode "Demon with a Glass Hand
Demon with a Glass Hand
"Demon with a Glass Hand" is an episode of The Outer Limits television series, the second to be based on a script by Harlan Ellison, which Ellison wrote specifically with actor Robert Culp in mind for the lead role...
" for The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)
The Outer Limits is an American television series that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1965. The series is similar in style to the earlier The Twilight Zone, but with a greater emphasis on science fiction, rather than fantasy stories...
. During the Season Six episodes (1963–64) of the series 77 Sunset Strip
77 Sunset Strip
77 Sunset Strip is an hour-length American television private detective series created by Roy Huggins and starring Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Roger Smith, and Edd Byrnes....
, Stuart "Stu" Bailey (Efrem Zimbalist Jr., the only remaining recurring cast member) had his office in the Bradbury. In Quantum Leap the building is seen carrying the name "Gotham Towers" in "Play it again, Seymour", the last episode of the first season (1989). The building appeared in at least one episode in each of the following television series: Banyon
Banyon
Banyon is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC as part of its 1972-73 television schedule, though a standalone two-hour television movie was broadcast first in March 1971. The series was a Quinn Martin Production Banyon is a detective series broadcast in the United States by NBC...
(1972–73), City of Angels
City of Angels (1976 TV series)
City of Angels is a 1976 television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, who had previously worked together on The Rockford Files...
(1976), Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...
(1966–73), as well as in the "Ned and Chuck's Apartment" episode of Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies is an American comedy-drama television series created by Bryan Fuller that aired on ABC from October 3, 2007 to June 13, 2009. The series stars Lee Pace as Ned, a pie-maker with the ability to bring dead things back to life with his touch, an ability that comes with stipulations...
, which debuted in 2007. The building was also the setting for a scene from the series FlashForward
Flashforward
A flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future...
in the episode "Let No Man Put Asunder". In 2010 the building was transplanted to NYC for a 2 part episode of CSI NY. The Bradbury Building and a fake New York City subway entrance across the street were also used to represent the exterior of New York's High School for the Performing Arts in the opening credits of the television series "Fame."
The Bradbury appeared in music videos from the 1980s by Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
, Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
, Earth Wind and Fire and Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
, and a Pontiac Pursuit commercial. Part of Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
's 1989 film short Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 was filmed in the building as well. The interior appears in the music video for the Pointer Sisters
Pointer Sisters
The Pointer Sisters are an American pop/R&B recording act from Oakland, California that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Spanning over three decades, their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, disco, jazz, bebop, blues, soul, funk, dance, country and rock.The...
' 1980 song, "He's So Shy
He's So Shy
"He's So Shy" is a the title of a song written by Tom Snow and lyricist Cynthia Weil which in 1980 became a top ten Pop hit for the Pointer Sisters.-Background:...
". The Bradbury Building was also used for Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American Soul/R&B group from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy...
's "Let's Get Down" music video.
The building featured in the photography on the Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 box, while the personal computer game
Personal computer game
A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...
SimCity 3000
SimCity 3000
SimCity 3000 is a city building simulation personal computer game and the third major installment in the SimCity series. It was published by Electronic Arts and developed by series creator Maxis, a wholly owned subsidiary of EA...
shows the building as one of many being built in the so-called Medium Commercial zones.
The Bradbury has been frequently alluded to in popular literature. In Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow
Gravity's Rainbow is a postmodern novel written by Thomas Pynchon and first published on February 28, 1973.The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military, and, in particular, the quest...
by Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
, the protagonist refers to Philip Marlowe, who will "feel homesick for the lacework balconies of the Bradbury Building." In the Star Trek novel The Case of the Colonist's Corpse: A Sam Cogley Mystery, the novel's main character works from the Bradbury Building, set four hundred years in the future. Other allusions occur in The Man With The Golden Torc by Simon R. Green, and the science fiction multiple novel series The World Of Tiers by Philip Jose Farmer.
DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
and Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
(which maintains offices in the real Bradbury Building) both published comics series based on characters that work from the historic landmark. The building serves as the headquarters for the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
team The Order
The Order (comics)
The Order is the name of two fictional comic book superhero teams in the Marvel Comics universe. The first team was a brief offshoot of the team Defenders, and the second is part of an initiative to place a superhero team in each state of the United States....
. In the DC universe, the Human Target
Human Target
The Human Target is the name of two fictional comic book characters that have appeared in books published by DC Comics. The first is Fred Venable, who appears in Detective Comics #201 , by Edmond Hamilton and Sheldon Moldoff....
runs his private investigation agency from the building.
External links
- Public Art in L.A. – Bradbury Building, A History
- Los Angeles Conservancy
- BRmovie.com Blade Runner Film Locations
- University of Southern California's L.A. Walking Tour