The library opened in 1926 and has been described as ‘a remarkable fusion of Spanish, Egyptian, Byzantine and Islamic influences’. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP View image in fullscreen The library opened in 1926 and has been described as ‘a remarkable fusion of Spanish, Egyptian, Byzantine and Islamic influences’. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/AP Los Angeles Sphinxes, movie stars and 3m books: inside Los Angeles’s beloved art deco library The showcase library’s centenary was celebrated by thousands who filled the still-relevant public institution
Prefer the Guardian on Google The central library in downtown Los Angeles has seen its fair share of colorful moments.
The architectural gem, which turned 100 this week, has been the backdrop to the epic street battle between Pacino, De Niro et al in Heat, and was where the original Ghostbusters came across their first ghost, a friendly older lady librarian who was anything but. Television shows such as Moonlighting; Murder, She Wrote; and LA Law filmed there too, when characters were researching or investigating a case.
Read more But the library has also been touched by the darker side of LA life. The “Night Stalker” serial killer Richard Ramirez came here in 1985 and asked for books on astrology and torture. Ever helpful, the librarian directed him to the correct department and thought little more about the unsettling man with rotten teeth – until he recognized him when he was arrested several days later.
Then there was the still-officially unsolved 1986 arson, which destroyed 400,000 volumes and shut the library for seven years.
“People think that libraries are quiet, but they really aren’t. They rumble with voices and footsteps and a whole orchestral range of book-related noises,” wrote Susan Orlean in The Library Book , her 2018 bestseller about the central library.
That was certainly true this past week, when the author was one of the estimated 12,000 people who swelled through the corridors, halls, courtyards, rotunda, reading rooms and sculpture garden in celebration of its 100th anniversary.
View image in fullscreen The Los Angeles central library has been a set location for films and TV shows, and a research center for a serial killer. Photograph: Eric Draper/AP The art deco-era library, according to L Is for Librarian: The ABCs of Los Angeles Central Library, houses nearly 3m books and 89 miles of shelves. The library’s most dazzling and Instagram-worthy feature is the central rotunda – cathedral-like and lined with Dean Cornwell’s romanticized murals of California history. Visitors’ eyes are drawn up to the zodiac chandelier with its stained-glass globe and zodiac signs.
“It remains one of the city’s great civic spaces, a place that’s used, loved and valued every single day,” says Stephen Gee, the author of Los Angeles Central Library: A History of Its Art and Architecture . “It’s one of the few places in modern Los Angeles where everyone is welcome, regardless of their background or circumstances. It doesn’t ask who you are or what you earn.”
After outgrowing several smaller downtown locations, the municipal dream of a monumental downtown library was financed through a $2.5m municipal bond measure approved in 1921.
View image in fullscreen The Bison Hunt frieze on the exterior of the Los Angeles central library. Photograph: University of Southern California/Corbis/Getty Images Designed by the architect Bertram Goodhue, the central library officially opened its doors i…