Richfield Tower

Richfield Tower, also known as the Richfield Oil Company Building, was an office tower constructed between 1928 and 1929 and served as the headquarters of Richfield Oil in Los Angeles, California.

Richfield Tower
General information
Status	Demolished
Architectural style	Art Deco
Address	555 South Flower Street
Town or city	Los Angeles, California
Country	United States of America
Coordinates	34.050799°N 118.256966°W / 34.050799; -118.256966
Construction started	1928
Completed	1929
Demolished	November 12, 1968[1] – spring 1969[2]
Cost	$1,750,000
Client	Richfield Oil Co.[2]
Height	372 feet (113 m)
Technical details
Structural system	Steel skeleton
Floor count	12
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Stiles O. Clements

History

The Richfield Tower elevator doors now stand as public art at City National Plaza.

It was designed by Stiles O. Clements and featured a black and gold Art Deco façade. The unusual color scheme was meant to symbolize the "black gold" that was Richfield's business. Haig Patigian did the exterior sculptures.^[1] The building was covered with architectural terra cotta manufactured by Gladding, McBean, as was typical of many west coast buildings from this era. In an unusual move, all four sides were covered since they were all visible in the downtown location.^{[citation needed]}

The 12-floor building was 372 feet (113 m) tall, including a 130-foot (40 m) tower atop the building, emblazoned vertically with the name "Richfield". Lighting on the tower was made to simulate an oilwell gusher and the motif was reused at some Richfield service stations.^[1]

The company outgrew the building, and it was demolished in 1969, much to the dismay of Los Angeles residents and those interested in architectural preservation, to make way for the ARCO Plaza skyscraper complex. The elaborate black-and-gold elevator doors were salvaged from the building and reside in the lobby of the new ARCO building (City National Tower).^[3]

The central figures of the Tympanum (Navigation, Aviation, Postal Service and Industry) over the main entry were donated by the Atlantic Richfield Company to the UC Santa Barbara Art & Design Museum, negotiated by Professor David Gebhard, a UCSB architectural historian. He published a small illustrated volume on the building before its demolition: The Richfield Building 1928–1968 (Atlantic Richfield Co., Santa Barbara, 1970).^{[citation needed]} After languishing in university storage for over a decade, three of the four figures were mounted outside the UCSB Student Health Center in 1982. The fourth figure was incomplete and remains in storage.^{[citation needed]}

Richfield Tower was starkly featured in a few scenes of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film Zabriskie Point, shot shortly before its demolition.^{[citation needed]} It was also the Nitro Chemicals building in This Gun For Hire (1942).

The only thing that remains on public display are the two golden elevator doors, installed as public art inside the City National Plaza (formerly the Arco Tower), which is the building that replaced the Richfield Tower.^[4][5]

Gallery

• 
  Front detail
• 
  Terracotta figures at the side
• 
  Terracotta angel, closeup
• 
  View from upper floors
• 
  East entrance
• 
  Layout
• 
  Colorized postcard, (between circa 1930 and circa 1945)
• 
  North side and east front of building, 1968
• 
  West side of building during demolition, April 1969

See also

• Greater Los Angeles portal