Since its dedication in 1866, Pershing Square in downtown LA has been through many incarnations: La Plaza Abaja, St. Vincent’s Park, Los Angeles Park, 6th Street Park, Central Park, and then finally in 1918 Angelenos landed on a name that’s stuck: Pershing Square. This photo was taken in 1965, which is 13 years after the park was excavated in to build an underground parking garage. In that process it lost all its greenery and shade trees. Instead, it gained some lawn, a few new trees, and five-globe streetlights. That tower dominating the skyline behind it is the Pacific Telephone Microwave Tower, and the brown brick building with the white trim is the Biltmore Hotel. (Source: Reddit)
This is roughly how that view looked in May 2024 by which time the tower and the hotel are now dominated by many other skyscrapers.
Martin, the 1965 pix looks like something from old New York. It has that slant, even though its LA. The 2024 pix looks like something from 2124! I Many years back I interviewed at the silver tower building in the center, I believe it’s the Bank of America building. I’ll never forget parking there. There’s an underground garage that spirals for many decks below, absolutely amazing how they constructed it. I went to the top floor, or near the top, the view is spectacular, and also scary, thinking about earthquakes, ya know? It was a bizarre management job, only I didn’t know it until I got there. There were like 10 applicants and we had to compete in a scavanger hunt! There were clues and the like, all done in that building! Bottom line, the winner would be the boss over the other ten people! I couldn’t think of a better way to make enemies. You know there would be a sore loser in the bunch, right? The most weirdest job interview ever, almost like a game show!
The AT&T Pacific Bell/SBC “Madison Complex” building and microwave tower was built in 1961. Microwave operations continued until 1993. Microwave signals operate in a “line of sight” mode between stations and as more high rise buildings were built, they blocked microwave paths to distant points as evidenced by the 2024 photo.
More history and info: https://www.thecentraloffice.com/Calif/LA/Madison/LAMadison.htm
Thanks for that interesting info, Clarkus.