Good morning, it’s Thursday, July 30, and you can expect another day of relentless sunshine ahead of an even hotter weekend.
How LAX’s iconic building became a monument to its neglect.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images)
In 1961, the futuristic, Space-Age Theme Building at LAX opened as a soaring symbol of Los Angeles’ vision of the future.
It was the crown jewel of the airport: A fantastical piece of architecture with a top-floor restaurant whose glamorous menu and sweeping views garnered rave reviews from critics. The theme building, gushed the New York Times, was “a Disneyland for adults.”
Indeed, the L.A. Times once reported that the Theme Building had become such a destination that only a quarter of its patrons actually had flights — the rest were Angelenos “who come to the airport for the fine food and view.”
Today, it’s hard to imagine anybody visiting LAX out of anything other than begrudging necessity. What was once the glitzy centerpiece of one of the nation’s busiest airports has now come to symbolize its loss of public appeal. The general public can’t even visit it.
The Theme building was “a bright symbol of L.A.’s Space Age future,” L.A. Material contributor Dave Schilling wrote in an illuminating new piece. “What happened?”
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