Built 1955-1956 LAHCM # 686 Added to NRHP 28 February 2003 | NRHP Reference # 03000059 Opened 1955 | |
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Location 550 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, California Architectural styles Modern architecture, Streamline Moderne Similar General Petroleum Building, Roosevelt Building, Garfield Building, Richfield Tower, South Park Lofts | ||
The Superior Oil Company Building, currently The Standard Downtown LA and previously the Bank of California Building, is a 12-story marble-clad highrise building located at 550 S Flower St in Downtown Los Angeles. Completed in 1956, the Modern architecture structure was designed by Claud Beelman and William Simpson, as an office building and headquarters for Superior Oil Company. The building's design featured motifs particular to Superior Oil, including stylized "S" door pulls for the entrances and a bas-relief-style metal sculpture of an oilfield and refinery landscape above the Flower Street entrance interior.
In 2000 the building was purchased by William Gustafson and Mark Neumann, of Columbia Development Group, who in partnership with Bear Sterns, JPMorgan Partners and Standard Holdings converted the office building into a boutique hotel. The hotel was designed by Koning Eizenberg Architecture into The Standard Downtown LA. The project was constructed by Sam Martel of Taisei Construction and Christy McAvoy of Historical Resources Group was the historic preservation consultant.
In 2003, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places based on its architecture.
In 2003, The Downtown Standard Hotel, was awarded the Los Angeles Conservancy's preservation award for achieving the sensitive transformation of an early Modernist oil headquarters and bank building into a boutique hotel, while retaining the building's historic features.
The building entrance and exterior served as the fictional Brent Building in the television series Perry Mason (1957 to 1966) wherein Mason's office was located in Suite 904.