Hollywood Tower
Looming over the Hollywood Freeway, the Hollywood Tower, originally known as La Belle Tour, was designed by the noted Los Angeles architectural firm of Cramer and Wise in the French Renaissance/Chateauesque style. Constructed in 1929, at the height of Hollywood’s influence on American society, La Belle Tour provided both a visual exclamation point in the Hollywood skyline and the type of sophisticated urban accommodations that were sought by the film industry’s elite in the 1930s and 40s. When management of the building changed in the late 1930s, the name was changed to The Hollywood Tower and the building’s distinctive neon roof sign, visible for miles, was added. It has often been cited as the inspiration for Disney’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attractions. La Belle Tour is listed on the National Register of Historical Places.
Hollywood, Los Angeles County
Images by Andrew Schmidt