Beverly Hills Waterworks
The Beverly Hills Waterworks was one of the largest of the city’s civic buildings when it was built in 1927. The structure was designed by civil engineer Arthur Taylor, of Salisbury, Bradshaw & Taylor, in the form of a Romanesque-influenced church. What appeared to be a soaring bell tower of Moorish design housed the water purification spraying system. The Waterworks Building served as Beverly Hills’ water treatment plant until 1976. In 1988, the city wanted to sell the empty building and developers vied with one another to obtain the property. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences offered a proposal to adaptively reuse the historic structure. A $6 million renovation resulted in the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study housing the Margaret Herrick Library.
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County
Images by John Bare