The Tower
In 2011, two years after it opened, architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne wrote, “Central Los Angeles High School No. 9 [now the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts], a 238,000-square-foot, $232 million campus designed by the Austrian architect Wolf Prix and his firm, Coop Himmelblau, is among the most controversial pieces of architecture to be built in Southern California in a generation.” A less architecturally-oriented review said, “the 9.9-acre campus looks sort of like a Dr. Seuss-illustrated episode of The Jetsons.” The campus, however, is generally closed to the public. The 140 foot tower with spiraling ramp in the shape of the number 9 (when seen from above), rising from the 950-seat performing arts theater, is the most publicly visible element of the campus. Its use as a “reception area with a view” was quashed by safety concerns.
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt