Aon Center

Aon Center is a 262-meter, 62-story office tower on Wilshire Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles. Opened in 1974, it was the tallest building in the city for 16 years and remains the third tallest today. Charles Luckman designed the clean steel-frame box in the International Style with a dark bronze facade. The strict square plan and total absence of ornament make it the opposite of the later postmodernism. In 1988 a 31-hour fire on the 12th floor became one of the worst high-rise fires in US history and rewrote California's fire codes. Black elevators take visitors to private lobbies; only the plaza on the south Wilshire side is open to the public. In bright sun the bronze facade mirrors the Hollywood Hills.