The Capitol Records Building, also known as the Capitol Records Tower, is a Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District building that is located in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The building is a thirteen-story tower that was designed by Louis Naidorf (who was working at Welton Becket Associates at the time), and is one of the city's landmarks. Construction occurred soon after British company EMI acquired Capitol Records in 1955, and was completed in April 1956. Located just north of the Hollywood and Vine intersection, the Capitol Records Tower houses the consolidation of Capitol Records' West Coast operations and is also home to the recording studios and echo chambers of Capitol Studios. The building is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.
Video Capitol Records Building
Design
The building design was based upon the graduate school drawings of Lou Naidorf who, as the primary architect, designed the first circular office building at the age of 24 years. The wide curved awnings over windows on each story and the tall spike emerging from the top of the building only coincidentally resembles a stack of records on a turntable. The rectangular ground floor is a separate structure, joined to the tower after completion.
The tower incorporates 13 stories, to conform to the 150-foot (46 m) zoning height limit that was in place at the time of its construction. Height restrictions were later lifted in 1956. The 13th floor of the tower is the "Executive Level" and is represented by an "E" in the building's two elevators.
Notable features
The blinking light atop the tower spells out the word "Hollywood" in Morse code, and has done so since the building's opening in 1956. This was an idea of Capitol's then-president, Alan Livingston, who wanted to subtly advertise Capitol's status as the first record label with a base on the west coast. The switch was initially activated by Leila Morse, the granddaughter of Samuel Morse. In 1992 the light was changed to read "Capitol 50," in honor of the label's fiftieth anniversary--it has since returned to spelling "Hollywood". A black-and-white graphic image of the building appeared on the albums of many Capitol recording artists, with the phrase, "From the Sound Capitol of the World".
In April 2011, Capitol Records and artist Richard Wyatt Jr. collaborated to restore his iconic Hollywood Jazz Mural on the south wall of the Capitol Records building. Restored in hand-glazed ceramic tile, the mural spans 26 by 88 feet (7.9 by 26.8 m) Entitled "Hollywood Jazz: 1945-1972", this masterpiece presents "larger than life" images of a number of notable jazz musicians.
Capitol Studios
The building houses the Capitol Studios, a recording facility which includes eight echo chambers engineered by guitarist Les Paul and three main studios, A, B, and C. Frank Sinatra had a close association with the studios, and the Georg Neumann U 47 microphone that he carried around with him is housed there, and is used and maintained regularly for studio sessions. The first album recorded in the tower was Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color. In 2012, Studio A received a brand new AMS Neve 88R mixing console, and was designed and built for Al Schmitt and Paul McCartney.
Maps Capitol Records Building
Recent history
In September 2006, EMI announced that it had sold the tower and adjacent properties for US$50 million to New York-based developer Argent Ventures. The studio claimed that it was threatened by noise from construction of a condominium and underground parking lot by building firm Second Street Ventures that would have heavy equipment working within 18 feet (5.5 m) of its renowned underground echo chambers, which are themselves over 20 feet (6.1 m) below ground level.
According to the CBS Evening News on July 31, 2008, Second Street Ventures denied this, and the developer's co-owner David Jordon says that they had arranged construction work outside the hours of Capitol's recording schedules; he also claimed that they have arranged for soundproof materials to be placed between the underground parking lot and Capitol's echo chambers. A senior recording engineer and producer in the recording industry, Al Schmitt, says it would be "heartbreaking" if the company could no longer use the echo chambers, which he says are, "the best in the business."
In November 2012, Steve Barnett was announced as the new Chairman and CEO of the Capitol Music Group and the company stated that his office would be in the building.
In popular culture
- The building is known as "The House That Nat Built" due to the vast numbers of records and amounts of merchandise that Nat King Cole sold for the company.
- In Earthquake, starring Charlton Heston, the building is destroyed by the quake. A clip of this scene is reused in the pilot episode of Galactica 1980, as Cylon spacecraft fire at the building.
- In the television series Life After People, the building collapses after 175 years without maintenance. The echo chambers underneath the buildings survive intact for many years after the main tower collapses.
- In the 2008 film Hancock, the title character pierces the building's pinnacle with a car in the opening scene.
- In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, the building is heavily damaged by a tornado.
- In the music video "Closer Than You Know" and "Touch The Sky", Hillsong United performed at the top of the tower.
- In the 1994 arcade game Primal Rage, the building appears in ruins.
Gallery
References
External links
- Capitol Studios official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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