The Clock Tower Building, built between 1929 and 1930 in Art Déco style, is the 4th highest

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. For around 40 years it held the record for the tallest building in the skyline. The skyscraper was commissioned by the Bay Cities Guaranty and Loan Association to the Californian architects Albert R. Walker (1881–1958) and

Percy A. Eisen The English surname Percy is of Norman origin, coming from Normandy to England, United Kingdom. It was from the House of Percy, Norman lords of Northumberland, and derives from the village of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy. From there, it came into ...

(1885–1946), whose firm, Walker & Eisen, with a staff of more than 50 draughtsmen, was the most important leading practice in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

in the 1920s. Among its many completed projects, the firm had recently designed the extraordinary skyscraper in the

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

style known as the Fine Arts Building in Los Angeles (now owned by Sorgente Group of America), one of the most representative buildings in the city. The Clock Tower Building occupies a rectangular lot located at 225 Santa Monica Boulevard, in the city’s business district and close to the main thoroughfare

Third Street Promenade The Third Street Promenade is a pedestrian mall esplanade, shopping, dining and entertainment complex in the downtown area of Santa Monica, California which originally opened as the Santa Monica Mall on November 8, 1965. It is considered a premi ...

. The ground floor of the skyscraper, in the form of a compact parallelepipedal block surmounted by a tower, is occupied by retail spaces, and the upper stories by offices. The seemingly monolithic image of the building is actually enlivened by slight volumetric shifts that divide the high-rise into three sections: a wide basement level characterized by the large entrances to the retail areas; a robust second block, slightly tapered towards the top, that houses offices from the second floor to the twelfth, and lastly a square stepped tower which, placed off-centre with respect to the base, rises skywards and has clock-faces on each side – hence the name Clock Tower. The skyscraper, with a load-bearing structure in reinforced concrete and steel, is faced with slabs of limpid, pure white stone that both absorbs and reflects the bright light and the clear Californian sky. The large masses and wall decorations of the skyscraper are reminiscent of

pre-Columbian architecture The history of architecture traces the changes in architecture through various traditions, regions, overarching stylistic trends, and dates. The beginnings of all these traditions is thought to be humans satisfying the very basic need of shelt ...

, the pure geometries of the stepped temples and the pureness of form found in

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

and

Inca The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

building. The twelve office floors are crowned by a crenellated border, where the most ornate decorations on the cladding are concentrated. The tapered, stepped tower on the top is also faced with white marble slabs, which form a zigzag pattern in relief on the sides and around the edge of the summit; it is visible from everywhere in the city and rendered instantly recognizable due to its rectangular clock with four black dials (one on each side of the tower), and whose shining hands mark the exact time and are an urban signal in the city. Sorgente Group of America purchased the building in May 2013. Roger Vincent, Los Angeles Times,
Italian investors buy Clock Tower building in Santa Monica
(May 01, 2013) The building houses The Misfit.

Gallery

File:Clock-Tower-Santa-Monica-esterna.jpg, Clock Tower Santa Monica File:Clock-Tower-medium_resolution-esterna.jpg, Clock Tower,exterior view File:Clock-tower-santa-_monica-interni.jpg, Interior view File:Interno_ufficio_Clock_Tower.jpg, Interior view - Office File:Interno-Clock.jpg, Interior view

References

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External links

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Bay Cities Guaranty Building
, Santa Monica Conservancy Art Deco architecture in California Buildings and structures completed in 1930 Buildings and structures in Santa Monica, California Clock towers in California Skyscraper office buildings in California Skyscrapers in Los Angeles County, California