LA opens tallest building west of the Mississippi
LOS ANGELES — The tallest building west of the Mississippi River has opened its doors in oncestodgy downtown Los Angeles, which is sprouting a crop of new skyscrapers.
The 73-story Wilshire Grand Center has a huge spire that brings its height to 1,100 feet, topping the nearby U.S. Bank Tower, which held the height record since 1989, by more than 80 feet.
The skyscraper is still dwarfed by buildings on the East Coast, Chicago and overseas. In New York, One World Trade Center is 1,776 feet tall, making it the sixth-largest completed building in the world. Chicago’s Willis Tower is 1,451 feet. The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, rises 2,717 feet, or more than a half-mile high.
The new tower at 900 Wilshire Boulevard features a 100-foot-tall, sailshaped crown built of glass and steel. It is the first modern high-rise in Los Angeles without a flat roof, a city requirement that ended in 2015.
The tower includes an 889-room InterContinental hotel where rooms go for about $400 a night; office space; a shopping mall; and an observation deck. Restaurants range from the open-air, rooftop Spire 73 offering “chic fire pits” and signature cocktails to La Boucherie, with stratospheric steak prices and a wine list with 1,200 selections.
The Wilshire Grand Center is part of a construction boom in the resurgent downtown area that for decades emptied out at night as commuters headed for the suburbs. The opening of the Staples Center arena in 1999 helped anchor redevelopment projects in the surrounding area.