Eastern Columbia Building
Completed in 1930 at the corner of Broadway and Ninth Street in the Historic Core of downtown Los Angeles, the Eastern Columbia Building is one of the most visually striking Art Deco towers in the western United States — its skin of turquoise blue glazed terracotta with gold and black ornament a continuous surface of Zigzag Moderne invention above a four-faced clock tower that has kept time over Broadway since 1930.
At a glance
Designed by Claud Beelman and completed in 1930 for the merged Eastern Outfitting Company and Columbia Outfitting Company retailers, the Eastern Columbia Building at 849 S Broadway is 13 stories of turquoise-glazed terracotta that makes it one of the most recognisable buildings in Los Angeles. The building’s entire exterior surface is clad in custom-glazed terracotta in a bright turquoise-teal tone, with an ornamental programme of gold and navy blue geometric and stylised motifs in the Zigzag Moderne vocabulary. The four-faced clock at the corner tower, in the same colour scheme, has been a Broadway landmark since the building’s opening. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, the building was converted to residential condominiums in 2006.
Key facts
- Completed: 1930
- Architect: Claud Beelman
- Style: Art Deco / Zigzag Moderne
- Address: 849 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90014
- Height: 13 stories
- NRHP: Listed 1984
- Current use: Residential condominiums (converted 2006)
- Signature feature: Turquoise glazed terracotta exterior; four-faced corner clock tower; gold and navy geometric ornament
History
The Eastern Outfitting Company and Columbia Outfitting Company were retail furniture and household goods chains that merged their downtown Los Angeles presences in the late 1920s, commissioning architect Claud Beelman to design a new combined headquarters building on South Broadway. Beelman — a Los Angeles architect known for his sophisticated Art Deco commercial work, including the Garfield Building and the Subway Terminal Building — designed a building whose exterior would be entirely clad in a custom colour of glazed terracotta: a vivid turquoise-teal that was manufactured specifically for this commission.
The result, completed in 1930, was immediately recognised as exceptional. The colour of the building — unlike anything else on Broadway or in the broader Los Angeles commercial landscape — made it a landmark from its first day. The ornamental programme, in gold and navy on the turquoise field, follows the Zigzag Moderne vocabulary: stylised geometric patterns, chevrons, and abstracted motifs arranged in frieze bands and spandrel panels that cover every surface of the tower. The four-faced clock at the corner, set at the apex of the full 13-story tower, completed the building’s identity as a Broadway focal point.
The retail tenants changed over the decades as Broadway’s commercial character shifted, but the building itself remained intact. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, it became part of the Broadway Historic District. A major residential conversion in 2006 transformed the upper floors into luxury condominiums while retaining the historic exterior and the ground-floor commercial spaces. The conversion won recognition from the Los Angeles Conservancy for sensitive adaptive reuse. The building’s turquoise surface remains the most vivid single patch of colour in the downtown Los Angeles streetscape.
What you see
The Eastern Columbia Building’s corner at Broadway and Ninth Street is one of the best-preserved and most visually concentrated Art Deco compositions in the United States. The turquoise terracotta — a full-surface cladding with no interruption by undecorated masonry — covers the building from the first floor setback line to the clock tower apex in a continuous programme of geometric ornament. Up close, the individual terracotta units reveal a depth of surface modelling that the overall colour obscures from a distance: each unit carries its own pattern of relief before the gold or navy glaze is applied, and the effect in direct sunlight is of a fabric of light shifting across a patterned surface.
The four-faced clock at the top of the corner tower is the building’s most visible element from the surrounding streets. Each face is set in a frame of turquoise terracotta with gold moulding; the hands and numerals are bronze. At night, the clock faces are illuminated, and the building’s terracotta surface takes on a cooler, more luminous tone under the street lights. From the 9th Street approach, the full 13-story profile of the tower is visible above the street wall — the zigzag setbacks at the upper floors, the clock tower, and the building’s distinctive colour reading as a unified composition against the LA sky.
Practical information
- Access: Residential building; exterior freely accessible. Ground-floor commercial spaces open during business hours
- Best time: Midday sunlight on the Broadway-facing west elevation; evening for clock tower illumination
- Time needed: 20–30 minutes exterior
- GPS: 34.0428° N, 118.2555° W
- Nearest transit: Metro Purple/Red Line Pershing Square station, 3 minutes north-west on foot
Getting there
The Eastern Columbia Building stands at 849 S Broadway at the corner of 9th Street in downtown Los Angeles’s Historic Core. The Metro Red and Purple lines serve Pershing Square station (5th and Hill, 3 minutes north-west on foot) and 7th Street/Metro Center (5 minutes south on foot). Los Angeles International Airport is approximately 16 miles (26 km) south-west; Metro K Line to Downtown + connection takes approximately 45 minutes.
Nearby
- Bradbury Building (1893) — extraordinary Victorian commercial interior with cast-iron courts and open elevators, 304 S Broadway, 4 minutes north
- Grand Central Market — historic covered market at 317 S Broadway operating since 1917, adjacent to the Bradbury, 4 minutes north
- Clifton’s Republic / Ace Hotel DTLA (1927) — Art Deco United Artists Theatre inside the Ace Hotel, 929 S Broadway, 2 minutes south
Sources
- National Register of Historic Places, Eastern Columbia Building nomination (1984) — nps.gov
- Los Angeles Conservancy, Eastern Columbia Building record — laconservancy.org
- Los Angeles Historic Core Broadway District documentation
- Gebhard, David & Winter, Robert. An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles. Relevant entry.
- Wikidata, Eastern Columbia Building Q71842 — wikidata.org
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