Federal Title Building, 437 South Hill Street, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, CA

Significance: Federal Title Building was designed by Walker and Eisen, a prominent Southern California architectural firm. It is an important part of the Hill Street streetscape, particularly for its association with Subway Terminay Building on the north and Title Guarantee Building on the south. Originally built as a bank/office building, it utilized an extra narrow lot through ingenious and sensitive planning. The lot is twenty feet narrower than the average width of a lot because of resubdivision of the original Ord's Survey. In order to provide both a bank lobby and an elevator lobby on the ground floor, sliding doors were placed between the two. The doors could be closed when the bank was closed, creating a separate elevator lobby for the rest of the building. An additional feature of interest is the original placement of the fire escape. Los Angeles building code then required that a fire escape be placed on the front of the building. Such a device would have destroyed the visual and architectural continuity of the facade on such a narrow building. To obviate this a narrow four foot recess was made on the north side of the building. From the street opposite the fire escape is virtually invisible.
Survey number: HABS CA-2153
Building/structure dates: 1927 Initial Construction