Los Angeles City Hall (454 ft or 138 m)

The LA_City_Hall should have been at least 500' tall, but it's only 454'. That still makes the Los_Angeles_City_Hall one of the taller ones around the planet, but it's become a stump of a building in downtown L.A.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History "...was completed in 1928. Dedication ceremonies were held on April 26, 1928. It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high."  

"A City Council ordinance passed in 1905 did not permit any new construction to be taller than 13 stories or 150 ft (46 m) in order to keep the city's architecture harmonious. City Hall's 454 ft (138 m) height was deemed exempt as a public building and assured that no building would surpass one third its height for over three decades until the ordinance was repealed by voter referendum in 1957.^[9] Therefore, from its completion in 1928 until finally surpassed by the topping off of Union Bank Plaza in 1966, City Hall was the tallest building in Los Angeles..."

https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-hall-tall Not 451 feet, but 454 feet, because there was no F 451 novel yet. The 454' LA City Hall was like an unofficial F-you to the taller buildings in NYC and Chicago. Perhaps even Metropolis_(1927_film).    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)#Influences 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick PKD was born in 1928, the same year that the LA City Hall opened.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 "The writing and theme within Fahrenheit 451 was explored by Bradbury in some of his previous short stories. Between 1947 and 1948, Bradbury wrote "Bright Phoenix", a short story about a librarian who confronts a "Chief Censor", who burns books. An encounter Bradbury had in 1949 with the police inspired him to write the short story "The Pedestrian" in 1951. In "The Pedestrian", a man going for a nighttime walk in his neighborhood is harassed and detained by the police. In the society of "The Pedestrian", citizens are expected to watch television as a leisurely activity, a detail that would be included in Fahrenheit 451. Elements of both "Bright Phoenix" and "The Pedestrian" would be combined into The Fireman, a novella published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951. Bradbury was urged by Stanley Kauffmann, an editor at Ballantine Books, to make The Fireman into a full novel. Bradbury finished the manuscript for Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, and the novel was published later that year." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Title

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/LA_San_Gabriel_Mountains.jpg If you look hard enough you can see how small the LA City Hall actually is now in the 21st century.

https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-hall-tall From 2016.

The agenda to not permit any building in LA to be taller than City Hall was the case for several decades. Even Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Perth weren't allowed to have buildings taller than the LA_City_Hall for a long time. Of course it took until the early 1970s for Vancouver to allow a building to be a little taller than the LA_City_Hall. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Los_Angeles_with_Mount_Baldy.jpg

City Hall is really like a stump on the modern LA skyline. It can easily be obscured by the taller towers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Los_Angeles#Tallest_buildings 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Bank_Plaza Completed in 1968.

Roof	157.28 m (516.0 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	40
Floor area	68,525 m2 (737,600 sq ft)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Bank_Plaza#History Not only the first building permitted in LA to be over 500 feet, but having at least a 40th floor.  

Just as LA got its first 40 story building in 1968, PKD had a book out in the same year. Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep?#Plot

https://medium.com/@ejasp2/metropolis-v-s-blade-runner-1982-871baea0eea0

https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Comparison-between-Metropolis-and-Blade-Runner-P3JDKCLEC8BRS#  

While Philip_K._Dick set E. Sheep in SF, Blade_Runner was set in LA.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner#Production

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=stumps

Fahrenheit 451 (1953 Novel) and height limits

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 Two decades before Ray_Bradbury would start writing what would eventually lead to his F 451 novel, LA was sort of close to imposing a 451 foot height limit. However, the LA City Hall would end up being slightly taller than 451 feet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall "Dedication ceremonies were held on April 26, 1928. It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high..."  

"A City Council ordinance passed in 1905 did not permit any new construction to be taller than 13 stories or 150 ft (46 m) in order to keep the city's architecture harmonious. City Hall's 454 ft (138 m) height was deemed exempt as a public building and assured that no building would surpass one third its height for over three decades until the ordinance was repealed by voter referendum in 1957." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History  

https://laist.com/news/entertainment/city-hall-tall 454' not 451 feet, but close nonetheless. LA didn't have to wait until 1953, because it was pondering a 450'-455 foot height restriction in the mid to late 1920s. Of course NYC and Chicago already had tall buildings in the 1920s, so perhaps LA wanted to symbolize an F-U to them by keeping buildings under 500 feet until the mid to late 1960s. 

"The writing and theme within Fahrenheit 451 was explored by Bradbury in some of his previous short stories. Between 1947 and 1948, Bradbury wrote "Bright Phoenix", a short story about a librarian who confronts a "Chief Censor", who burns books. An encounter Bradbury had in 1949 with the police inspired him to write the short story "The Pedestrian" in 1951. In "The Pedestrian", a man going for a nighttime walk in his neighborhood is harassed and detained by the police. In the society of "The Pedestrian", citizens are expected to watch television as a leisurely activity, a detail that would be included in Fahrenheit 451. Elements of both "Bright Phoenix" and "The Pedestrian" would be combined into The Fireman, a novella published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951. Bradbury was urged by Stanley Kauffmann, an editor at Ballantine Books, to make The Fireman into a full novel. Bradbury finished the manuscript for Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, and the novel was published later that year." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Writing_and_development 

F 451 was published in 1953, on 10-19.   

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13079982-fahrenheit-451 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Historical_and_biographical_context 

https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/451/summary  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Writing_and_development  

Did Metropolis_(1927_film) help to restrict the height of tall buildings in LA for several decades? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(1927_film)#Influences  

Whether the LA City Hall is 454', 453' or 452 feet, it's not exactly 451 feet, but still close enough. 

https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-20190403-htmlstory.html "The 32-story, 454-foot-tall Los Angeles City Hall opened with a three-day public celebration April 26-28, 1928. Construction started in 1926."

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/city-hall/4376 138.4 m / 454 ft 

https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/los-angeles-city-hall "The Los Angeles City Hall reaches an architectural height of 453ft (138m). It has a total of 32 floors, 28 above ground and 4 basements..."  

https://www.travelinusa.us/visit-los-angeles-city-hall "At the time of construction, a regulation was in effect in the city that prohibited buildings taller than 150 feet. Los Angeles City Hall was therefore an exception and, at an impressive 32 stories and a height of 452 feet, it remained the tallest building in Los Angeles until 1964 when Union Bank Plaza opened." 

https://waterandpower.org/Museum2/Los_Angeles_City_Hall_1928.html 

https://www.c40.org/cities/los-angeles 

By the 1970s, LA, SF, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Toronto, Montreal and Paris, all had some buildings over 600 feet or even over 200 m. 

https://www.c40.org/cities/vancouver 

Unfortunately by the 1970s, stubborn and backwards Vancouver wanted to go in the opposite direction of most cities. Thus, a kind of censoring agenda was implemented. SF and Sydney and even Seattle, proved that a scenic city by the water can have taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains than what little Vancouver would allow.

While there isn't any direct correlation with the F 451 story and Vancouver, BC imposing a height limit, there is something peculiar. Some people might consider that if a building is around 500 feet in height, or at least 150 m, that's in the category of starting to be a tall building. 

Well, Vancouver, always looking for ways to symbolically project a watered down or scaled back city, height restrictions were at the top of the list. 

Somewhere in-between the 1950s & 60s, Vancouver started to refine its height restriction mandate. Thus, as several cities in the 1970s started to allow for taller buildings, Vancouver has never allowed any office tower to have 40 floors. Perhaps an imposed 451 foot height limit would have been too obvious, so Vancouver generally had an imposed height restriction of 450 feet, with some occasional variations. 

Right through the 1960s only one building in Vancouver, or anywhere in BC had a 30th floor.

The first residential building to have at least 40 floors. https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=921 1973 https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=3 

The first residential building to have more than 45 floors. https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=3 2001 https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=6

It wouldn't be until the early 21st century before Vancouver would permit 2 buildings to rise above 600 feet. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=8 , https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=9 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1 Vancouver has no building that makes it onto the first page. Burnaby just barely makes it. 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=110144876&page=10 However, Vancouver has another chance to actually have some taller buildings. https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Over the decades, various plans have been stopped, due to all the red tape B$ and extreme restrictions. 

Vancouver has had quite a history of limiting, restricting, thwarting & censoring proper big city stuff. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall

Parts of Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills will be closed for LA Metro's D Line extension

 https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/wilshire-boulevard-beverly-hills-la-metro-d-line-extension

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/traffic/wilshire-boulevard-beverly-hills-metro/3656285/

https://la.streetsblog.org/2024/01/25/at-new-wilshire-subway-stations-metro-ignoring-l-a-city-street-standards

https://www.metro.net/projects/westside/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D_Line_Extension

https://www.metro.net/projects/purple-section1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilshire/La_Brea_station

https://www.parsons.com/project/westside-purple-line-extension-section-one-los-angeles

https://la.curbed.com/2017/8/17/16163326/purple-line-extension-wilshire-la-brea-photos

An Overview of Urban Planning in Los Angeles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CipNVHhOER8

Why is the Purple Line in L.A. so Short? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4F0hB2nEcE 

Why fixing LA’s transit crisis feels impossible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIlLC0KNCYc  

Why Traffic Is So Bad In Los Angeles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S76lKWeU_xc 

Why LA Destroyed Its World-Class Transit System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwKv3_WwD4o There was such a drive to have nice, wide highways, but no one seemed to realize that eventually just having an extensive highway system will become overloaded. 

Why is LA traffic so bad? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbiI9ainetY  

The real cost of freeways in LA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS6WrJZKbjs Wide highways can certainly accommodate a large volume of traffic, but if there isn't an efficient bus and rail system, it all gets overloaded. 

Did GM really kill the streetcar in Los Angeles? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnFVBfhpprU   

LA's $40 Billion Plan to Transform for the 2028 Olympics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkKsiIaycU8

Driver crashes into LA City Hall steps and barricades himself in car

https://abc7.com/post/la-city-hall-crash-car-slams-steps/17933164/ 

Sometimes a person just might be having a bad day, but other times a person might want to take over a building.

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/downtown-la-city-hall-crash 

If its determined after due process, that this person had malicious intent, they will be facing sever punishment. 

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/karen-bass-los-angeles-city-hall-police-los-angeles-police-department-b2839177.html 

https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/national/los-angeles-city-hall-crash/image_61b5205e-b9f1-5321-880b-1993dcbefbd8.html  

 L.A. City Hall evacuated after vehicle crashes near steps; driver in custody after standoff https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-10-03/vehicle-crashes-into-steps-of-l-a-city-hall-prompting-closure-of-surrounding-streets  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall

L.A.

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/mapping_25_intheworks_buildings_set_to_alter_las_skyline.php

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2014/04/the_fiveyear_405_freeway_project_finally_ends_next_month.php

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/06/heres_an_awesome_redesign_of_the_los_angeles_freeway_map.php

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA

Vancouver, BC & Other Cities

So far, Vancouver hasn't had the same scale of urban development that's common in several other cities. The buildings, roads, trains & bridges are half the size of many of the big cities. Vancouver#Incorporation 1886

Vancouverism : Urban_planning

Vancouver hasn't entered the big leagues of tall buildings. By Canadian standards, BC buildings aren't allowed to be as tall as what many other places permit.

{http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2011/05/vancouver-fantasy-skyline/}

The tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver are among the smaller big buildings of the world. Seattle, Toronto & LA all have an office tower over 70 stories. No office building in Vancouver has been permitted to reach 40 stories, around 500 feet (152.5 m) as of yet. No residential building or any other Vancouver structure is expected to reach 7oo feet (213.5 m) in the near future. The big money of the world hasn't been that interested in Vancouver, but perhaps some year, Vancouver might have an office tower as tall as the 748' MLC_Centre in Sydney. However, this would only happen if the big money really wants to change the height limitations, as was the case for LA and Sydney.

The roof of Vancouver's Living_Shangri-La is 197 m (646 ft)

http://www.shangri-la.com/en/property/vancouver/shangrila

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=livingshangrila-vancouver-canada

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=9790

The Living Shangri-La is about the same size as the Millennium_Tower in San_Francisco.

The World_Tower at 230 m (750 ft) is the tallest residential building in Sydney & remains as one of Australia's tallest.

No Vancouver building makes it onto the first page.

The 1st & 2nd tallest make it onto the 2nd page.

The 3rd & 4th tallest buildings make it onto the 3rd & 4th page.

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=51870368&offset=100

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=51870368&offset=125

Australia, Asaia, Europe & the Americas have so many office towers over 40 stories. It remains part of Vancouver's urban character to not have an office level reaching to or above a 40th floor.

Although the Houston_City_Hall is of a similar shape to the Vancouver_City_Hall, Houston really started to think big & tall ever since the 1960s. BC only has 1 building taller than the 630 ft (190 m) BG_Group_Place. 1700_Pacific in Dallas would be the tallest office tower if it were in BC. Although Bankers_Hall was never quite the tallest in Alberta it still would be if it were in BC.

The RBC was the first office building in Vancouver to have more than 35 floors & reach at least 460 feet. The windows go up to 36 & there are 3 more levels above the 36th. Altogether it rises 39 floors above the street.

So its a little taller than the LA_City_Hall. 138 m (453 ft)

The RBC is about as tall as 650_California_Street: 34 story, 142 m, (466 feet) However, what would still be a tower in Vancouver is almost a stump in SF. 650 California Street opened in 1964 & 5 years later was the B of A tower, or 555 California_Street.

The 1914 LCS & the 1973 RBC

It took almost 60 years for Vancouver's planning department to allow something on the scale of the 37 story, 1914 Smith Tower is 141 m (463 ft).

The main section has 35 floors, but there is a hidden level below & also above the 35th floor. http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=image&id=504517

The floors with windows total 37 which is really at the 39th level, but the overall building is still equivalent to 42 levels. That's because the original owner wanted to credit even the windowless floors. http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=image&id=334689

So the top floor window is at level 39 & there is the equivalent of 3 more levels above that.

This is the 42nd floor but some of them simply have no windows. http://www.smithtower.com/Facts.html

While this little white building has become a stump in Seattle, it would still be the tallest office tower in Vancouver.

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=image&id=717159

http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=24

The RBC is around the same height as the LCS & when it opened in 1973 it was Vancouver's tallest building.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65654681@N00/2086042348/

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_facilities/vancouver_aerial.htm

http://www.6717000.com/blog/2010/11/the-proposed-burrard-gateway-vancouver-real-estate-development-500-million-project-with-48-37-storey-vancouver-skyscrapers-plus-13-storey-office-building-7-storey-mix-use-vanco/

Calgary, like Seattle, is not subject to the building limitations of Vancouver. The Pacific_Northwest & Western_Canada continue to develop differently than BC.

The shorter building of Seattle's Union_Square would be among Vancouver's largest office buildings. This is the same case with Calgary's Suncor_Energy_Centre.

http://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/2011/07/seattle-calgary.html

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/2022/11/buildings.html

Does Los Angeles have the Most Confusing Skyline?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2ljqamDgwg  

https://archinect.com/news/article/150013536/watch-a-century-of-downtown-l-a-s-development-in-2-minutes-of-3d-animated-renderings

Back in the day, the KEEP L.A. SHORT crowd really wanted to make sure that no building in SoCal was as tall as the tallest Egyptian_pyramid. Thus, the Giza_pyramid_complex was taller than anything in LA until the late 1960s. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza "Initially standing at 146.6 meters (481 feet), the Great Pyramid was the world's tallest human-made structure for more than 3,800 years."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_City_Hall#History "It has 32 floors and, at 454 feet (138 m) high..."  https://calisphere.org/item/cf1903e53170db536690f3f8690925a0  Just a little pyramid on top of a building that is shorter than the tallest pyramid in Egypt. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Los_Angeles_City_Hall_%28from_the_West%29.jpg/960px-Los_Angeles_City_Hall_%28from_the_West%29.jpg   

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Pyramids_from_afar_%282%29.tif/lossy-page1-800px-Pyramids_from_afar_%282%29.tif.jpg 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza  

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vintage-photos-los-angeles-1940s-1960s

Of course LA would eventually allow some buildings to be twice as tall as the tallest Egyptian pyramid. 

https://www.commercialcafe.com/blog/evolution-downtown-la-visual-timeline/

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=26&status=15

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA+City+Hall 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Transamerica+Pyramid+in+SF

The Old City Hall and The Simpson Tower in Toronto

The Old_City_Hall opened in 1899 at a height of 103.64 m (340.0 ft).  Even in the 21st century, many parts of Downtown Vancouver aren't allowed to have buildings taller than Toronto's Old City Hall.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Torontos_Old_City_Hall_2009.jpg If you are visiting from Toronto or Montreal, Sydney or Melbourne, you might be shocked as to seeing how small and backwards Vancouver is. Various imposed restrictions have cause a multigenerational watering down of what should actually be a properly functioning big city and greater metropolitan region.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Front_of_Old_City_Hall_in_July_2024.jpg Being from backwater Vancouver, its always amazing to see what cities like Toronto, Montreal, Sydney,  Melbourne, Seattle, SF & LA are permitted to do. They and most other cities just don't have anything like the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) to thwart them.

The Post is a stumpy building complex in Vancouver. Despite the high land costs, strict Vancouver wouldn't permit it to be taller than Toronto's Old City Hall. The Stump, rather The Post, should have been taller than the LA City Hall, the Philadelphia_City_Hall and the Manhattan_Municipal_Building. It should have really been closer in size to that of the Seattle_Municipal_Tower or even the Tokyo_Metropolitan_Government_Building. 

Library Square in Vancouver just like The Post, wasn't allowed to have 25 floors, when they both should have been well over 50 stories.

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/library-square/25126 84.1 m / 276 ft

https://www.da-architects.ca/projects/library-square Strict Vancouver just doesnt allow buildings in that part of the downtown to be taller than The Old City Hall in Toronto.

https://viewpointvancouver.ca/2018/10/05/library-square-best-new-public-space-in-vancouver 

https://montecristomagazine.com/design/secret-garden-top-vancouvers-library-stayed-hidden-20-years#gsc.tab=0 

Unfortunatly, Library Square and The Post are so scaled back or watered down, they would hardly be impressive in most proper big cities around the world. Library Square and The Post should have both been in the 50-60 story range, but don't even have a 25th floor. This was a lost opportunity for Downtown Vancouver to have a proper size big city and government complex.

The Simpson_Tower opened in 1968. It has 33 floors and is 144 m (472 ft) high. It would be equivalent to being the tallest building in BC until 1973. Even in 2025, most office towers in Vancouver aren't allowed to be taller than this 1968 Toronto stump.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Simpson_Tower_2022.jpg 

The Simpson-Tower is only 18 feet taller than the LA+City+Hall.

The Simpson Tower has become just like another Vancouver size stump in Toronto.

It's really astounding that not only did The+Post+in+Vancouver have to be shorter than the Toronto Simpson Tower and the LA+City+Hall, it had to be shorter than the Old City Hall in Toronto. Now that's very small, but it fits in with the small-minded Vancouver mentality. Indeed, Vancouverization is about a backward, rainy city that has a multigenerational restrictive agenda to water everything down. Even the mountains north of Vancouver are shorter than the mountains north of L.A. WTH?   

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+building+complex

many-LA-boulevards-began-as-streetcar-lines

 https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/many-la-boulevards-began-as-streetcar-lines

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA

Shangri-La hotel and condominiums

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-hotel-shangri-la-1128-w-georgia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Shangri-La

https://www.shangri-la.com/vancouver/shangrila

Rain to pick up Monday afternoon as storm system moves south

 https://abc7.com/live-updates/southern-california-weather-storm-drench-los-angeles-orange-san-bernardino-riverside-ventura-counties/18148478/

It's so depressing to see the Greater LA Area get Seattle & Vancouver like rain.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-17/wettest-november-on-record-for-downtown-la-as-more-rain-moves-in

https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2025-11-14-california-storm-atmospheric-river-la-flood-threat

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-11-15/storm-of-season-pounds-southern-california-bringing-mudslides-flooding 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/weather/california-rain-flood-storm-los-angeles-forecast.html  

the Greater LA Area

LA Ca earthquake cybershake

https://la.curbed.com/2018/7/9/17549544/earthquake-los-angeles-buildings-cybershake


https://la.curbed.com/la-construction

44 Montgomery Tower in SF and 611 Place in LA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/44_Montgomery 1967 https://buildingsdb.com/CA/san-francisco/44-montgomery-street-building 

This could have and should have been the first building in SF over 600 feet tall. 

https://sfyimby.com/2021/08/number-20-44-montgomery-street-financial-district-san-francisco.html Given the building sites limitations, it wasn't able to have a plus sign shape +.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Street_station

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/611_Place 1969 https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/611-place-building

This should have been the first building in LA to be over 650 feet or 200m in height.

https://la.urbanize.city/post/long-empty-dtla-office-tower-being-marketed-prospective-tenants It was able to have a plus sign + shape.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=611+Place

The 50 most dangerous intersections in L.A.

 https://abc7.com/post/most-dangerous-intersections-los-angeles-revealed-including-405-san-fernando-valley-110-south-la/18014896/ 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=L.A.

Greater LA

The LA Metro Expo Line opened to the beach last year to great ridership. But it inexplicably slows down when it reaches downtown areas- exactly the places where trains are supposed to excel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMDox81mFP8

the state of Los Angeles's public transportation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9J6gDya40k 2015

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA

LA

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gxDcelU_AA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS6WrJZKbjs LA freeways

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbiI9ainetY bad traffic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUkwI6vQxHs

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=LA

Shangri-La to rebrand as Park Hyatt Vancouver Hotel after renovations

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/park-hyatt-vancouver-hotel-shangri-la-renovations

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/shangri-la-downtown-vancouver-hyatt

Living Shangri-La tower in Vancouver

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Shangri-La

The hotel component is just a small part of the building.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_Shangri-La#Residences

The (stumpy) Post in Vancouver

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/sony-pictures-imageworks-global-headquarters-vancouver-the-post

https://storeys.com/quadreal-graeme-scott-the-post-vancouver-heritage-revitalization-amazon/

What could have been a nice, impressive double 55 story office complex is just another Vancouver stumpy building+complex. In that part of the very restrictive city, the building complex wasn't even allowed to have a 25th floor.

It's all part of the Vancouver stump agenda.

Had Bankers_Hall 1 & 2 in Calgary only been 26 stories, they would just be another stump complex. However, at 52 stories, they remain impressive.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Bankers-Hall-Szmurlo.jpg

Although Bankers_Hall isn't quite as tall as City_National_Plaza in L.A., both are 52 story complexes. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/PaulHastingsCityNationalTwinTowers.jpg

https://thelocationportal.com/city-national-plaza/

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/city-national-tower/1395

https://buildingsdb.com/CA/los-angeles/city-national-plaza/

The stump mentality was firmly in place for LA until the late 1960s, when a building was finally allowed to be taller than the 454' LA+City+Hall.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Post+in+Vancouver