U.S. Bank Tower at dawn
U.S. Bank Tower is the tallest skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, California and the tallest west of the Mississippi. Standing in at 310m (1,018ft), it is also one of the tallest in the world. It is also the tallest structure in actively seismic region, so its structural design was made to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter Scale. It consists of 73 stories above ground and 2 stories below ground. Construction was begun in 1987 and was completed in 1990. It is located at 633 West Fifth Street and cost $350 million to build.
It was formerly known as Library Tower due to its proximity to Los Angeles' Central Library and because the Central Library's sale of the air rights above its building permitted the construction of the tower in the first place. It was also known for a time as First Interstate World Center after being bought by First Interstate Bank. The name Library Tower was restored after Interstate merged with Wells Fargo, until March 2003, when it was bought by U.S. Bancorp and renamed to U.S. Bank Tower.
The tower has a large glass "crown" at its top that is illuminated at night. The crown is lighted with red and blue on the 4th of July and red and green during the winter holidays.
In the movie Independence Day it was the first thing destroyed by the aliens.
It was designed by the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners.
