The Eastern Columbia Building, also known as the Eastern Columbia Lofts, is a thirteen-story Art Deco building designed by Claud Beelman located at 849 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District of Downtown Los Angeles. It opened on September 12, 1930, after just nine months of construction. It was built at a cost of $1.25 million as the new headquarters and 39th store for the Eastern-Columbia Department Store, whose component Eastern and Columbia stores were founded by Adolph Sieroty and family. At the time of construction, the City of Los Angeles enforced a height limit of , however the decorative clock tower was granted an exemption, allowing the clock a total height of . J. V. McNeil Company was the general contractor.
The edifice is easily spotted from the Interstate 10 - Santa Monica Freeway, as well as many other sections of downtown, due to its bright "melting turquoise" terra cotta tiles and trademark four-sided clock tower, emblazoned with the word "EASTERN" in bright white neon on each face of the clock.
The building is widely considered the greatest surviving example of Art Deco architecture in the city. It is one of the city's most photographed structures and a world-renowned Art Deco landmark.
Architecture
The Eastern Columbia Building is built of steel-reinforced concrete and clad in glossy turquoise terracotta trimmed with deep blue and gold trim. The building's vertical emphasis is accentuated by deeply recessed bands of paired windows and spandrels with copper panels separated by vertical columns. The façade is decorated with a wealth of motifs—sunburst patterns, geometric shapes, zigzags, chevrons and stylized animal and plant forms. The building is capped with a four-sided clock tower emblazoned with the name "Eastern" in neon and crowned with a central smokestack surrounded by four stylized flying buttresses. The sidewalks surrounding the Broadway and Ninth Street sides of the building are of multi-colored terrazzo laid in a dynamic pattern of zigzags and chevrons. The central main entrance has a spectacular recessed two-story vestibule adorned with a blue and gold terra cotta sunburst. The vestibule originally led to a pedestrian retail arcade running through the center of the building.
History
20th century
The building was created to house the then-separate Eastern (furniture and homeware) and Columbia (apparel) department stores both owned and managed by Adolph Sieroty, who had founded his Los Angeles retail concern as a clock shop at 556 S. Spring St. in 1892.
At opening in 1930, the building had 275,650 sq. ft. of floor space. The first four floors and mezzanine were shared by Columbia and Eastern stores, with Columbia on the 9th & Broadway corner. From the 7th floor and up the floors were all Eastern. It was arranged as follows: Ground floor - L-shaped arcade and glassed-in display area, foyer and elevators, Columbia apparel Mezzanine, Eastern - pottery, Columbia apparel 2nd floor, Eastern - musical instruments, Columbia apparel 3rd floor, Eastern - floor coverings and rugs, Columbia apparel 4th floor, Eastern - bedding and bedding accessories, Columbia apparel 6th floor, shipping 7th floor, Eastern - porch and patio furniture, lamps 8th floor, Eastern - living room furniture 9th floor, Eastern - dining and breakfast room sets and "juvenile goods" 10th floor, Eastern - glassware and household accessories 11th floor, stock record department with 50 employees 12th floor, administrative offices and auditorium seating 700 13th floor, showers, clubroom and luncheonette for 700 employees; heating, air filtration, electricity and water (100,000-gallon tank) facilities, incinerator In 1940, the company started advertising as the Eastern-Columbia Department Store. In 1950, the store expanded to cover the entire side of the block from Broadway to Hill Street.
In 1957, the company closed the Eastern-Columbia stores in its downtown flagship building, along with branch stores on S. Main St., Central Ave., Whittier Blvd., and in Long Beach. (It kept the Eastern stores in Bakersfield, Fresno, and Sacramento, and its Columbia store branches in Huntington Park, Lakewood and Long Beach.) The Eastern Columbia Building was refitted as office space targeted at the wholesale apparel industry.