Westin Bonaventure
Five mirrored cylinders by John Portman — 1970s futurism, and a perennial sci-fi film set, right at the freeway's edge.
Key facts
- The Westin Bonaventure Hotel (404 S Figueroa St) was designed by John C. Portman Jr. and opened in 1976 — five mirrored-glass cylindrical towers, a 35-storey centre ringed by four 30-storey towers.
- Inside is a dramatic multi-storey atrium with exposed glass elevators and a revolving rooftop lounge — a piece of exuberant 1970s futurism.
- Its mirrored skin and space-age lobby have made it a perennial film location — Interstellar, Escape from L.A., True Lies, and many more.
Narration transcript
Right at the edge of the freeway on your right — closer than any other tower on this drive — is a cluster of five mirrored-glass cylinders. That's the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, and it's the most purely 1970s thing downtown. The architect was John Portman, who opened it in 1976: one tall round tower in the middle, four shorter round towers around it, all sheathed in reflective glass so they throw the sky and the other buildings back at you.
Inside, it's even more of its era — a soaring atrium that goes up storeys and storeys, glass elevators climbing the open space like bubbles, and a lounge on the roof that slowly revolves. It looks like the future as imagined in 1976, which is exactly why the movies can't leave it alone. If a science-fiction film needs a shiny, disorienting interior, odds are they shot it right here. Whole chase scenes have happened in that lobby. You're passing a building that has spent fifty years playing "the future" on screen.