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Los Angeles architect and educator Louis Naidorf has died at the age of 96, just shy of his 97th birthday on August 15. The Los Angeles Times first reported news of his passing, as confirmed by a close friend.
Naidorf, an L.A. native, helped to shape the skylines of several American cities with projects like the revolving restaurant–topped Reunion Tower and adjacent Hyatt Regency hotel in Dallas; the Humble Exxon Building in Houston, which was briefly the tallest building west of the Mississippi in the early 1960s; and Phoenix’s 40-story Chase Tower (née the Valley Bank Center), which, more than 50 years after its completion, remains the tallest building in Arizona.
But it was one of Naidorf’s earliest contributions during his long career with prolific midcentury L.A. firm Welton Becket and Associates (successor firm Ellerbe Becket was folded into AECOM following its 2009 acquisition) for which he remains best known: Hollywood’s landmark Capitol Records Building.
The Capitol Records Building in Hollywood. Photo by Downtowngal, Wikimedia Commons
Although relatively squat at 13 stories, the high-rise gained attention as the world’s first round office building when it was completed in 1956. (It briefly appeared in the September 1955 issue of RECORD ahead of its opening.) Resembling a stack of records on a turntable and topped by a 90-foot aluminum spindle pointing skyward (its beacon blinks out H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D in morse code), Naidorf designed an early concept for the circular building while still in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley as part of his master’s thesis. Just three years later while with Welton Becket, the 24-year-old architect was tasked with designing an office building for an anonymous client in Hollywood. That client ending up being Capitol Records, which selected Naidorf’s radical round tower. As the Times details, the building’s passing semblance to a stack of records is purely coincidental as young Naidorf was unaware of who he was designing the building for. “If it makes people happy to think that, so be it,” the Times recounts Naidorf as saying about the myth that the building was specifically designed for the major record label. Calling the Capitol Records Building “an instantly recognizable icon of modern architecture,” the Los Angeles Conservancy writes: “Its unique shape primarily sought unabashed cost-efficiency, with the reduced area of the exterior walls saving on both construction and air-conditioning.”
Located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, the tower was added to the U.S National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) just last year and was designated as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006. It is still home to the West Coast offices for Capitol Records, which is today owned by the Universal Music Group. Capitol Studios, a legendary recording studio, is also located in the building.
The Reunion Tower and Hyatt Regency in downtown Dallas. Photo by Milestone 2, Wikimedia Commons
Naidorf went on to lead numerous major commissions with Welton Becket, including the original Beverly Hilton, completed in 1955 and currently undergoing a dramatic, Norman Foster–led transformation alongside an adjacent property; 1958’s Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which is also listed on the NRHP; and the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena at Exposition Park, which was completed in 1959 and demolished in 2016 to make room for Gensler’s soccer-specific BMO Stadium. He also designed a desert residence for former President Gerald Ford and first lady Betty Ford in Rancho Mirage, just outside of Palm Springs. AIA California bestowed Naidorf with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
The now-demolished Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. Photo by Pelladon, Wikimedia Commons
In addition to his work with Welton Becket, where he eventually rose up the ranks to serve as vice president, director of research, and director of design, Naidorf was a passionate educator, teaching at a number of California schools, including SCI-Arc and Cal Poly Pomona He was chair, and later dean, of the School of Architecture and Design at Woodbury University in Burbank from 1990 until 2000. In a social media post, the school paid tribute to the to the “creative giant,” who was “always guided by his belief that architecture should bring joy to people and communities.”