Continental Building

The Continental Building rises thirteen stories in a cream-colored terra cotta skin, marking it as the first steel-frame skyscraper in Los Angeles. When it opened in nineteen oh four, it held the title of the tallest building in the city. The architect John Parkinson designed it with a distinct rooftop clock tower that once signaled the time for commuters. It stands as a physical boundary where the low-slung, nineteenth century commercial district gave way to the vertical ambitions of the twentieth century.