Step off the streets of downtown LA and into the Bradbury Building, and suddenly you’re in another world: one part Victorian daydream, one part cinematic fever dream. The five-story atrium shimmers with honeyed light; cast-iron staircases curl skyward like ribbons; and a lattice of glass, marble, and brick glows beneath the 1893 skylight. It’s easy to see why filmmakers, architects, and romantics keep coming back.

The building’s origin story feels straight out of a novel, which might not be a coincidence. Completed in 1893 for mining magnate Lewis L. Bradbury, it’s the oldest surviving commercial office building in the city’s historic core and a National Historic Landmark.

Bradbury wanted a showpiece office building on Broadway that he could walk to from his Bunker Hill mansion. He first hired Sumner P. Hunt, a leading local architect, who produced completed designs. Shortly thereafter, Hunt was abruptly replaced by George H. Wyman — a young draftsman with no prior commissions — who supervised construction and is credited as architect in official federal documentation. The handoff has fueled a long-running authorship debate: Hunt’s role as originator versus Wyman’s role as the architect of record and on-site auteur of the interior court.

According to Bradbury lore, Wyman only accepted the job after consulting a spiritualist who claimed his deceased brother urged him to build a “palace of light.” Whether that séance ever happened remains unverified, but it fits neatly into the mythos of Los Angeles: a city forever guided by ghosts and ambition.

What’s not myth is the brilliance of Wyman’s design. The exterior is a sturdy Romanesque shell, but inside, the open atrium unfolds into a luminous vertical courtyard — marble stairs, polished wood railings, wrought-iron filigree, and a 50-foot glass roof filtering daylight through every floor. The result feels both industrial and ethereal, a blend that architecture critic Esther McCoy once called “a shaft of light in the heart of the city.”

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Bradbury Building Fact File

Built: 1893
Architect: George H. Wyman (after Sumner P. Hunt)
Commissioned by: Lewis L. Bradbury, mining magnate
Style: Romanesque Revival exterior; light-filled iron-and-glass atrium interior
Location: 304 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Famous for: Iconic skylit atrium, wrought-iron staircases, “Blade Runner” film set
Access: Ground floor open daily 9 AM – 5 PM; free entry

Sources: Los Angeles Conservancy; Library of Congress (HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,11-); Discover Los Angeles.

Outside, the Bradbury presents a sober commercial elevation in brown brick, sandstone, and terra cotta. Inside, it opens to a luminous central court wrapped by progressively narrowing balconies, open stair runs, and “bird-cage” elevators beneath a great hipped skylight. Materials include rose-colored Italian marble stair treads, glazed and unglazed brick in warm tones, decorative iron railings and mail chutes, and polished wood — all orchestrated to maximize reflected light from the glass roof and high clerestory. Even in an age of electric illumination, the atrium was conceived to be daylit, creating a restful inner “street” off Broadway.

For researchers, the Bradbury is unusually well documented. The Historic American Buildings Survey — or HABS — produced measured drawings, photographs, and written data pages — twelve sheets of drawings and multiple photo sets that record the plan, elevations, ironwork details, stair geometry, and skylight structure. These materials, sponsored by University of California programs and delineated by a HABS team, are accessible through the Library of Congress and remain the most authoritative set of drawings for the building’s fabric today.

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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Quick Guide: Visiting the Bradbury Building

Address
304 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Hours
Open daily during business hours (typically 9 AM – 5 PM).
Admission is free. The ground floor and atrium are open to the public; upper floors remain private offices.

Best Time for Photos
Visit between 10 AM – 2 PM when sunlight filters through the skylight, flooding the atrium in warm light and casting intricate shadows across the ironwork.

What’s Been Filmed Here

Blade Runner (1982) – J. F. Sebastian’s apartment set
(500) Days of Summer (2009) – Tom’s interview scene
The Artist (2011) – Kinograph Studio interiors
Double Indemnity (1944) – Pacific All Risk Insurance HQ
Wolf (1994), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), Chinatown (1974), Pay It Forward (2000)
Music videos by Janet Jackson, Earth Wind & Fire, and Genesis

Sources: The Culture Trip; Discover Los Angeles; The Bradbury Building Official Site.

Where to Eat Nearby
Grand Central Market – across the street for G&B Coffee, Eggslut, and Sticky Rice.
Angel’s Flight Coffee Bar – a design-driven espresso stop just a block away.
Perch – rooftop French bistro with skyline views for a post-architecture cocktail.

Nearby Landmarks
Angels Flight Railway – historic 1901 funicular.
Million Dollar Theatre – Bradbury-era gem across the street.
The Broad & Walt Disney Concert Hall – a 10-minute walk north from 1890s iron to Gehry’s titanium.

If You Love the Bradbury …
Eastern Columbia Building – turquoise Art Deco icon on Broadway.
Los Angeles Central Library – Bertram Goodhue’s 1926 masterpiece.
Union Station – a 1939 blend of Mission Revival and Art Moderne.

Learn More
Explore original measured drawings via the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS CAL,19-LOSAN,11-) at the Library of Congress.

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