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At the tar pits adjacent to LACMA, my attention was stolen by a white vertical tower. Thirty-one stories tall in a district that upholds a seven-story height moratorium, the Variety skyscraper on Wilshire Boulevard is a stark giant crowned by its name in red lettering. Its stature is somehow comic, especially in Los Angeles. It appeared oversized; as if it was a spoof building, a prop, a facade, a mirage?
Designed by William Pereira, it boasts three hundred and sixty degree open views of the city. Didion might describe its lines as “alienating” and its build thick like an upright block of butter wrapped in wax paper. Jerry Bruckheimer, if he hasn’t already, will use it for a heist helicopter landing in one of his next productions.
