The city's Bureau of Engineering (part of the Department of Public Works) has recommended again that the former Los Angeles Police Department headquarters - historic, troubled Parker Center - be demolished and a 27-story tower for city offices put up in its place.
When Parker Center was dedicated in 1955, the building was seen as aspirational: a sleek, modernist block by Welton Becket & Associates designed for a new era of law enforcement dedicated to forensic science, space-age technology, and militant discipline. Parker Center served the Dragnet and Adam-12 eras of the LAPD, but it has been mostly empty since a new headquarters (a joint venture of the architectural firm AECOM with Roth Sheppard Associates) opened in 2009.
Whether by forgetfulness or design, Parker Center failed to earn monument status in 2015, but the controversies haven't stopped.
In response to the Bureau of Engineering's latest recommendation that the building be scrapped, the city's Cultural Heritage Commission has nominated Parker Center for status as a Historic-Cultural Monument. This is the commission's second attempt. The first, in 2013 when the building also faced possible demolition, was submitted to the city council on the commission members' own referral, something rarely done.
But the city council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, responsible for the next step in confirming that first nomination, let a procedural deadline pass in 2015 without action. Whether by forgetfulness or design, Parker Center failed to earn monument status then, but the controversies haven't stopped.
Councilman Jos Huizar, then the council committee chairman, hurriedly suggested a compromise between demolition and preservation: Restore Parker Center and build a new office tower to loom over it. Huizar suggested that the new tower be taller than the one analyzed in the project's environmental impact report, slowing the decision-making process yet again.
Parker Center from Los Angeles Street. In the 1970s, protests against the LAPD's discriminatory hiring practices filled the street in front of Parker Center. When the city erupted after the Rodney King verdicts in 1992, Parker Center was the first place where thousands of Angele os gathered to demand justice. Photo courtesy of Historic American Landscapes Survey Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.
Parker Center. Designed by Welton Becket (in association with J. E. Stanton and landscape architect Ralph D. Cornell), the seven-story, Modernist structure includes a horizontal slab with bands of windows on the long east and west sides, and glazed terra cotta panels on the short north and south sides. Photo courtesy of Security Pacific National Bank Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.
Parker Center entry. Horizontal, two-story wings extend out into the surrounding parking lots define the entrance plaza and provide a visual base for the building. Photo courtesy of Historic American Landscapes Survey Collection - Los Angeles Public Library.
Parker Center was considered one of the most modern and advanced centralized police headquarters facilities in the nation when it was dedicated in 1955. Today, vermin, damp, asbestos contamination, outdated 1950s infrastructure, and earthquake fragility make Parker Center a problematic candidate for reuse. According to the city's Municipal Facilities Committee (chaired by City Administrative Officer Miguel A. Santana) the $107-million estimate to preserve and retrofit Parker Center makes the cost of reuse too high.
The Cultural Heritage Commission's latest move to preserve Parker Center still has to go through all the steps that were missed in 2015, with Councilman Huizar still as chairman of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee. And even if the renewed process is successful, historic status isn't a shield against eventual demolition.
In the meantime, options for the Parker Center site will be reviewed by city council's Public Works Committee and its Budget and Finance Committee. Committee members will make their own recommendations by early 2017. As in 2013, the options remain demolition and replacement, as recommended by the Bureau of Engineering, or reuse with a new addition or reuse in the building's current form.
Preservationists, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, want to save Parker Center for what it has meant culturally as much as for its design.
We already have a precedent for the reuse of a formerly abandoned civic icon. The county Hall of Justice reopened in 2014, after 20 years and $230 million in restoration and seismic retrofitting, to house the offices of the district attorney and the Sheriff Departments command. Unfortunately, Parker Center is less notable as architecture.
But it's worth remembering. The Welton Beckett firm materialized the exuberance and optimism of mid-20th century Los Angeles in buildings as different as the Capitol Records tower, Bullock's Pasadena, the Cinerama Dome, Pauley Pavilion, and the Music Center.
Preservationists, including the Los Angeles Conservancy, want to save Parker Center for what it has meant culturally as much as for its design. Appearances in TV series and on the nightly news made the building a celebrity and a target. In the 1970s, protests against the LAPD's discriminatory hiring practices filled the street in front of Parker Center. In the 1980s, African-American and Latino community members demonstrated against harsh police tactics, calling them discriminatory. When the city erupted after the Rodney King verdicts in 1992, Parker Center was the place where thousands of angry Angele os gathered to demand justice.
Protest at Parker Center. In 1989, Latino community members knelt in front of Parker Center in appeal against police round ups of day laborers waiting for wo
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The city's Bureau of Engineering (part of the Department of Public Works) has recommended again that the former Los Angeles Police Department headquarters - historic, troubled Parker Center - be demolished and a 27-story tower for city offices put up in its place.
