Security Trust and Savings

Security Trust and Savings was built in 1921 and upon opening was the tallest building in Hollywood.^[1] It features Italian Renaissance revival architecture and was designed by John and Donald Parkinson,^[2][3] who also designed some of the Los Angeles's most notable landmarks, including Union Station and the Memorial Coliseum.^[4]

Originally the Hollywood branch of the six-location Security Trust and Savings Bank,^[5] this location was considered "a power center of the entertainment industry", with clients that included Charlie Chaplin, the Three Stooges, Lana Turner, W.C. Fields, Cecil B. DeMille, Howard Hughes, and more.^[3]

In 1982, the building was included in the National Register of Historic Places,^[6] and in 1984, the Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District was added to the register, with Security Trust listed as a contributing property in the district.^[2][7] In 1987, the building was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #334.^[8]

In 2008, Hollywood's Economic Development Committee received two proposals to convert the building into a hotel,^[9] and in 2020, the building was bought for $53 million by Onni Group, who plan to preserve it while redeveloping an adjoining property.^[10]

Security Trust and Savings is a steel reinforced masonry office building that features an Italian Renaissance Revival design. The building features vertical massing with a grey terra cotta exterior, additional terra cotta ornamentation, and a dark marble band that anchors the building to the street.^[11]

The street level facade features slightly recessed and outsized windows between wide pilasters, and recessed entryways highlighted by fluted columns. The Cahuenga entrance also features an ornately decorated cornice with medallions and garlands supported by brackets, while the Hollywood Boulevard entrance was stripped of its cornice to accommodate a sign. An ornamental stringcourse separates the street level from the office floors above, with the office floors featuring pairs of slightly recessed vertically banded windows separated by thin twisted fluted columns and culminating decorative capitals and a double arch. Beneath each office window is a rectangular panel bordered with terra cotta cast in a classical motif.^[11]

A flat roof with deep projecting eaves caps the structure. Cornice decorations, including sculpted lion heads and carved brackets featuring recessed floral medallions, punctuate the roof line. The "rope" effect of the twisted columns is maintained in this area by two horizontal bands, and the classical motif of the office window panels is repeated in a horizontal band below the brackets.^[11]

The interior bank lobby features original marble floors and freestanding covered columns as well as restored banded marble walls and high ceilings. Much of the rest of the interior has been renovated and remodeled.^[11]

This building is widely believed to be the inspiration for the Cahuenga Building, a fictional building that housed the office of Philip Marlowe, the hardboiled detective featured in a number of Raymond Chandler's stories. Additionally, The Brasher Doubloon, a film adaption of Chandler's The High Window, features this building as that location.^[12] The intersection outside this building is named Raymond Chandler Square as a tribute to the belief that Phillip Marlowe's office was located here.^[4][13][14]

This building's exterior was a common filming location for and can be seen in many Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Charlie Chaplin films.^[4]