PASSINGS: Thomas H. Landau

Thomas H. Landau

Architect designed commercial buildings, office towers

Architect Thomas H. “Tommy” Landau, 76, whose firm designed a number of prominent commercial buildings in the Los Angeles area, died of lung cancer Monday at his Santa Monica home, his former wife Sally Landau said.

His company, the Landau Partnership, was responsible for the 24-story Biltmore Tower, an office addition to the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Landau and his team also designed the Trillium complex in Woodland Hills, the Downtown Plaza in Long Beach, the Glendale Plaza office tower, the One Westwood building on Wilshire Boulevard and the Sea Colony high-rise in Santa Monica.

Landau’s most ambitious project was one that did not make it off the drawing boards: A 224-story skyscraper in Abu Dhabi, with a huge clock mounted at the height of New York’s Empire State Building — about midway up. Local officials rejected the proposal in 2009, saying it would affect air traffic, according to the National, an Abu Dhabi newspaper.

Born in Highland Park, Ill., on March 22, 1937, Thomas Homer Landau grew up in Beverly Hills and attended USC for a semester before joining the Army. Returning from military duty in Berlin, he studied at UCLA and graduated with a degree in industrial design.

He worked for Los Angeles architect William L. Pereira before opening a practice in 1969 with Howard Oxley. Landau started his own firm in 1975.

Times staff and wire reportsnews.obits@latimes.com