SIGHTINGS : Control Freak
- Share via
It’s been maligned as a “monstrosity” and a “shaggy palm tree” and has suffered a host of aesthetic revisions. Now, as Los Angeles International Airport’s new $20-million air-traffic control tower approaches its March debut, here are some particulars to mull over:
It’s tall: At 277 feet, the tower dwarfs the existing facility, built in 1961, by 117 feet. It’s roomy: The tower’s 1,000-square-foot “cab” is nearly three times the size of the original’s, where as many as 12 controllers have toiled in guest bedroom-like intimacy.
It’s got views: There are none of the sight-line problems that plague controllers in the 160-foot existing tower, which has blind spots caused by new terminal buildings.
It’s . . . special: The standard unadorned Federal Aviation Administration-approved tower didn’t cut it with the Cultural Affairs Commission, which demanded an only-in-L.A. design. The resulting stylized wings, struts and quasi-aeronautical doodads bombed with the city’s Airport Commission, which finally approved the present, much-toned-down design in 1991.
It’s metaphorical: A medallion with twinkling lights on the tower’s side is meant to evoke a controller’s radar screen.
It could have been worse: The gray exterior paint scheme was once going to be red.
--Compiled by Evelyn Sheinkopf
More to Read
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.