High Court Justice to Speak at Opening of Law Library
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will be the keynote speaker tonight when the Southwestern University School of Law unveils its new library in the landmark Art Deco building that housed Bullock’s Wilshire for more than six decades.
The event is expected to draw more than 1,000 guests, including Mayor Richard Riordan and former mayor Tom Bradley, who graduated from Southwestern in 1956.
The 1929 building was the flagship of the Bullocks chain from 1929 until it closed in 1993. The highlight of the celebration will be a 10 p.m. lighting of the building’s tower for the first time since 1941, when its was darkened for fear of attracting enemy warplanes during World War II.
The 83,000-square-foot library, which occupies more than one-third of the five-story building’s floor space, can seat 610 people and includes 90 computers. The library opened to students earlier this year as work continued on a $10-million restoration of the building.
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