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Parker Center, initially named the Police Administration Building or Police Facilities Building, was the former headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1955 until October 2009. It was located in Downtown Los Angeles at 150 North Los Angeles Street. Often nicknamed "The Glass House", the building was named for former LAPD chief William H. Parker in 1966.
The LAPD moved to a different headquarters building in 2009 after the Parker Center became outdated. After the building was shifted to mostly secondary use, and attempts to preserve the building failed, the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering recommended its demolition. Demolition and razing of the Parker Center was approved in 2017, and completed in 2019. Plans to replace the building with the Los Angeles Street Civic Building were scrapped in 2020 due to a lack of funds.
Groundbreaking for the center began on December 30, 1952, and construction was completed in 1955. On July 16, 1966, Parker suffered a fatal heart attack. Soon afterward, the Los Angeles City Council renamed the building the "Parker Center".
The architect was Welton Becket & Associates and J.E. Stanton, associated architect. Maynard Woodard was director of design and Francis Runcy was the project architect. The eight-story building was of reinforced concrete with aluminum sash windows covered by louvers. Ceramic tile by Gladding, McBean covered the west elevation. The building combined police facilities that had been located throughout the Civic Center area. The jail area was built without window bars, utilizing non-breakable tempered glass, and neoprene floors to reduce self-injuries. A special control board in the lineup room could simulate different lighting conditions and a wire screen that acted like a one-way mirror. The Statistical Unit made the LAPD the first police department to install IBM computer equipment. The laboratories of the Scientific Investigation Division took up the entire fourth floor and included early versions of a breath-based alcohol impairment test. The new building was called "ultramodern in all respects" and "the jail that modern science built" by Popular Mechanics in 1956.
Two prominent artworks were commissioned for the building, a large bronze modernist sculpture by Bernard Rosenthal mounted at the entrance titled "The American Family" and a mosaic work in the lobby depicting architectural landmarks of Los Angeles by Joseph Young. The mural, mounted a few feet off the ground, was six feet high and 36 feet long, was Young's first public work. American Artist magazine called it "six tons of steel, copper, aluminum and glass, fused into a monolithic mosaic panel of beauty and permanence that seems to float on air." Both artworks were removed in 2018.
The building was one of the sites of unrest during the 1992 Los Angeles riots that followed a not guilty verdict for the four police officers involved in the Rodney King incident.
On January 15, 2013, the City of Los Angeles permanently closed Parker Center. In 2014, the City Department of Public Works and the Bureau of Engineering recommended razing the now-vacant Parker Center in favor of building a 27-story tower in its place. The razing would proceed on a floor-by-floor process, eliminating the need for wrecking balls or dynamiting. Construction of the new building would start in 2016 and last 18–24 months, with completion anticipated in 2018.
In August 2015, it was reported that discussions had expanded and now involved not just the future of the building itself, but also what should be done with surrounding areas and the district as a whole. This suggested the possibility of an alternative location for the proposed office buildings intended to be erected on the plot currently inhabited by the Parker Center. Three options were considered for the Parker Center.
In December 2016, the Bureau of Engineering once again recommended razing the building, saying that tearing down the structure and creating the new high-rise would cost $514 million, and that the preservation and smaller new edifice option would cost $621 million (both plans would have roughly the same amount of office space). The Bureau of Engineering's timetable suggested securing approvals by February 2017.
On March 24, 2017, City Council voted unanimously to approve a proposal to demolish Parker Center and replace it with an office tower that would consolidate offices of city employees. The above-ground demolition of Parker Center was completed on July 15, 2019.
The Parker Center appears in several establishing shots for the Perry Mason between 1958 and 1966. It appeared in seasons 3, 4 and 10 of Columbo. The NBC drama Hunter used the Parker Center in the sixth and seventh seasons. Parker Center is the location of the Priority Homicide Division, and later Major Crimes, in the television series The Closer.
Parker Center appears in the 1983 movie Blue Thunder, the 1992 movie One False Move, and the 1970-set 2014 film Inherent Vice. It was also referred to in the 1987 film Dragnet and the 1997 film L.A. Confidential.
Parker Center appears as main location in 1984 TV series Hunter from season 6 and 7.
The building is featured as one of the main locations in the 1993 video game , the fourth installment of the Police Quest series.
Parker Center is often mentioned in the novels of the Harry Bosch series written by Michael Connelly, the Shane Scully series written by Stephen J. Cannell, and the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series by Robert Crais.
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