U.S. Bank Tower

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Image:Los Angeles Library Tower (small).jpg The U.S. Bank Tower (Library Tower, First Interstate World Center) at 633 West Fifth Street in downtown Los Angeles, California is the tallest North American skyscraper west of Chicago, the tallest building in California, and the tallest building with a helipad on the roof (required by the city building code). Standing 1,018 feet (310 m) high, it is also one of the tallest in the world (22nd as of 2005). Until the construction of Taipei 101, it was also the tallest structure in a major active seismic region; its structure was designed to resist an earthquake of 8.3 on the Richter Scale. It consists of 73 stories above ground and two parking levels below ground. Construction was begun in 1987 and was completed in 1990. The building was designed by Henry N. Cobb of the architectural firm Pei Cobb Freed & Partners and cost $350 million to build.

The building is also known as Library Tower due to its location across the street from the Los Angeles Central Library; it was built as part of the $1 billion redevelopment of the Library following two disastrous fires in 1986. The City of Los Angeles sold air rights to the developers of the tower to help pay for the reconstruction of the library. The building was also known for a time as First Interstate World Center after being bought by First Interstate Bank. After First Interstate merged with Wells Fargo Bank the name Library Tower was restored. In March 2003 the property was bought by U.S. Bancorp and the building was renamed U.S. Bank Tower. Residents, however, continue to refer to it as Library Tower and are unlikely to stop doing so.

The tower has a large glass "crown" at its top that is illuminated at night. The crown is lighted with red and blue on the 4th of July and red and green during the Christmas holiday season. It is also lit with purple and gold when the Los Angeles Lakers are playing in the NBA Playoffs. On February 28, 2004, two U.S. Bank logo signs, each standing 75 feet (23 m) high, were installed on the crown, amid controversy for their effect on the aesthetic appearance of the building (as was the case previously when First Interstate Bank's logos were placed on the crown between 1990 and 1997).

1 Terrorist target
2 References in popular culture
3 Gallery
4 See also
5 External links

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Terrorist target

On June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission reported that the original plan for the September 11, 2001 attacks called for the hijacking of ten planes, one of which was to be crashed into the building.

On October 6, 2005, White House officials stated that the government had foiled a previously undisclosed second plot to crash a plane into the building in mid-2002. In a televised speech on February 9, 2006, US President George W. Bush asserted that American counterterrorism officials had foiled a plot to slam planes into "Liberty Tower".[1] He said that "Liberty Tower", in Los Angeles, was the tallest building on the West Coast. Commentators believe that Bush meant to say "Library Tower".

According to Bush, Al-Qaeda leader Khaled Sheikh Mohammed's plan was to use Asian confederates from Jemaah Islamiyah recruited by Islamic militant Hambali for the hijacking. Bush asserted the hijackers were going to use shoe bombs to breach the plane's cockpit door, however some counter-terrorism experts have expressed doubt that the plot was ever fully developed or likely to occur. Planning for the attack allegedly began as early as October 2001.

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References in popular culture

In the movie Independence Day it is the first thing to be destroyed by aliens. In Constantine, when John Constantine is in hell, one can see the destroyed U.S. Bank Tower.

In The Day After Tomorrow, the building bore the brunt of the tornado touchdown that destroyed Los Angeles. It can also be seen in John Carpenter's "Escape From LA" nearly obliterated after a massive earthquake that separates Los Angeles from the mainland.

The building was intended to be featured in the video game True Crime: Streets of LA, but the tower is incorrectly represented in the game. A version of it appears in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in downtown Los Santos.

U.S. Bank Tower is frequently shown on the television series Angel, which is set in a fictionalized Los Angeles. It is also regularly shown as an establishing shot for Los Angeles in the television show Alias, which is based in Los Angeles. The same goes for 24.

The U.S. Bank Tower is also the most reconizable building in Los Angeles, with the tower making it obvious that it's in the city of Los Angeles. The same idea would follow for buildings in the East Coast in New York such as the Empire State Building and the former-World Trade Center towers.

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