LAX Theme Building

The Theme Building stands at the center of Los Angeles International Airport, completed in 1961 to a design credited to a team that included the architect Paul Williams along with the firms Pereira and Luckman and Welton Becket and Associates. Its four curved white legs rise to support a suspended, flying-saucer-shaped structure crossed near its top by a parabolic arch, a form widely cited as a defining example of the mid-century Googie architectural style associated with the Space Age optimism of postwar Southern California. The building originally housed a restaurant, and its lower level continues to serve as event and exhibition space, though its upper observation deck has been closed to the public for extended periods over the decades since its opening. The City of Los Angeles designated the Theme Building a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1993, protecting its distinctive silhouette, which remains one of the most recognizable structures associated with the airport and the city's postwar architectural identity.