Originally built as the headquarters of the Southern California Edison Company, the Southern California Edison Company Building stands as one of the pioneering structures in the western United States, first to be constructed entirely with all electric heating and cooling.
Completed in 1931, this fourteen-story steel-framed building boasts a classically inspired Art Deco design. The lower three stories are clad in solid limestone, while the upper stories and central tower are adorned with buff-colored terra cotta. The façade features spandrels that display a cubic Art Deco pattern, which is repeated in the central tower, lobby floor, and elevator ceilings. On the entry façade, allegorical figures sculpted by Merrell Gage symbolize light, power, and hydroelectric energy. The two-story lobby incorporates classical elements with an Art Deco twist.
Below the thirty-foot high coffered ceiling, the floor and walls are composed of at least seventeen different types of marble. At the end of the lobby, a mural titled “Power” by Hugo Ballin is displayed. In the 1980s, exterior greenhouse-like structures were added to the building, and in 1993, a street-level shopping corridor was constructed.