Barrington Plaza

Barrington Plaza is an apartment complex in Los Angeles, California, located at 11740 Wilshire Boulevard in West Los Angeles community of Los Angeles, California. At the time of its completion, in 1962, it was described as the largest privately built apartment development in the western United States.DesignAs originally constructed, the plaza consisted of three high-rise buildings which contained 712 apartments. It also included retail and restaurant space, a 330000sqft parking garage and a recreational building.It was designated a fallout shelter, with 40000sqft of its garage space and hallways being expected to be able to shelter ten times the resident population.It was both the largest, and the tallest, privately built apartment complex west of Chicago.HistoryPlanning for Barrington Plaza began in 1958, when it was initially envisaged to cost $14 million. It was originally conceived and developed by the B.C. Deane Company, based in Van Nuys, and designed by architect Phillip Daniel of DMJM, which later became AECOM. Louis Lesser Enterprises were brought in as partners at the beginning of 1959, subsequently becoming the sole sponsor and buying out Deane in June 1961. Construction started in 1960; it was completed in 1962 and cost about $20 million. A year after completion, around 50% of the units had been sold.In 1961, Barrington Plaza and its developer, Ben Deane, were selected for an award by the National Association of Home Builders.