The Wrinkles of Linder Plaza

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — You may only really know it as the building with the Brooks Brothers store, but the small tower on the southeast corner of Figueroa and 6th was built in 1974 as "Linder Plaza." It's not a building I ever paid much attention to, but today I was looking for something else and ran across an architecture review of it in the Times.

Architecture critic John Pastier praised the building's "human scale", saying the design reflected "wit and grace in a part of town where Teutonic ponderousness has lately become the architectural rule."

Pastier's review also mentioned something I'd never noticed: the metal siding is wrinkled.

The [curtain wall's] worst problem, however, is the the panels apparently were fabricated from thinner metal than recommended, and consequently buckled badly. In the right (or wrong) light, the building looks like a bed with wrinkled sheets.

It's one of those things you'd likely never see just casually passing by, but after reading his article it was instantly apparent on looking at the building.