In July 2020, Channel 5’s helicopter captured the images of LA with fireworks going off everywhere. AV Editor Mike Dent added Vangelis’s music from Blade Runner and produced an amazing video. For a minute and a half it is Blade Runner come to life!
The Bradbury building has appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows, but really leaped into fame as the home of J.F. Sebastian in the movie, the original Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford.
As you can see from these photos it is not the dripping gloom and doom building depicted in that film. Instead it is an amazing and highly desirable office building in the Historic Bank District of downtown Los Angeles.
Anyone can walk into the building during business hours and take photos, but a guard stops visitors from going upstairs where real businesses are conducting real business. There is, however, no Tyrell Corporation listed in the building, so no replicants are being created in it. 😉
The building, designed by non-architect George Wyman, opened in 1893 and from day one was considered architectural marvel. The choices of materials and ornamentation is astonishing. Located at Third and Broadway, it is the one and only building Wyman ever designed.
If you visit, go to the back exit where you will find Charlie Chaplin in bronze seated on a park bench. I don’t know the story of how this life-size statue came to be in the building. It is one of these strange things that happen in cities.
Oh, when you step outside you can see an enormous mural of actor Anthony Quinn covering the entire wall of another office building nearby. It must be 10 stories high or higher. We do love murals in L.A.!
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