Los Angeles Forum Achieves a Turnaround

by T.R. Witcher; ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine

February 25, 2014

Following years of disuse the venerable Los Angeles Forum has been given a new life with an upgraded roof structure and refinished interior. Its reopening was celebrated with a giant working turntable on its roof.

Built in 1967, the Forum in Los Angeles was famous as much for its innovative structural roof system as for the many unforgettable performers who dazzled the Los Angelinos beneath it. The “Showtime Lakers” of Magic Johnson won five NBA titles there during the 1980s, and legendary acts from Led Zeppelin to the Jackson 5 to Elvis Presley worked its stage.

“There’s no question, the building is iconic,” says Murray Beynon, a partner of BBB Architects in Toronto. “As we talked to people in L.A., it has almost a mythical status. They think it’s a great building from a visual point of view and many have very special memories there.”