LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER
1201 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, California 90015
Telephone: (213) 741-1151
Convention Center (opened 1971)
Capacity flexible
About the Los Angeles Convention Center
One of Los Angeles's best-known meeting facilities, the Convention Center opened in 1971, but was dramatically changed by an enormous $500 million expansion completed in 1993. It now offers 867,000 square feet of exhibit and meeting space (consisting of 64 meeting rooms) and sits adjacent to the busy Staples Center arena (opened 1999), built on the site of one of the Convention Center's auxiliary exhibit halls.
The 54-acre facility has been a magnet for major events like the 2000 Democratic National Convention and the 1984 Olympic Games. On both occasions, it served as the main press center for journalists covering the event. It was recently proposed as the main press center (West Hall) and a competition site (South Hall) for table tennis and wrestling in the Los Angeles bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The expansive Center with its aqua-colored exterior and trademark glass towers is a prominent landmark in downtown Los Angeles. A proposed retail and entertainment district in the area could provide an additional 250,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space and a convention hotel in the coming years.
Quick Facts
•The basics:
The Los Angeles Convention Center offers three enormous exhibition halls (West, South and Kentia), two smaller halls (Petree and Concourse), a 299-seat theater and on-site parking for 5,600 automobiles.
•Location and parking:
The LACC is located on Figueroa Street, bordered on the North by 11th Street and on the South by Venice Boulevard. It is accessible from the north-bound Harbor (110) Freeway via the Pico Boulevard exit or south-bound through Ninth Street; it is also within easy reach of the East-bound (10) Freeway via the Grand Avenue off-ramp.
•Management:
The Center is owned and operated by the City of Los Angeles under the direction of General Manager George Rakis. For information about facility use, please contact Assistant General Manager Philip Hill at (213) 741-1151 or via fax at (213) 765-4441.
•Technical information:
The main exhibit halls are West (Sam Yorty) Hall and South (Tom Bradley) Hall, both named for former Los Angeles Mayors under whose tenure the facility was built (Yorty) and expanded (Bradley). West Hall offers a total of 210,685 square feet, which can be divided if desired into two halls "A" (147,506 sq.ft.) and "B" (63,619 sq.ft.) The enormous South Hall is much larger at 346,890 sq.ft. and can be divided into four smaller spaces of halls "G" and "K" measuring 96,660 sq.ft. each and "I" and "J" (76,785 sq.ft. each). The exhibiut halls have concrete flooring and an excellent floor-connection system which supply electrical power, water, air or communications to exhibit booths. They are supported by excellent lighting of 50-plus footcandles, first aid facilities, pre-function registration spaces and show offices overlooking the floors. Event move-in and move-out are quick and easy because of 36 conveniently located loading docks.
Kentia Hall, located beneath South Hall, comprises 162,000 square feet of converitble space useable for either exhibit or parking.
Although primarily designed as meeting rooms, the carpeted Concourse and Petree Halls provide optional exhibit spaces of 26,342 and 21,557 sq.ft., respectively. Petree Hall can be sub-divided into two smaller spaces of 9,462 (Hall "C") or 11,926 sq.ft. ("D"), while the Concourse Hall can be divided into as many as eight rooms, or as few as two, Halls "E" and "F" (13,123 sq.ft. each).
There are 64 meeting rooms, many overlooking the main exhibition halls, ranging in size from 874 to 4,094 sq.ft. on the South end, 851 to 8,528 sq.ft. in the Concourse group (including the theater) and 322 to 11,220 sq.ft. near the West Hall.
There are eight permanent concession stands within the Convention Center, two first aid stations, a nationally recognized centrally networked public access cardiac defibrillation system, and an excellent public address system.