Binoculars Building

Los Angeles, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

Find out more

In the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles stands this postmodern structure, originally built in 1991 for the advertising agency Chiat/Day and designed by Frank Gehry. The 75,000-square-foot building's most distinctive feature is the Giant Binoculars sculpture (1991), a public artwork by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen that dominates its street-facing façade and serves as both a visual landmark and functional entrance—the parking garage entrance sits between the two telescopes. Construction was delayed by the discovery of hazardous materials on the site. The building was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument and later became part of Google's Venice campus when the tech company acquired it in 2011 as part of a broader expansion of its Los Angeles presence.