Southwestern Law School/Bullocks Wilshire Building

Bullocks Wilshire Building

If you happen to drive down Wilshire Blvd. on your way to and from Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, Beverly Hills, or Santa Monica, you may pass this art deco building called the Bullocks Wilshire Building. It’s a green building that was acquired by the Southwestern Law School and was fully renovated from a Bullocks Department Store to what is now a big library and offices for teachers/professors of this school. You may also recognize this building in movies such as Ghostbusters and Dunston Checks In.

I had the pleasure of visiting this establishment last weekend. Because this building is part of the school’s campus, the Bullocks Wilshire Building is not open to the public on a day-to-day basis. However, once a year, the building is open to the public for a special open house. Usually this happens during the summer as regular classes are not in session.

Old Books in the Library

I was a bit curious since I used to live down the street from here when I was little. Plus, I do remember a Bullocks when it was still operating back in the 90s until Macy’s acquired them.

The building itself is in the art deco style. In the open house you are permitted to go pretty much anywhere in the building with the exception of the offices on the 3rd and 4th floor.

The 1st and 2nd floor is mainly the library of the school. It’s really amazing to see the art deco on the walls and also some of the furnishings that they kept from the department store. Especially on the 2nd floor you can totally tell that some were fitting rooms.

4th Floor Entry Point

The fifth floor is where the tea room is located and the dean’s office. The open house occurs on two days; Saturday and Sunday. On the Saturday, visitors would be able to visit the building and also have afternoon tea (of course with further fee). My friends and I looked at the menu but it didn’t look too appealing so we opted to go on the Sunday instead.

The Dean’s office was pretty cool! (S)He had a patio that looked out to the Downtown LA skyline and it appeared that there are secret compartments in his/her office!

I am really glad that I had a chance to check out this building! If you ever have a chance to see historical buildings like this in your lifetime or interested in art deco, this would be a building I would visit.