Capitol Records Building

The Capitol Records Building is one of Los Angeles’ most instantly recognisable. Designed by Welton Becket and built in 1956, it looks like a stack of records topped by a stylus — something which may or may not have been deliberate. But it is fully appropriate: Capitol Records was the first record company based on the West Coast and helped launch many musicians to international stardom, including The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra and Duran Duran.

60 years on, it is still used as an office building, so unfortunately you cannot go inside. They still have the recording studios in the building, including echo chambers designed by the legendary guitarist Les Paul. These chambers are concrete bunkers 10 metres underground that can provide reverb lasting up to five seconds — an effect most famously heard on the The Beach Boys’ hit, Good Vibrations.

Even if you can’t see the echo chambers with your own eyes, you can admire the building’s unique exterior and the lobby where the walls are covered in gold records from their star musicians. The Hollywood Walk of Fame also passes by outside and you can see some famous stars, including that of John Lennon and country star Garth Brooks.

By night, look up and you will notice a red light flashing atop spire on the Capitol Records Building. Pay close attention, because this flight is actually flashing in Morse Code. Every few seconds it blinks out the word “Hollywood”. In fact, when the building opened in 1956, the granddaughter of Samuel Morse, who invented Morse Code, turned the switch on for the first time.