Walk out of the 7th and Figueroa canyon at rush hour, look east, and you’ll see it: a tall, elegant rectangle with AON in red at the crown. The Aon Center doesn’t beg for attention with curves or gimmicks. It stands there like it always has, a cool Modernist spike that lets Los Angeles swirl around it. Most visitors’ first question is whether you can go up. Short answer: you can’t. It’s an office tower with no public observation deck. But there are reliable, easy ways to see it up close, get above it for a skyline view, and understand why it still shapes how Downtown looks and feels.
Completed in 1973, the Aon Center at 707 Wilshire Boulevard rose when Downtown was reinventing itself as a modern business district. Architect Charles Luckman gave it reassuring, straight lines over flourishes, and at 858 feet it immediately dominated the skyline. It was the tallest building in Los Angeles for a long stretch and today remains among the city’s very tallest. If you’re mapping, the address drops you right into the Financial District grid between Wilshire, 7th, Hope, and Flower, the heart of high-rise Los Angeles.
Old-timers still call it by its previous names. It opened as the United California Bank Building and later became First Interstate Tower. That second name is etched into local memory because of the high-rise fire on the night of May 4, 1988. Flames tore through five floors before crews knocked it down after midnight. One operating engineer died, dozens were injured, and the aftermath rewrote building rules in the city. The tower was retrofitted with sprinklers and the blaze helped lead to requirements that similar high-rises be fully sprinklered. That’s not trivia here. It’s an inflection point in how Los Angeles builds, occupies, and fights fires in tall buildings.
One lighter memory: during the 1984 Olympic Games, giant graphics lit the crown. If you look at period photos, the Aon Center reads like a scoreboard for the city’s ambitions. You’ll see that same quiet confidence today if you stand on Wilshire late afternoon and watch the glass pick up the sunset. For an architectural visit, the lobby is a weekday, business-hours experience with building security. No tickets, no tours, and no skybridge. Plan the rest of your time around the public vantage points below.
Start at Wilshire and Hope and walk a slow perimeter lap around the block. The narrow proportions are part of its personality; the corners and mullions draw crisp verticals that photographers love. If you want the tower layered with the rest of Downtown, climb Bunker Hill and look back. The easiest, most local way up that hill is Angels Flight Railway, the tiny funicular that has hauled Angelenos since 1901. The lower station is at 351 S Hill Street across from Grand Central Market, the upper station emerges at California Plaza. Trains run daily 6:45 a.m.–10 p.m. and a one-way fare is $1.50. Riders using a Metro TAP card pay $0.75 for a one-way trip when they tap with stored value. That ride gives you a gentle grade to a plaza where you can line up Aon Center with the rest of the Financial District without breaking a sweat.
If you’re visiting without a car, use the subway hub under 7th Street. All four Metro rail lines serving Downtown converge here, so you can reach the Financial District from Santa Monica, Long Beach, Hollywood, or Koreatown without a transfer headache. Metro’s regular fare is $1.75 with two hours of free transfers in one direction, and fare capping means you won’t pay more than $5 in a day or $18 in a week when you tap with stored value. From the station to Aon Center is an easy city walk through the canyon streets, which is part of the fun.
A practical photo note: weekday lunches and golden hour are your best bets for clean light on Wilshire’s east-west axis. On foot, you’ll find reflections you can’t see from a car. If you want to catch the tower mirrored in neighboring glass, walk west toward Figueroa and turn back; the building’s red AON letters pop against twilight like a punctuation mark at the end of the boulevard.
Because Aon Center is offices-only, the city’s tallest accessible public views are a few blocks away. Two places reliably deliver the skyline that includes Aon Center as a starring piece rather than the stage you’re standing on.
Spire 73 is an open-air bar on the 73rd floor at 900 Wilshire Boulevard. It is a reservations-driven lounge with heat lamps, windbreak glass, and a full cocktail list. The hotel’s published menus list that the kitchen serves food until 10:30 p.m., which is useful if you want night shots of Aon Center glowing across the grid while you linger over a late snack. Expect a line at the elevators on prime nights and plan ahead with a booking. If you only want the view, arrive right when service begins or aim late evening to dodge the dinner rush.
71Above sits on, yes, the 71st floor at 633 W 5th Street, a short walk uphill from Aon Center. The restaurant operates a prix-fixe dinner format in the main dining room and publishes current hours as Monday–Thursday 5–9 p.m., Friday–Saturday 5–10 p.m., and Sunday 5–9 p.m. The bar and lounge run a “Golden Hour” menu Tuesday–Friday 4–6 p.m. at the bar only, a good window if you’re after that Pacific-to-San-Gabriels glow and prefer a lighter bite over a full dinner. 71Above is a true sit-down restaurant, so check availability before you climb. If you’ve seen old mentions of a paid observation deck in the neighborhood, that was the separate Skyspace attraction, which closed in 2020. Today, dining rooms and bars are how the public sees Downtown from 70-plus floors.
There’s also a classic municipal option for a daytime panorama. Los Angeles City Hall’s free observation level reopens on weekdays when building operations permit. If your itinerary includes Civic Center on a weekday, consider a quick detour there for a no-purchase-required look at the high-rises. The Aon Center is easily recognizable from that balcony by its trim, rectangular crown and red letters. It’s a fine way to pair City Hall’s 1928 tower with the 1973 Modernist era that followed.
| Option | Where | Typical Cost | Hours snapshot | What you get |
| Street-level loop | Block around 707 Wilshire Blvd | Free | Daylight gives best contrast | Architectural details, reflections, and scale from the sidewalk. No reservations, no lines. |
| Angels Flight to California Plaza | Lower station 351 S Hill St, upper at California Plaza | $1.50 one-way, $0.75 with TAP | Daily 6:45 a.m.–10 p.m. | Easy uphill boost to a perch where Aon Center layers with Bunker Hill and the Financial District. |
| Spire 73 | 900 Wilshire Blvd, rooftop lounge | Menu pricing; seated lounge service | Kitchen serves until 10:30 p.m. | Open-air bar 70-plus floors up for blue-hour and night shots. Reservations recommended. |
| 71Above | 633 W 5th St, 71st floor | Prix-fixe dinner in dining room | Mon–Thu 5–9 p.m., Fri–Sat 5–10 p.m., Sun 5–9 p.m.; Golden Hour Tue–Fri 4–6 p.m. at bar | Full-service restaurant with wraparound city views. Time dinner to sunset for the best silhouette of Aon Center. |
| City Hall Observation Level | 200 N Spring St, Civic Center | Free | Weekdays during business hours when open | Daytime panorama without a bill. Security screening and multiple elevators required. |
Downtown’s tall buildings read differently from the hills than they do from the curb. If your day includes Griffith Park, the Griffith Observatory terrace is the classic way to place Aon Center in the full basin. Admission to the building and grounds is free. Current public hours are Tuesday–Friday noon–10 p.m. and Saturday–Sunday 10 a.m.–10 p.m., closed Mondays. The physical address is 2800 E Observatory Road. If you’re catching sunset, arrive early to manage parking; telescope lawn programs rotate through the evening on clear nights, always free to step up and look.
Prefer not to drive up that hill? Downtown is one of the easiest parts of the region to reach by rail. As noted above, the Financial District is served by multiple Metro Rail lines, and the fare capping system keeps costs predictable. Tap with stored value and your spending tops out at $5 for the day or $18 over seven days, even if you bounce between trains and buses for a full itinerary. For a first-timer trying to plot time, that can easily be the difference between squeezing in a sunset drink above the skyline or calling it quits early.
One more bit of local context that explains the Aon Center’s look: 1970s office towers in Los Angeles were designed for long-term utility and seismic discipline. The Aon Center’s proportions make sense in that era. When the 1988 fire forced designers and code officials to re-think a generation of high-rises, the city’s approach to sprinklers and alarm systems changed. The result is that today’s Downtown skyline mixes 1970s rectilinear slabs, 1980s-90s sculptural crowns, and 2010s glass sails in one frame. Stand at California Plaza and you can read those decades at a glance, with Aon Center dead center as the reliable metronome stick.
Weekdays are best for a quiet look at the building skin. Arrive after 9 a.m. to avoid the commuter surge, and again around 4 p.m. to catch warm light. If you’re plotting a sky-high visit, line up the times. A 4:30 p.m. Golden Hour seat at 71Above gets you in place ahead of the spike of dinner reservations, while a 9:45 p.m. plate at Spire 73’s lounge keeps you there as the offices go dark and the red letters at Aon Center glow against the grid.
Budget-wise, here’s a simple downtown loop that balances costs. Ride Metro in for $1.75, take Angels Flight uphill for $0.75 with your TAP card, watch the Financial District turn gold from California Plaza, then walk down to the Wilshire corridor and back along 7th to watch the towers light up. Cap it with one drink 70 floors up or a bar bite during a 4–6 p.m. Golden Hour session. You’ve spent a little, seen a lot, and the Aon Center is in half your frames.
No. Aon Center at 707 Wilshire Boulevard is an office tower without a public observation deck or tours. To get a high view that includes the building, book a table at 71Above or a reservation at Spire 73, or head to the free weekday observation level at City Hall.
Ride Metro downtown for $1.75 and tap into the $5/day fare cap. Walk the Wilshire block for close-ups, then hop Angels Flight from 351 S Hill St to California Plaza for an elevated angle at $0.75 with TAP. If you want one splurge, time a single drink at Spire 73 while the kitchen runs until 10:30 p.m.
Yes. When it was called First Interstate Tower, a nighttime fire on May 4, 1988 burned five floors, killed one building engineer, and injured dozens. The event helped drive sprinkler retrofits and code changes in Los Angeles high-rises, including this one.
The Griffith Observatory terrace at 2800 E Observatory Road gives you the whole basin with Downtown centered, and it’s free during posted hours. If you’re staying downtown, California Plaza after a quick Angels Flight ride is a short walk and keeps the tower in crisp profile with neighboring high-rises.
Published: September 4, 2026