History of Los Angeles International Airport
Several locations were considered, but the final choice was a 640-acre (1.00 sq mi; 260 ha) field in the southern part of Westchester.
The Spanish Colonial Revival style building still stands at the airport, remaining in active use and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
[5] The next year, the dirt runway was replaced with oiled decomposed granite which could be used year-round and two more hangars, a restaurant, office space, and a control tower were built.
[3] The airport was used by private pilots and flying schools, but the city’s vision was that Los Angeles would become the main passenger hub for the area.
In January 1942, the military assumed control of the airport, stationing P-38 fighter planes at the airfield and building naval gun batteries in the ocean dunes to the west.
[8][9] The temporary terminals would remain in place for 15 years, but quickly became inadequate, especially as other cities invested in modern facilities.
The plan, developed with architects Welton Becket and Paul Williams, called for a series of terminals and parking structures in the central portion of the property, with these buildings connected at the center by a huge steel-and-glass dome.
[14][15] By 1964 the airport had international service by Aeronaves, Air France, JAL, TWA, UTA, Varig and Western in addition to Mexicana, Pan Am and SAS.
[8] Starting in the mid-1990s, under Mayors Richard Riordan and James Hahn, modernization and expansion plans for LAX were prepared, only to be stymied by a coalition of residents who live near the airport.
[citation needed] On April 29, 1992, the airport closed for cleanup after the 1992 Los Angeles Riots over the Rodney King beating.
[citation needed] In 1996, a $29 million, 277-foot-tall (84 m) air traffic control tower was built near the Theme Building.
[22] The entire sculpture extends for one mile, starting from the smallest light tower (25 ft) at Century Blvd.
[24] In late 2005, newly elected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was able to reach a compromise, allowing some modernization to go forward while encouraging future growth among other facilities in the region.
In exchange civil lawsuits were abandoned, to allow the city to complete badly needed improvements to the airport.
[25] In 2008, plans were unveiled for a $4.11 billion renovation and improvement program to expand and rehabilitate the Tom Bradley International Terminal to accommodate the next generation of larger aircraft, as well as handle the growing number of flights to and from the Southern California region, and to develop the Central Terminal Area (CTA) of the airport to include streamlined passenger processing, public transportation and updated central utility plants.
