[5] Although the Muellers retained ownership of the property, they appear to have granted lease interest of the building to various persons or businesses over the years.

[6] The building is also significant for its association with noted, local architects, John Parkinson (1861–1945) and Edwin Bergstrom (1876–1955), who were in professional partnership together from 1905 to 1915.

Along with earlier Parkinson projects, these buildings helped to define the distinctive urban landscape of Los Angeles and southern California.

Bergstrom was also actively involved in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), serving as the national organization's treasurer for over 40 years and as president in 1939 and 1940.

During their partnership, Parkinson & Bergstrom became the dominant architectural firm hired to design major buildings in Los Angeles.

[3] As is evidenced in the Metropolitan Building, Parkinson & Bergstrom commercial buildings typically reflect influences of the Beaux Arts or Classical Revival styles popular at the turn of the century with exterior use of glazed terra cotta, decorative spandrel panels, low relief sculptural ornamentation, and large projecting cornices.

Despite exterior alterations to the storefronts and main entrance, the building retains sufficient integrity of design, material and workmanship, to maintain significance under criterion C. The Metropolitan Building also contributes to the significance of the historic district under criterion A for its association with commercial and retail development that occurred on Broadway between 1890 and 1930.

Like many of its neighbors, the Metropolitan Building was built to provide street-level retail storefronts for multiple businesses with the upper levels left as simple, open lofts to allow maximum flexibility for prospective tenants as well as space for storage or warehousing.

The overall design of the building provided prospective tenants with well-appointed, but understated, and flexible, office space in an ideal location within the center of the booming downtown.

Historic photographs and Los Angeles City Directories indicate that tenants within the building included (dates of tenancy are in parentheses); The Owl Drug Co., a San Francisco-based drug store chain (1914–1934), Los Angeles Public Library (1913–1926), Foreman & Clark, a budget-oriented men's clothier (c. 1915–1928), Janss Investment Co., a prominent real estate development company (1916–1928), J. J. Newberry Co., a Southern California-based variety store chain (1939 to mid-1990s), and Fallas-Paredes, a Los Angeles-based discount clothing chain (1996–2022).

In the early years, the most prominent tenant was the Los Angeles Public Library, which occupied the seventh through tenth floors.

To take the place of the space thus lost on the ninth floor, an additional story (the tenth) was added on the north side of the skylights, to accommodate the bindery, the carpenter shop and the small lecture hall–training class room.

The article notes that in moving to the Metropolitan Building, the Library enjoyed the following benefits: A location at one of the city's busiest and most central street corners ... providing more shelving and reading space ... additional space allows for books to be arranged in open shelving and for the creation of three new departments (Industrial, Sociology, and Art and Music) ... an abundance of natural light and ventilation.

[14] This record may mark the date that the neighboring building were connected although the openings are also depicted in the circa 1950 Sanborn map noted previously.

The economic downturn in downtown Los Angeles, as retailers and commercial interests shifted their assets to the booming suburbs, caused many vacancies throughout the 1970s through early 1990s.

At around the same time, the ground floor retail space previously occupied by Newberry's was taken by Fallas Paredes clothing store, an affiliate of the property owner.

Although the number and type of these tenants have changed over the years, they have reflected the economic and retail forces that have shaped downtown Los Angeles in the twentieth century.