Hollywood’s historic Taft Building, LA’s first high-rise office tower, served as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ headquarters from 1935 to 1946. During the movie industry’s Golden Age, this 12-story structure at the famous corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street included the offices of such luminaries as Charles Chaplin and Will Rogers, as well as those of many influential agents, casting companies, publicists, and entertainment lawyers. A Los Angeles landmark since 1923, the brick-and-concrete structure was renovated in 2014, restoring many of its original features.

Originally, the Hollywood Memorial Church stood at the southeast corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. In the early 1920s, developer Alfred Z. Taft purchased the lot for $125,000 and tore the church down, commissioning architects Percy Eisen and Albert Walker to design a brand new building on the site with a Beaux-Arts façade. The Taft had been open for 12 years when the Academy relocated there from offices at the Professional Building on Hollywood Boulevard, just down the street from the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

The 11 years the Academy spent headquartered at Hollywood and Vine would prove eventful. The Oscars for Best Picture went to such classics as Gone with the Wind (USA, 1940) and Casablanca (USA, 1943), and Academy presidents included Frank Capra and Bette Davis, though the latter resigned after only two months. The Academy also established new categories during this period, including Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Special Effects.

During the 1980s, the building underwent a substantial remodel, and another renovation in 2014 restored many features from the original design, including decorative marble, terra cotta, and polished concrete floors. Located near other Hollywood landmarks, like the Pantages Theatre and the Walk of Fame, the Taft was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1999.