The Parker Center, depending on who you ask, is either a midcentury icon, or a powerful symbol of Los Angeles' racist past. Located downtown, the building was home to the LAPD up until 2009 when they relocated due to expensive retrofits needed on the site. Designed by Welton Becket—the architect behind some of LA's greatest identifiers such as the Capitol Records Building, the Theme Building and the Cinerama Dome—the former LAPD headquarters is seen by historic preservationists, particularly the LA Conservancy, as a historical landmark due to its midcentury stylings. However, beyond being an architectural landmark, the building, as home to the LAPD during an era of racist policing, also serves as a sobering reminder of LA's troubling past. The land upon which the center was constructed had been seized from Japanese property owners less than a decade after Japanese Internment and William H. Parker himself, whom the building was named after, was associated with ushering in policies of racist policing. As such, the headquarters were a site of unrest during both the Watts and Rodney King riots, a history that has called into question whether or not the building is deserving of preservation.

After a three-year back and forth between the LA Conservancy, whom wanted to keep the building largely intact, and the City Department of Public Works, whom, along with the Bureau of Engineering, argued for the razing of the site, the City of LA finally voted unanimously to destroy the building and replace it with a tower that would consolidate offices of city employees. Key to this decision was the argument, hard-fought by residents of Little Tokyo and City council member José Huizar, that the building's ties to some of LA's darkest chapters outweighed any architectural significance. 

With the Parker Center well on its way towards demolition, LA Magazine points our attention to four other mid-century icons that are at-risk of erasure. 

Lytton Savings, designed by Kurt Meyer

Covina Bowl, designed by the firm Powers, Daly & DeRosa

Home Savings and Loan, designed by Millard Sheets

Metropolitan Water District, designed by William Periera