In spring break of 2018, I found myself in Los Angeles, California visiting some family for a week. I didn’t have a lot of free time, and so on that trip I only had 1 day to explore. I met up with an old friend who lived in LA (we had explored in London together) and we made our way to downtown at around 3 in the morning. He introduced me to another explorer once we arrived. I had a backpack full of different tools and camera equipment, eager to get on something tall…
Wilshire Grand Center is an 335 meter (1,100 foot) skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles. The spire (50 meters tall) makes it the tallest building in Los Angeles, and also in all of California. It was completed in June 2017. The tower is comprised of primarily hotel and office space, with two observation decks near the top of the building.
At the time, the roof of the building was surprisingly easy to get onto, and had been done by my accomplice. The spire was a different story. Despite it being 4 AM, we were able to get into the building easily, and very soon after we were near the top of the stairwell. At the time we thought there may be a way to get into the spire (there is a ladder leading up the inside) from the roof of the building. After running by security cameras and checking access to the spire on a few different levels of the roof, we realised that we were wrong. This meant that the spire had to be accessed from the base, which was on an active floor of the building. As we were leaving the roof we were nearly caught by security in the stairwell who were preparing the observation decks that morning. We managed to hide behind a door as they walked past, and listened to their conversation, relieved to know that they weren’t for us. We then searched on multiple active floors looking for a door to the spire. After maybe an hour of wandering, we found it. There were actually three doors that one had to get through, but we were extremely lucky and the first two were left open. The final door was a bit tough. I wasn’t able to bypass the door with what I had brought with me, so after fifteen minutes of trying to open the door, we decided to go back to the car to retrieve a certain set of tools. By then it was after sunrise, but still very foggy out. We eventually made it back up to the door and were much luckier not to be noticed this time. I was able to get the door open pretty easily, with no damage done. It opened to a ladder leading straight up, and we immediately started to climb, using our phone lights to see in the dark. After a long climb up we were presented with a very complex hatch on the side of the spire. We opened it and looked down into the fog.
Peering out of the hatch
Looking upwards inside the top 15 feet or so of the spire
The view from the hatch
The fog kept rolling through. One second it would be almost clear, and the next we could barely see the top of the roof. While this weather was awesome to experience, we were upset as we couldn’t see the rest of the skyline. Below, on the observation decks a few levels down from the roof, there were staff milling about, setting up tables. The fog actually helped as it made it a bit more difficult for them to see us if they were to look up. There was a large metal ring just above and outside the hatch that went all the way around the spire, and I was interested to see if I could climb up and get on top of it. Just as we were about to leave, I decided that I would have to go for it, as I probably would never get a chance to be up there again. I waited for fog to roll in a bit more heavily (so the workers below wouldn’t see me) and climbed up. There was condensation on the spire due to the fog but luckily I was able to make it up pretty easily. Not wanting to push our luck, I quickly walked around the spire to take in the view, and came back down. Here is a raw clip of it (I know photos are preferred, but I don’t have any photos from up there).
password: spirewalk
We shut the hatch and climbed back down the spire. We exited onto the very much active floor, and were given some weird looks by workers. We pretended as if we were supposed to be there, and by the time they realised we probably shouldn’t be, we were already running down the stairwell. We made it out, exhausted and pleased as fuck. And now, we made our way over to next tallest building in Los Angeles…
As it was a weekday, the offices had just opened up inside the building. I had done quite a bit of research before coming to the city, and had found a potential way to get in. With little hope of actually getting let inside, we walked into the office lobby. All three of us weren’t dressed very nice, and were a bit dusty due to the previous explore. Everything worked out as I had planned, and we were soon in the stairwell. Unfortunately we had to run up around 50 stories from there. After reaching the roof door we were a bit skeptical as to what we should do. We checked both stairwells but the setup was the same in each. I ended up doing something very incriminating on camera, as there was one watching the roof door. With the door open, we ran back down a few flights and waited, intimidated as fuck. Nobody had come up after 15 minutes, so hurried onto the roof.
The helipad at the top
Another helipad shot. Notice the low fog in the background!
Looking down
The view over downtown
Looking away from downtown
(srry had to do it)
We were only up there for about 15 minutes before we decided to leave because we had clearly set off alarms. We must’ve looked so out of place when leaving as we were soaked in sweat. After getting some much needed breakfast at a nearby cafe, we went back to the car. We were pretty exhausted at this point. The dude who I was introduced earlier left as he was busy. Now it was only 2 of us. Seeing as we had just done the first and the second tallest buildings in LA, why not give the third tallest a go?
Aon Center (formerly United California Bank Building and First Interstate Tower) is a 262 meter (858 foot) skyscraper in Downtown LA, completed in 1973. From 1973 until 1982 it was the tallest building in the world outside of New York and Chicago. It was the tallest building in LA from 1973 until 1989, when it was surpassed by US Bank Tower. It is comprised of solely office space.
We both figured that we would not be able to get inside. My accomplice even left his camera in the car as we headed over to the building, because he had next to no hope. I did a little bit of research on my phone while walking over, and looked up the tenants. Nothing was looking promising. We walked into the lobby and went up to the front desk. I had a conversation with the lady at the desk for about 10 minutes that was borderline argument. We weren’t looking too shabby, but after she made a couple calls, we were let through. Fast forward about 15 minutes and we had just entered the stairwell on one of the upper floors. We decided this was something we had to do, and decided to ignore all security measures. Near the top of the stairs there was a motion sensor along with an large archaic security camera. We strolled on by, making sure to hide our faces as we passed. Another flight up the stairs and we were presented with an alarmed door leading to the lower roof. However, seconds later I heard voices from just below us, and the sound of somebody walking up the stairs. We ran up another flight of stairs and were stood next to the upper roof door, hoping that they wouldn’t come up to us. It was just two workers talking amongst themselves, and they went through the door onto the lower roof, which we could see from the top of the stairs. Luckily they didn’t look up the next flight and notice us! I managed to get the upper roof door open, but I did set off a silent alarm. There were a few cameras on the roof, so we knew we had to be very quick. Not to mention we were very visible from nearby roofs. We left after 10 minutes up there.
edgyyy
The view of US Bank Tower
Looking down the corner
Exhausted. Wilshire Grand Center in the background
Not wanting to push our luck, we left, and didn’t encounter any problems on the way down. We thanked the concierge, and started laughing in disbelief as we exited the lobby. We decided to call it a day at that. From what I've been told all three of these had never been done before. I do want to return to US Bank Tower and maybe Wilshire Grand Spire when there is better weather, but I am not very motivated to go through all of that again. I've spent more time in Los Angeles since then, but I've only been doing underground stuff as most of the roofs are not really going to compare to these
Wilshire Grand Center
Wilshire Grand Center is an 335 meter (1,100 foot) skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles. The spire (50 meters tall) makes it the tallest building in Los Angeles, and also in all of California. It was completed in June 2017. The tower is comprised of primarily hotel and office space, with two observation decks near the top of the building.
The Explore
At the time, the roof of the building was surprisingly easy to get onto, and had been done by my accomplice. The spire was a different story. Despite it being 4 AM, we were able to get into the building easily, and very soon after we were near the top of the stairwell. At the time we thought there may be a way to get into the spire (there is a ladder leading up the inside) from the roof of the building. After running by security cameras and checking access to the spire on a few different levels of the roof, we realised that we were wrong. This meant that the spire had to be accessed from the base, which was on an active floor of the building. As we were leaving the roof we were nearly caught by security in the stairwell who were preparing the observation decks that morning. We managed to hide behind a door as they walked past, and listened to their conversation, relieved to know that they weren’t for us. We then searched on multiple active floors looking for a door to the spire. After maybe an hour of wandering, we found it. There were actually three doors that one had to get through, but we were extremely lucky and the first two were left open. The final door was a bit tough. I wasn’t able to bypass the door with what I had brought with me, so after fifteen minutes of trying to open the door, we decided to go back to the car to retrieve a certain set of tools. By then it was after sunrise, but still very foggy out. We eventually made it back up to the door and were much luckier not to be noticed this time. I was able to get the door open pretty easily, with no damage done. It opened to a ladder leading straight up, and we immediately started to climb, using our phone lights to see in the dark. After a long climb up we were presented with a very complex hatch on the side of the spire. We opened it and looked down into the fog.
Peering out of the hatch
Looking upwards inside the top 15 feet or so of the spire
The view from the hatch
The fog kept rolling through. One second it would be almost clear, and the next we could barely see the top of the roof. While this weather was awesome to experience, we were upset as we couldn’t see the rest of the skyline. Below, on the observation decks a few levels down from the roof, there were staff milling about, setting up tables. The fog actually helped as it made it a bit more difficult for them to see us if they were to look up. There was a large metal ring just above and outside the hatch that went all the way around the spire, and I was interested to see if I could climb up and get on top of it. Just as we were about to leave, I decided that I would have to go for it, as I probably would never get a chance to be up there again. I waited for fog to roll in a bit more heavily (so the workers below wouldn’t see me) and climbed up. There was condensation on the spire due to the fog but luckily I was able to make it up pretty easily. Not wanting to push our luck, I quickly walked around the spire to take in the view, and came back down. Here is a raw clip of it (I know photos are preferred, but I don’t have any photos from up there).
password: spirewalk
We shut the hatch and climbed back down the spire. We exited onto the very much active floor, and were given some weird looks by workers. We pretended as if we were supposed to be there, and by the time they realised we probably shouldn’t be, we were already running down the stairwell. We made it out, exhausted and pleased as fuck. And now, we made our way over to next tallest building in Los Angeles…
US Bank Tower
US Bank Tower (formerly Library Tower and First Interstate Bank World Center) is the second tallest building in LA, with a height of 310 meters (1,018 feet). It was completed in 1989, and was the tallest roof with a heliport until being surpassed by a building in China in 2010. It is arguably the most recognisable building in the Los Angeles skyline, and consists of solely office space. It was the tallest building in LA from it’s completion until 2017, when it was surpassed by Wilshire Grand Center.
The Explore
As it was a weekday, the offices had just opened up inside the building. I had done quite a bit of research before coming to the city, and had found a potential way to get in. With little hope of actually getting let inside, we walked into the office lobby. All three of us weren’t dressed very nice, and were a bit dusty due to the previous explore. Everything worked out as I had planned, and we were soon in the stairwell. Unfortunately we had to run up around 50 stories from there. After reaching the roof door we were a bit skeptical as to what we should do. We checked both stairwells but the setup was the same in each. I ended up doing something very incriminating on camera, as there was one watching the roof door. With the door open, we ran back down a few flights and waited, intimidated as fuck. Nobody had come up after 15 minutes, so hurried onto the roof.
The helipad at the top
Another helipad shot. Notice the low fog in the background!
Looking down
The view over downtown
Looking away from downtown
(srry had to do it)
We were only up there for about 15 minutes before we decided to leave because we had clearly set off alarms. We must’ve looked so out of place when leaving as we were soaked in sweat. After getting some much needed breakfast at a nearby cafe, we went back to the car. We were pretty exhausted at this point. The dude who I was introduced earlier left as he was busy. Now it was only 2 of us. Seeing as we had just done the first and the second tallest buildings in LA, why not give the third tallest a go?
Aon Center
Aon Center (formerly United California Bank Building and First Interstate Tower) is a 262 meter (858 foot) skyscraper in Downtown LA, completed in 1973. From 1973 until 1982 it was the tallest building in the world outside of New York and Chicago. It was the tallest building in LA from 1973 until 1989, when it was surpassed by US Bank Tower. It is comprised of solely office space.
The Explore
We both figured that we would not be able to get inside. My accomplice even left his camera in the car as we headed over to the building, because he had next to no hope. I did a little bit of research on my phone while walking over, and looked up the tenants. Nothing was looking promising. We walked into the lobby and went up to the front desk. I had a conversation with the lady at the desk for about 10 minutes that was borderline argument. We weren’t looking too shabby, but after she made a couple calls, we were let through. Fast forward about 15 minutes and we had just entered the stairwell on one of the upper floors. We decided this was something we had to do, and decided to ignore all security measures. Near the top of the stairs there was a motion sensor along with an large archaic security camera. We strolled on by, making sure to hide our faces as we passed. Another flight up the stairs and we were presented with an alarmed door leading to the lower roof. However, seconds later I heard voices from just below us, and the sound of somebody walking up the stairs. We ran up another flight of stairs and were stood next to the upper roof door, hoping that they wouldn’t come up to us. It was just two workers talking amongst themselves, and they went through the door onto the lower roof, which we could see from the top of the stairs. Luckily they didn’t look up the next flight and notice us! I managed to get the upper roof door open, but I did set off a silent alarm. There were a few cameras on the roof, so we knew we had to be very quick. Not to mention we were very visible from nearby roofs. We left after 10 minutes up there.
edgyyy
The view of US Bank Tower
Looking down the corner
Exhausted. Wilshire Grand Center in the background
Not wanting to push our luck, we left, and didn’t encounter any problems on the way down. We thanked the concierge, and started laughing in disbelief as we exited the lobby. We decided to call it a day at that. From what I've been told all three of these had never been done before. I do want to return to US Bank Tower and maybe Wilshire Grand Spire when there is better weather, but I am not very motivated to go through all of that again. I've spent more time in Los Angeles since then, but I've only been doing underground stuff as most of the roofs are not really going to compare to these
