Completed in 1893, the Bradbury Building on South Broadway in Los Angeles has a modest if bulky exterior that belies its wondrous interior. Around the inside courtyard, marble stairs, ornate iron railings and open cage elevators rise, level after level, toward a skylight over all.

This National Historic Landmark building is said to be the oldest commercial structure in the L.A. city center. Mining and real estate magnate Lewis Bradbury originally commissioned architect Sumner Hunt to design the building. Bradbury eventually transferred the project to George H. Wyman, who according to Curbed L.A., was an inexperienced employee of Hunt.

Though the L.A. Conservancy says it is unclear whether Wyman influenced the design, in crediting Wyman, Curbed says he was influenced by a novel, “Looking Backwards,” by Edward Bellamy. This was a popular science fiction story about a utopian society. In it was a building of the future (c. 2000) with ‘a vast hall full of light received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome.’”