That weekend he was using a planchette (a kind of early Ouija Board) to clear his mind, according to the Times, when a spirit told him through the board “Take Bradbury building.
Dissatisfied with Hunt’s original plans for his building, Bradbury offered the job to Wyman. In a 1963 article entitled “Spirit World Tip Was Aid to Draftman,” the Los Angeles Times reported that Wyman, a young, untrained architect, was shocked when Bradbury approached him in the offices of his boss, architect Samuel P. Wyman, who had never before been commissioned to design a building. Bradbury (who did not live to see its completion), the ornate five-story office building has been lauded by architecture critics, including the architect Charles Moore, who called it “one of the most thrilling spaces on the North American continent.” It is legendary too for the influence the occult supposedly played in its creation, by a draftsman named George H. Its golden, light-filled courtyard has been immortalized in countless movies, including 500 Days of Summer, The Artist, and, most famously, Blade Runner.
Since it opened in 1893, Downtown Los Angeles’s Bradbury Building has been the subject of fascination and endless speculation.
