The Bradbury Building: A Ouija Board’s Vision of the Future that Became a Film Icon
Recently I came across this article on Dangerous Minds. If you are a fan of sci-fi or noir movies, you have probably seen the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. This stunning structure, with its iron, glass, and light-filled interior, has been featured in films like Blade Runner, The Artist, or 500 Days of Summer. But did you know that this building was designed with the help of a ouija board?
The story of the Bradbury Building begins in 1892, when Lewis Bradbury, a wealthy mining tycoon, wanted to build a office building in downtown LA. He hired Sumner Hunt, a prominent architect, to design the building, but he was not satisfied with the plans. He then approached George Wyman, Hunt's draftsman, and offered him the commission.
Wyman was hesitant to accept the offer, as he felt it would be disloyal to his boss. He decided to consult a ouija board, which was a popular device for communicating with the spirits at the time. He asked the board whether he should take the Bradbury building and he received a surprising answer: "Take the Bradbury building and you will be successful."
Wyman followed the advice and took the commission. He also claimed that he was inspired by a science fiction novel called Looking Backward, written by Edward Bellamy in 1888. The novel described a utopian society in the year 2000, where people lived and worked in buildings with glass roofs and electric lights.
Wyman designed the Bradbury Building with these futuristic elements in mind. He created a five-story atrium that was filled with natural light from the skylights. He also added ornate ironwork, marble staircases, hydraulic elevators, and terra cotta details. The result was a masterpiece of architecture that still looks unique today.
The Bradbury Building was completed in 1893 and it cost $500,000, which was twice the original budget. Lewis Bradbury died before the building was finished, but his legacy lives on in the building that bears his name. The building has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and a Los Angeles Cultural Monument.
The Bradbury Building has also become a symbol of the cinematic imagination, as it has been used as a film location for many movies, especially sci-fi and noir genres. The building's interior, with its contrast between the past and the future, the human and the artificial, the light and the dark, creates a perfect setting for stories that explore these themes.
One of the most famous movies that used the Bradbury Building as a film location is Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott in 1982. The movie is set in a dystopian LA in 2019, where human-like androids called replicants are hunted down by special agents called blade runners. The Bradbury Building serves as the home of the replicants, where the final confrontation between the blade runner Deckard and the replicant leader Roy Batty takes place.
The movie showcases the beauty and the decay of the Bradbury Building, as it contrasts the elegant interior with the grimy exterior. The building also reflects the identity crisis of the replicants, who are artificial beings that seek to be human. The building is a hybrid of the old and the new, the organic and the mechanical, the real and the unreal.
The Bradbury Building has also been used in other movies, such as Chinatown, Lethal Weapon 4, The Artist, or 500 Days of Summer. The building has also appeared in TV shows, music videos, and video games. The building has become a cultural icon and a landmark of LA.
The Bradbury Building is a testament to the power of the ouija board, the vision of the architect, and the imagination of the filmmakers. It is a building that was inspired by the future, that became a part of the future, and that still inspires the future.
If you want to learn more about the Bradbury Building and its occult origins, check out the article I linked above.