by Roger Vincent

With its towering Doric columns, ornate golden ceiling and marble floors, the 12-story Giannini Place opened to much fanfare in 1923 as the opulent Los Angeles headquarters of Bank of Italy, the fore-father to Bank of America.

"Bank of Italy occupies palatial new home," the headline in The Times said of its opening day, when 20,000 curious visitors toured the building.

Once a source of civic pride, the neoclassical bank building succumbed to age and blight as downtown residents fled to the suburbs and businesses moved to more modern high-rise buildings nearby. In recent years, architecture critics dubbed it one of the top 10 eyesores in Los Angeles.

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Source: http://www.latimes.com/