801 Tower is in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the birthplace of the city. 801 Tower contains the Zanja Madre sculpture, a tribute to the history of the Chumash Indians and the Los Angeles River, serving downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, and is the heart of the entire region. Image Credit: Google Maps

801 Tower is located in the SouthPark neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles iconic and is within walking distance of Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) Pavilion, LA Live, Los Angeles Convention Center and the Los Angeles Public Library. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

801 Tower is centrally located in downtown Los Angeles and benefits its occupants with a high Walk Score of 96 (Walker’s Paradise, daily errands do not require a car) and a perfect Transit Score of 100 (Rider’s Paradise, world-class public transportation), leading to the Fitwel Built Certification, a world class certification committing the building’s health and wellness for all. Image Credit: TAC International

801 South Figueroa Street was rebranded 801 Tower 2014. Since rebranding, 801 Tower has achieved LEED Gold certification, BOMA LA Building of the Year, BOMA Pacific Southwest Region Building of the Year, BOMA LA Earth Award, BOMA Pueblo Award, U.S. Dept. of Energy-Energy Performance Finalist and Water Performance Winner, USGBC Water Sustainability Innovation Award, and increased its EPA ENERGY STAR rating from 72 to 90. Image Credit: Scott AG

The visitor lobby of 801 Tower was remodeled in 2019 with high-end sustainable finishes welcoming visitors to the building and the Zanja Madre sculpture garden. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

801 Tower impresses its upper floor occupants with unobstructed views of the Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood Sign and the Pacific Ocean. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

801 Tower is a unique octagonal-shaped building allowing its full-floor tenants to design twelve (12) corner offices. The floors are designed with columns in the core and along the perimeter of the building, allowing full-floor tenants unobstructed sightlines throughout. This artistdesigned garden plaza is an allegorical landscape that explores the importation and use of water in urban Los Angeles. A quadrafoil fountain stands at one end where benches and desert vegetation are planted. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

The Zanja Madre plaza can be accessed from Figueroa Street, connecting downtown Los Angeles visitors and, employees with the sculpture garden. Sculptor Andrew Leicester received numerous awards for this public art project, including the Downtown Breakfast Club’s Rose Award; Los Angeles Business Council’s 23rd Annual Urban Beautification Awards; and a Professional Honor Award, California Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Zanja Madre was conceived, created and installed by world-renowned artist Andrew Leicester and can be seen by occupants of office, apartment and condominium buildings from the east, west and south sides of the property. For his projects, Mr. Leicester produces a variety of artistic elements within variously scaled settings that engage the general public both physically and intellectually. His most recent work addresses sustainability issues. Image Credit: Neal Perkey

Leicester surrounded Zanja Madre with tall columns of green marble topped with unique golden ornamental art. These columns represent the original name of the Los Angeles area. From roughly 1200 A.D to 1781 A.D. the native Chumash people observed smoke from their cooking fires going straight up and then dissipating into the atmosphere, and thus named the area Valley of the Smokes. Spanish explorers sailed into the area in approximately 1500 A.D. and called the area Bay of the Smokes. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Leicester installed a water feature representing the Chumash legend of an arrowhead falling from the sky and splitting open a local mountain, causing spring to descending into the Valley of the Smokes and allowing the Chumash to grow more crops and have more livestock in the otherwise dry, arid desert area. The basin is cross shaped to represent the four rivers of paradise. Image Credit: Neal Perkey

Leicester created seating areas throughout Zanja Madre with representations of native animals such as lizards, turtles and snakes along with illuminated cattle and native landscape in the planters. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Leicester installed a stream bringing water from the water feature towards Figueroa Street. The twists and turns represented in the stream are representative of what the Chumash called the “mother ditch” that brought water to the area that later became called the Zanja Madre. The Zanja Madre was later renamed the Los Angeles River. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Leicester reminds us that a water wheel was used to bring water up from the low-sitting Zanja Madre up to the Chumash settlements in what is now the downtown Los Angeles area. The water wheel was 40 feet in diameter and was also used in later years to raise a portion of the water supply to a height permitting gravity flow to homes, fields and storage. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

The east end of Zanja Madre features tiles representing leaves on vines. Leicester reminds us that the first and largest crop grown in the region was wine grapes, grown in the Los Angeles area as well as in the Los Angeles mountain region. It was the largest and only agricultural product in the area that was shipped to Europe. Due to repeated drought and disease, the wine industry completely disappeared from the area by 1900 A.D. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Near the grape-leaf tiles are sculptures representing well-digging tools. As more people came to live in the Valley of the Smokes, less water was available to them. It was discovered that there was a river of water beneath the surface of the earth, thus well digging became a popular way to get water. Well diggers became increasingly in demand and this sculpture reminds us of this. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Leicester spent nearly two years installing the Zanja Madre sculpture. He wanted to pay homage to the office workers in the high-rise buildings in downtown Los Angeles who watched him create his sculpture and made comments to him as he created his art piece. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

At the end of the Zanja Madre sculpture, gate structures were created and installed to protect the sculpture. The tallest of the gate structures, called ‘The Guardian at the Gate,’ is at the center and and creates an impressive figure seen from both inside the sculpture as well as from the outside. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

At the east end of the sculpture is a cornerstone as the official Smithsonian Art Institute demarcation of Zanja Madre. As a result of its numerous awards upon its opening along with its historical relevance and accuracy, the Zanja Madre sculpture was recognized and registered by the Smithsonian Art Institute in 1994. Image Credit: Jay Venezia

Zanja Madre takes on added character at night, with rich lighting installed by original artist/sculptor Andre Leicester. Zanja Madre is currently being used as an event center for various diversity organizations such as African American Real Estate Professionals- Los Angeles (AAREP-LA), as well as a host site for networking events for the Urban Land Institute-LA Chapter (ULI-LA). Image Credit: Neal Perkey

Former restaurant flag poles were repurposed as sports banner poles to show support for local sports organizations with an emphasis on celebrating championships, as well as welcoming tenants and their employees back to the building after working from home for extended periods of time due to COVID-19. Image Credit: Neal Perkey

801 Tower and Zanja Madre were used as the Gotham City backdrop to the 1994 Warner Brothers film Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer and Nicole Kidman. Image Credit: Warner Brothers

Approximately 1/3 of a mile from 801 Tower is the Grand Hope Open Space Park. 801 Tower contributes just over $85,000 per year for maintenance of this park referred to as an oasis for families and students in downtown Los Angeles. 801 Tower has contributed $85,000 per year for the past twentyeight years for a total of $2,380,000 for this local community gem. Image Credit: Neal Perkey