The (W)rapper

The (W)rapper alebrun (Atlas Obscura User)

Just down the street from the New City, an architectural playground stuffed with fascinating buildings, one concrete behemoth stands out.

Designed by Eric Owen Moss, the same architect behind the many buildings of the New City, the (W)rapper is an absurd new high-rise that sits on the city limits of Los Angeles and Culver City. The building is intended to look like it’s been “wrapped” in large bands of concrete to hold it together, almost as if the whole structure would fall apart if you were to remove them.

In fact, the reality isn’t too far off: Instead of having any internal support pillars, the jagged, irregular concrete exoskeleton serves as the building’s primary support. According to Moss, the building is meant to be a subversion of the traditional “grid” layout of high-rises, replacing rectilinear designs with curvilinear ones. And if it seems like the (W)rapper towers over everything in the area, that’s also by design: Its “just-barely-in-LA” location was chosen to capitalize on the recent renaissance in Culver City, while also exceeding the city’s 58.5-foot building height limit.

While its unusual design may prove a bit controversial, there truly isn’t another building in the world quite like the (W)rapper.

Know Before You Go

While the Wrapper's sister project, the New City, is located entirely within Culver City's Hayden Tract neighborhood, the Wrapper itself is technically within the Los Angeles city limits.

Street parking is readily available in either area, and the building is also a short walk from the Los Angeles Metro's La Cienega/Jefferson station.

Construction of the building was completed in early 2023, but the interior is not yet occupied by any tenants and remains closed to the public.