The "Trellis"

Bill Cannan & Company's 1989 logo for Plaza Court.

America’s ‘Plaza Court’, as it eventually came to be known, was located on Los Angeles’ Figueroa, between 7th and 8th Street. The complex would be made of three towers and a plaza with a mix of offices, retail spaces and an open courtyard that featured a geodesic canopy and focal point. This canopy was designed and developed by renowned architect Jon Jerde who became an innovator in the design of malls and related spaces. The challenge of creating the logo and visual identity for Plaza Court was given by Canadian developer Oxford Properties to designers Bill Cannan and Lance Wyman, Bill Cannan & Associates, who completed the work in 1989.

The team at Bill Cannan & Associates delivered three initial logo proposals for the project which, at the time, was known as Pacific Plaza. These initial concepts explored different aspects of the space; the offices, the “Pacific” name and the retail component. These were expressed through depictions of three trimetric towers drawn with lines to create a sense of light and shadow, an inline P with an ocean wave and a calligraphic P set within a circle.

These proposals were eventually rejected after the name of the development was changed from Pacific Plaza to Citicorp Plaza. This pushed the design directions away from a focus on the Pacific “P” towards the architectural. The inspiration eventually came from the central feature of the plaza that linked the individual parts of the complex, the retail space and office buildings.

The final logo evolved from the striking linear “trellis” structure / geodesic canopy created by architect Jon Jerde, which marked the Plaza Court retail entrance at street level. The designers interpreted and then rendered the complex geodesic three dimensional structure as an elegant jewel-like faceted logo of intersecting lines.

For various use-cases, and to improve the logo’s functionality across items such as promotional banners, flags and the covering of vent towers the logo was sliced through the horizontal centreline to create an arc version. This was used on its own and placed within a container with the full (and lengthy) name “Plaza Court at Citicorp Plaza”.

Plaza Court at Citicorp Plaza (also read: Citibank) was one of many projects undertaken by Bill Cannan & Company for Oxford Properties. This relationship spanned over twenty years, only ending when Oxford Properties’ U.S. business was sold to Bell Canada Enterprise Development in the 90s.

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