Creative Artists Agency headquarters (Beverly Hills)

In 1975 a group of agents broke away from William Morris to found Creative Artists Agency, aiming at a different sort of talent agency. A decade or so later the firm was prosperous enough to ask I. M. Pei for its new headquarters. Planned from July 1986, the building went up between October 1987 and August 1989 at the western gateway to Beverly Hills, on the south-east corner where Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica Boulevard and Lasky Drive meet.

The project belongs to Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Pei's New York firm, with Pei himself as partner in charge; its lead designers were I. M. Pei and L. C. Pei. The Los Angeles firm Langdon Wilson acted as associated and executive architect. Already short of room by the time the building was finished, CAA spread into nearby buildings before moving to Century City in 2007. The building is one of the few Pei designs in southern California.

The plan grows out of an irregular lot and rests on segments of circles with differing centres and radii. Three storeys tall and Postmodern in style, the building looks almost like a classical edifice made of three geometric volumes: a circular atrium in the middle and a curved wing on either side. The north wing, mostly large glass surfaces set in travertine, mirrors the near-constant stream of cars driving past; the south wing, of masonry pierced by plain, evenly spaced windows, suits the quiet residential street it faces. Veined, honey-coloured travertine from Tivoli covers the whole building.

A low, sloping glass cone caps the atrium and turns it into a vast shared space filled with sunlight, marked by a huge mural by Roy Lichtenstein. Designed as a reception hall hung with art, the atrium was also meant to be the one way in and out of the building; Pei saw it as a place where artists and agents would meet. Lit up at night, it makes the building a lantern at the entrance to Beverly Hills. Inside, the finishes are as lavish as outside: the marble, for example, is cut from big blocks rather than smaller slabs.

The building stands at 9830 Wilshire Boulevard, at the west entrance to Beverly Hills. It is an office building, in plain view from the intersection.