DWP is the largest municipally-owned utility in the United States. Designed by A. C. Martin in 1964, the glass and steel building is a stack of horizontal levels. The surrounding moat serves as a heat sink for the building's air conditioning system. An inscription on a glazed ceramic wall reads, "May those who live in our naturally arid land be thankful for the vision and good works of the pioneer leaders of Los Angeles, and may all in their time ever provide for its citizens water and power for life and energy."
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Headquarters (renamed the John Ferraro Building in 2000) provided a central headquarters complex that consolidated eleven scattered offices of one of the nation's largest public utilities on a 13-acre hillside site which formed the westerly terminus of the Los Angeles Civic Center at the time of completion. The 17-story office building served as a complete working city for 4,000 civil service employees with a base structure accommodating 2,400 cars. The typical office floor is approximately an acre in size, with a total of approximately 1,635,000 SF. LADWP Building is a Modern temple dedicated to the worship of water by day. A paean to the city's thirst for power by night.
The historic Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) John Ferraro Building just recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Presenting the storied building with a LEED certification marked the occasion, a distinction earned by adding a variety of energy efficiency installations since the 1990s with the assistance of the "deep green" engineers at Integral Group. Among these were solar panel parking lot fixtures and electric vehicle charging stations. A thorough overhaul of lighting and cooling systems enabled the plant to effectively curb consumption while exterior grounds were scrapped and water conservation gardens were implemented in their place
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