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L.A.'s Tallest Building Is Getting a Touristy Observation Deck & Restaurant

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U.S. Bank Tower downtown (Photo by Sterling Davis via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)

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L.A. will be getting its own touristy observation deck—in the same vein as New York's Empire State Building—atop our tallest building in the city: the U.S. Bank Tower. Now, you too can have that cinematic rom-com moment on a skyscraper with sweeping views of the city.

It will be the first observation deck like that in all of SoCal. Plans are underway to build a deck on the 69th and 70th floors, and a restaurant on the 71st floor of the 72-story building downtown at 633 W. 5th St., KABC reported.

OUE Ltd. of the Americas bought the tower last year, and they're hoping to open the tower in April and charge folks $20 to $25 to get up there for the 360-degree views. Richard Stockton, the CEO of the company, is estimating that 500,000 people a year could come out to visit the deck.

The company is investing $50 million to give the tower built in 1989 a facelift and improvements, according to the L.A. Times. It'll still mostly be an office building, though. However, the city still needs to approve the changes to the building.

The U.S. Bank Tower isn't the only one in L.A. getting up to the skies. The Wilshire Grand is currently being built at Wilshire Boulevard and Figueroa Street, and it has plans of its own to have an observation deck, restaurant and infinity pool. They're expecting to complete it in 2017.

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