The 32-foot letters are gone (for now), but there’s a new script being written for Los Angeles’ most cinematic landmark
Words by DAVID NASH
The occasionally turbulent metamorphosis of Los Angeles International Airport (better known as LAX) is more than a flight of fancy. It’s a $30 billion Capital Improvement Program that began in 2024 with the intent of elevating traveler experience and significantly boosting efficiency — particularly in advance of the 2028 Olympic Games, which will see several million passengers flying in and out of the airport during the two-week event. Originally known as Mines Field, the airfield began operation with dirt landing strips on October 1, 1928, with its first structure, Hangar No. 1 — a Spanish Colonial Revival–style building now on the National Register of Historic Places (and still in use) — finally erected the following year. As it evolved over the next three decades into a modern airport, its most recognizable structure, the otherworldly Theme Building — designed in collaboration with pioneering architect Paul Williams — opened in 1961 as California’s preeminent symbol of the Space Age. The early 1980s saw the next major round of changes in anticipation of the 1984 Summer Olympics, with the addition of two terminals, a second level for the U-shaped roadway (which delineated arrivals from departures), and a multistory parking structure at the airport’s center. And, as with most construction projects, work has continued fairly steadily since then — much to the chagrin of wing-weary globetrotters and Angelenos alike — and completion on this next major expansion is expected to wrap in 2030. Until then, we ask that you please remain seated with your seat belts fastened.
LAX FACTS
● Installed in 2000 as part of an $80 million beautification project, the 32-foot-tall LAX letters greeting passersby along Sepulveda Boulevard and indicating arrival to the airport were removed in September — but only temporarily. In order to complete the new road and landscape designs, the towering acronym will be stored and eventually relocated to integrate seamlessly into its refreshed surroundings at a date to be determined.
● As part of the modernization project, a major update to the infrastructure will see 4.4 miles of new and reconfigured automotive roadways and pedestrian bridges that will remove more than 500 vehicles from local streets at peak times. With construction beginning late this year, many of the most important portions will be finished in time for the 2028 Olympics.
● As a Tinseltown fixture, LAX has taken its star turn on the big screen in many feature films, including The Killing (1956), The Graduate (1967), Airplane! (1980), Blade Runner (1982), Speed (1994), Fight Club (1999), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Terminator Genisys (2015), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).
Feature image: The future Automated People Mover will see an anticipated 30 million passengers per year when it opens. PHOTO: Renderings courtesy of Los Angeles World Airports and LAX Integrated Express Solutions.
This story originally appeared in the Men’s Fall 2025 issue of C Magazine.
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