Designed by AC Martin, the gleaming May Company building was instantly heralded as the western gateway to the Miracle Mile, beckoning to motorists with an enormous gold-tiled cylinder at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. What was once the finest department store on the Miracle Mile is also the city's grandest remaining example of Streamline Moderne.

The building is now part of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) campus and has been renamed LACMA West.  Current plans will convert the building into the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.