Joseph Young
Los Angeles
Topographical Map on the Los Angeles County Hall of Records
Los Angeles County Hall of Records
320 West Temple Street, Los Angeles
Los Angeles County Thomas Guide page 634, grid F3

Joseph Young's inspiration for the Topographical Map on the Los Angeles County Hall of Records was the real property deeds stored at the building.

His mural depicts a bird's eye view of the county's geological features and water sources. Bronze cups represent reservoirs and lakes, and blue mosaic channels symbolize rivers and channels. Mountains are depicted in black, valleys in brown and the Pacific Ocean in both green and blue tile. The Sierras are the soft pink panels above the county boundaries.

Young originally designed the map only to portray geological features, but added the county's water sources to connect the piece with a reflecting pool at the bottom of the wall. Water was supposed to flow out of the bronze cups and stream down the mosaic channels into the pool, but these features were eliminated when the county turned off the fountain as a conservation measure in the 1980s. The pool remains dry.