 |
The Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles
|
Gone
The Ambassador Hotel has disappeared! An irreplaceable chunk of Los Angeles history has vanished along with the 84-year old, massive 500-room hotel. Amazingly, the once mighty and infinitely legendary Ambassador Hotel was demolished. Many had wanted to see the
hotel declared a city historical landmark, completely
restored as a resort hotel, and the land to be kept as a single parcel
for the hotel, or at the very least have the hotel converted into a school as a last ditch effort to save it. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officially gained control of the property and had other things in mind. They somehow reached the unwavering conclusion that a new school must sit on precisely the same spot as the hotel, despite there being a number of other locations in the immediate vicinity where it could have gone, which would have given the hotel the recognition and preservation that it and the City and people of Los Angeles well deserved. Instead, the site that was among the richest points of Los Angeles history ever, is now the most expensive public school in U.S. history, costing $578 million to build.
Present
The LAUSD reused portions of the Cocoanut Grove building as a school auditorium. Ironically, it's the only structure that is not quite original, as it was completely redone in the 1970s, on top of other remodelings. By 2009, the schools opened, a gargantuan campus in the heart of a commercial zone, intended to accommodate 4,240 students. If this school follows many of the other L.A. area school profiles, there's likely to be more students than originally slated. An on-site police outpost is planned, intended to help supervise the new mini-city population of juveniles. The property went from having what used to be movement of hundreds of people daily, to 5,000 to 8,000 people coming and going daily (students, faculty, and parents). Yet environmental impact studies reportedly indicated there would be no significant adverse affects to the area. Kids from the surrounding nine-block area have their school. Los Angeles sacrificed The Ambassador Hotel for it.
LAUSD
Prior to demolition, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) sought public opinion on several different hotel and property usage concepts. Multiple proposals were brought forward and many alternatives preserving the hotel were feasible, yet the LAUSD couldn't seem to arrive at a decision that pleased anyone but primarily themselves and those in the neighborhood desperate for a school. Several ideas were being considered: maximum reuse, partial reuse, entirely new construction, and a reuse variation while selling off frontage property for commercial development. For years, Donald Trump was involved in trying to develop the property, spending millions to litigate against the LAUSD, eventually walking away from the project. Once the LAUSD had full control, they ultimately chose demoltion of the existing structures, followed by new construction, and to substantially remodel what little remained.
Isn't the LAUSD the same entity that squandered a reported $238 million to build the Belmont Learning Center? When it was near completion, they discovered it was a toxic site unsuitable for occupation, condemned the entire complex and then later demolished it for millions more, all of which has been in addition to well over $100 million spent fighting for the Ambassador. And not a single usable classroom was built in the neighborhood during the more than 15 years they fought over it, after an estimated $400 million of spending! Should these people have determined the destiny of a historic hotel and property? There is no question that school facilities were needed in the area, particularly after the Belmont fiasco and the protracted Ambassador embarrassment, but the decision to use a one-of-a-kind parcel of prime commercial real estate and at the same time demolish a Los Angeles landmark remains the real puzzle.
Past
The Ambassador Hotel opened in 1921, designed by renowned architect Myron Hunt (Rose Bowl Stadium, Caltech, Pasadena Library, Occidental College, Huntington Hotel in Pasadena--all still standing, among many others). It occupied 23.7 acres at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard, bordered by Wilshire Boulevard at the north, 8th Street at the south, Catalina Street at the east, and nearly to Mariposa Avenue at the west. It was owned by the Schine family for about 50 years, until its doors were closed after 68 years of service in 1989, selling for $64 million, which was consumed entirely by accrued debt. Fire code requirements had changed and earthquake safety standards had to be met, which each would have cost millions of dollars. Funds were not available for the necessary upgrades, so the hotel had to be closed. It quickly became the object of a tug-of-war between the purchasers and the LAUSD, who claimed eminent domain ("a right of a government to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction"). Countless plans to either restore or develop the property were never realized, as developers came and went, discouraged by the LAUSD's determination to have the property. The former centerpiece of the Wilshire corridor and treasure of Los Angeles was left to deteriorate. From 1989 to 2001, the hotel was tied in legal knots, with the buyers and the LAUSD battling over development rights to the property. Even after the LAUSD officially gained ownership in 2001 for $76.5 million, the struggle over the fate of the hotel continued another several years until 2005.
History
As the fight for control over the property and preservation issues ensued, the hotel and facilities were used so regularly as a set for film and television, people were calling it The Ambassador Studios, perhaps fitting for a place where six Academy Award ceremonies were held (including the year Gone with the Wind swept the awards). For decades, the hotel's Cocoanut Grove was the hot spot for live entertainment on the West Coast, where people like Bing Crosby and Barbra Streisand had their start, and Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and many others came to perform. Gene Kelly, Diana Ross, Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Julie Andrews all played the Grove. The hotel served as the stomping grounds for a staggering list of Hollywood legends, heads of state, and what would be an endless list of famous personalities from the 20th Century. Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon stayed there. When Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the U.S. in 1959, he stayed at the Ambassador. Ronald Reagan used the Ambassador when he was making his bid for governor of California. In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot in a pantry off of the Embassy Room (and died 25 hours later), following his California Primary victory speech. Marilyn Monroe had her start as a model, as a client of the poolside modeling agency Blue Book Models. Howard Hughes and Jean Harlow were some of the many longtime residents who made it their home for a time. All of this history, and so much more, happened at The Ambassador Hotel.
Trivia
Pretty Woman (1990) is commonly thought to have been filmed inside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Wrong! The Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, which opened in 1928 (just seven years after the Ambassador), is a beautiful hotel still very much in operation, as the Ambassador should have been as well. While it's true the exterior of the Beverly Wilshire was displayed several times as an establishing shot in Pretty Woman, the moment almost any hotel interior was shown, it was The Ambassador Hotel. Take a look at the Interior image below and compare the column in the foreground and smaller columns in the background with scenes from the movie. The very distinctive Ambassador columns are clearly visible in every lobby scene. Also, The Ambassador Hotel had a fountain in the middle of the lobby, clearly visible in the background of the elevator scenes, and not a feature of the Beverly Wilshire. The hotel suite scenes were filmed on a sound stage at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, not at either hotel. Put it all together and that's the magic of Hollywood! Another movie with the lobby of the Ambassador prominently featured is True Lies (1994), when Arnold Schwarzenegger rides a horse through a lobby (before the elevator scene, which is in the Bonaventure Hotel, also in Los Angeles and still standing). If you're in doubt Pretty Woman was at the Ambassador, just compare it with the True Lies lobby scene.
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
