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August 3, 2005
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Rendering of the proposed school
Image Courtesy Gonzalez Goodale Architects |
On July 25 a Los Angeles Superior Court
judge gave the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
the go-ahead to demolish most of the famous Ambassador Hotel
on Wilshire Boulevard. The now-vacant property, which closed
in 1988, will be used for a $318.2 million, 4,200-student
education complex.
The Spanish Mediterranean-style Ambassador,
designed in 1921 by Myron Hunt, was a Hollywood icon. The
Oscars were held there several times, and Robert F. Kennedy
was assassinated there in 1968. It was used as a location
for such films as The Graduate,
The Fabulous Baker Boys, True Romance, The Mask and
A Star is Born. Hunt
also designed the Rose Bowl, Huntington Library and much of
Occidental College.
A suit filed on November 23, 2004 by
a coalition of preservation activists, including the Los Angeles
Conservancy, contested an earlier environmental impact report.
The groups hoped that the district would consider a compromise
to preserve the building, which would include smaller learning
structures around the building, and would allow the hotel
to be used for offices, teacher housing, and classrooms.
LAUSD officials, who called re-using
the building for school operations too expensive, argued that
“the community surrounding the Ambassador site contains
the most overcrowded schools in the district. More than 3,800
children who live in the area surrounding the Ambassador
Hotel are bused out of their neighborhood each day—sometimes
more than a hour each way.” An LAUSD advisory committee
met on July 20 to make recommendations about how the Kennedy
assassination could be memorialized at the site.
The campus design has been
conceptualized by Pasadena-based Gonzalez Goodale Architects,
which was awarded the $11.2 million contract in October. The
project will recreate the four-story Ambassador façade,
preserving some Art Deco details, but with a contemporary
look. It will also preserve the famous Cocoanut Grove nightclub,
which will be used as an auditorium. The coffee shop, which
was designed by Los Angeles architect Paul R. Williams in
the 1940s, will be reused as a faculty lounge. The intricate
beam ceiling from the Embassy Ballroom will be salvaged and
"reapplied" in the new library structure, according
to LAUSD senior construction engineer Eugene Aguirre. Construction
on the elementary school could begin as early as spring 2006.
Completion of the 24-acre project, which will include three
separate buildings, including an 800-seat primary center,
a 1,000-seat middle school, and a 2,440-seat high school,
is planned for September of 2009.
J.T. Long
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