Ambassador Hotel
The Ambassador Hotel was once the center of Los Angeles style. It was an ode to art deco. In its prime, it housed the fabulous Cocoanut Grove, one of the hippest restaurants in the city. It was the last place where Robert Kennedy walked this earth. Since its closing in 1989, the Ambassdor Hotel has lived the mysterious half-life of a movie set that so many grand buildings in Southern California are reduced to.
Today the Ambassador sits on 24 acres of land on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown. It's set far back from the street and has the haunted look of old castles. It draws the eye as only someplace ruined, someplace steeped in history can. It is blinded, worn with crumbling at the edges, bound by a perimeter of chain link fences. It is a fabulous ghost and it could have been a fabulous relic.
Now, it is set for demolition so that its owner, the Los Angeles United School District, can build a school there. For years now, they have battled it out with the Los Angeles Conservency and this week they settled. No one denies that LAUSD needs relief for over crowded classrooms, and it's a great location -- in a part of town that hasn't seen a new classroom built in ten years. There was a time where they were going to use the existing Ambassador structure in a school and housing complex. Instead, the Ambassador will be razed and the LAUSD will donate $4.9 million dollars to the conservation of other buildings in the area. A small recompence to be sure.
posted by kuaptic. @ 2:18 PM
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