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Ambassador Hotel to Be Torn Down
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| Jose Huizar (left), president of the Board of Education, and Supt. Roy Romer led the campaign to raze the Ambassador Hotel and build a school. The board voted 4-3 in favor of their plan last Tuesday. Photo by Gary. Leonard. |
LAUSD Approves Controversial Plan to Build 4,000-Seat Campus
by Jason Mandell
The Los Angeles Board of Education last Tuesday approved a $318 million plan to raze the Ambassador Hotel, while preserving several historic structures on the site where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, in order to build a 4,240-seat school complex.
The decision could mark the end of a 13-year-battle over the 1921 Wilshire Boulevard development, although preservationists are considering suing the school district to stop the plan from being executed.
After a contentious, four-hour debate that included testimony from high-profile figures including architectural photographer Julius Shulman and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, the board voted 4-3 to approve the plan, which was backed by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Supt. Roy Romer and board President José Huizar.
The plan calls for the construction of an 800-seat primary school, a 1,000-seat middle school and a 2,440-seat high school on the 23.7-acre site. While the main hotel building will be torn down, several components of the complex will be salvaged and reused. The Cocoanut Grove nightclub, a legendary hotspot for the Hollywood crowd, will be converted into an auditorium and performance space. A coffee shop designed by noted African American architect Paul Williams will be turned into a faculty lounge.
Huizar said that while the plan falls short of preservationists' goals, it will provide the community with some desperately needed educational facilities. According to LAUSD officials, about 3,800 students within a nine-block area of the Ambassador are bussed to schools across the county to relieve overcrowding.
"We did the best we could with a bad hand of cards that we were dealt," Huizar said. "At least it gets us on the road to building a school."
Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy, which has fought efforts to tear down the Ambassador since the school district first announced plans to convert the property into an educational campus in 1989, said Tuesday's decision was a major blow.
"It's a very sad day for Los Angeles," said Bernstein.
Designed by architect Myron Hunt, the landmark hotel has hosted numerous U.S. presidents, early cinema stars such as Charlie Chaplin, and several Academy Awards shows. The hotel gained additional notoriety in 1968 when presidential hopeful Kennedy was shot in the pantry.
In recent weeks, as the vote on Romer's proposal drew near, Kennedy's children and widow came out in support of razing the entire Ambassador complex, arguing that a school would be a more fitting tribute to the late politician.
Ed Avila, president of the Alliance for a Better Community, an advocacy group for low-income families, called the school board's decision a "victory for the community."
"We're going to get a state of the art school with some historical reuse," said Avila.
Fifteen-Year Fight
LAUSD has been struggling to build a school at the Ambassador site for nearly 15 years. After the hotel shut down in 1989, the school district sought to purchase it. However, others were eyeing the site as well.
Over the next 12 years, the district competed for the hotel with a number of high-profile developers, including Donald Trump, who hoped to construct a 125-story office complex on the site. LAUSD purchased the property in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for $76.5 million in 2001.
In June 2003 the district released its third environmental impact report (EIR) on the Ambassador, outlining five options for the site. According to the report, the least expensive and fastest plan was to tear down the hotel and build new facilities. That option, which was billed as costing $286 million, was expected to bring the schools online by fall 2007.
The Conservancy, which argued that the hotel should be reused instead of razed, countered with a 35-page study that challenged the school district's financial estimates. The Conservancy report accused LAUSD of inflating the cost of preservation by nearly $50 million.
The Conservancy continued its push to save the Ambassador and in September of this year announced a financial plan that staffers said would enable the district to cover the additional cost of preserving the hotel. By partnering with the Washington D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation, the school district could capture $39 million in tax credits, said Conservancy officials. The school district did not pursue the proposal.
Another alternative came just three days before the vote last Tuesday, when school board member David Tokofsky, an outspoken critic of the Romer plan, offered his own proposal. Tokofsky's plan, which lacked a detailed cost estimate, called for the hotel to be converted into offices and teacher training space for LAUSD, and new schools to be constructed on the rest of the site.
At last Tuesday's board meeting, Tokofsky urged his colleagues to delay a vote on the Romer plan and examine the financial feasibility of his proposal. He called the board's final decision "a tragedy." Board members Mike Lansing and Jon Lauritzen voted with him, while Marlene Canter, Julie Korenstein and Marguerite Poindexter sided with Romer and Huizar.
Prior to approving Romer's plan, the board agreed to tighten the cost restrictions on the Ambassador project in order to ensure that it runs no more than $318 million. The board decided to cap the amount of money spent on preservation at $15 million.
Conservancy Considers Lawsuit
LAUSD officials say it will take two years to finalize plans and hire contractors for the Ambassador project. If construction begins in late 2006 as planned, the elementary school will open in 2008, with the middle and high schools finishing the following year.
However, the project is not a done deal. The Conservancy has already taken steps toward a possible lawsuit against the school district. Prior to the vote last Tuesday, a letter from the organization's lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher was delivered to LAUSD headquarters. The letter charges that the school district's EIR contained skewed financial figures and was biased against preservation.
Bernstein said the Conservancy's board of directors will meet in the next two weeks to "discuss potential litigation and any other next steps." He argued that a lawsuit would not delay the school project, because it would go before a judge "well before late 2006."
Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to Romer, said that the lawsuit could delay the school for several years. He said that if a judge rules in the Conservancy's favor, the district would have to undertake yet another EIR.
"The only way it wouldn't delay a school is if they lost," said Gritzner. "They are going to have to decide whether their agenda is important enough to potentially deny a school for those kids."
Tokofsky said he will lobby elected officials to set up an independent commission to assess the accuracy of the district's EIR. He said he fears the Conservancy is "too weak-kneed" to sue the school district, since they might appear insensitive to the students who would enroll at the Ambassador.
"They came off as a bunch of white liberals trying to collect trinkets," said Tokofsky. "I think they will be politically correct and duck and cover."
page, 10/18/04
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
The decision could mark the end of a 13-year-battle over the 1921 Wilshire Boulevard development, although preservationists are considering suing the school district to stop the plan from being executed.
After a contentious, four-hour debate that included testimony from high-profile figures including architectural photographer Julius Shulman and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, the board voted 4-3 to approve the plan, which was backed by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Supt. Roy Romer and board President José Huizar.
The plan calls for the construction of an 800-seat primary school, a 1,000-seat middle school and a 2,440-seat high school on the 23.7-acre site. While the main hotel building will be torn down, several components of the complex will be salvaged and reused. The Cocoanut Grove nightclub, a legendary hotspot for the Hollywood crowd, will be converted into an auditorium and performance space. A coffee shop designed by noted African American architect Paul Williams will be turned into a faculty lounge.
Huizar said that while the plan falls short of preservationists' goals, it will provide the community with some desperately needed educational facilities. According to LAUSD officials, about 3,800 students within a nine-block area of the Ambassador are bussed to schools across the county to relieve overcrowding.
"We did the best we could with a bad hand of cards that we were dealt," Huizar said. "At least it gets us on the road to building a school."
Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the Los Angeles Conservancy, which has fought efforts to tear down the Ambassador since the school district first announced plans to convert the property into an educational campus in 1989, said Tuesday's decision was a major blow.
"It's a very sad day for Los Angeles," said Bernstein.
Designed by architect Myron Hunt, the landmark hotel has hosted numerous U.S. presidents, early cinema stars such as Charlie Chaplin, and several Academy Awards shows. The hotel gained additional notoriety in 1968 when presidential hopeful Kennedy was shot in the pantry.
In recent weeks, as the vote on Romer's proposal drew near, Kennedy's children and widow came out in support of razing the entire Ambassador complex, arguing that a school would be a more fitting tribute to the late politician.
Ed Avila, president of the Alliance for a Better Community, an advocacy group for low-income families, called the school board's decision a "victory for the community."
"We're going to get a state of the art school with some historical reuse," said Avila.
LAUSD has been struggling to build a school at the Ambassador site for nearly 15 years. After the hotel shut down in 1989, the school district sought to purchase it. However, others were eyeing the site as well.
Over the next 12 years, the district competed for the hotel with a number of high-profile developers, including Donald Trump, who hoped to construct a 125-story office complex on the site. LAUSD purchased the property in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for $76.5 million in 2001.
In June 2003 the district released its third environmental impact report (EIR) on the Ambassador, outlining five options for the site. According to the report, the least expensive and fastest plan was to tear down the hotel and build new facilities. That option, which was billed as costing $286 million, was expected to bring the schools online by fall 2007.
The Conservancy, which argued that the hotel should be reused instead of razed, countered with a 35-page study that challenged the school district's financial estimates. The Conservancy report accused LAUSD of inflating the cost of preservation by nearly $50 million.
The Conservancy continued its push to save the Ambassador and in September of this year announced a financial plan that staffers said would enable the district to cover the additional cost of preserving the hotel. By partnering with the Washington D.C.-based National Trust for Historic Preservation, the school district could capture $39 million in tax credits, said Conservancy officials. The school district did not pursue the proposal.
Another alternative came just three days before the vote last Tuesday, when school board member David Tokofsky, an outspoken critic of the Romer plan, offered his own proposal. Tokofsky's plan, which lacked a detailed cost estimate, called for the hotel to be converted into offices and teacher training space for LAUSD, and new schools to be constructed on the rest of the site.
At last Tuesday's board meeting, Tokofsky urged his colleagues to delay a vote on the Romer plan and examine the financial feasibility of his proposal. He called the board's final decision "a tragedy." Board members Mike Lansing and Jon Lauritzen voted with him, while Marlene Canter, Julie Korenstein and Marguerite Poindexter sided with Romer and Huizar.
Prior to approving Romer's plan, the board agreed to tighten the cost restrictions on the Ambassador project in order to ensure that it runs no more than $318 million. The board decided to cap the amount of money spent on preservation at $15 million.
LAUSD officials say it will take two years to finalize plans and hire contractors for the Ambassador project. If construction begins in late 2006 as planned, the elementary school will open in 2008, with the middle and high schools finishing the following year.
However, the project is not a done deal. The Conservancy has already taken steps toward a possible lawsuit against the school district. Prior to the vote last Tuesday, a letter from the organization's lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher was delivered to LAUSD headquarters. The letter charges that the school district's EIR contained skewed financial figures and was biased against preservation.
Bernstein said the Conservancy's board of directors will meet in the next two weeks to "discuss potential litigation and any other next steps." He argued that a lawsuit would not delay the school project, because it would go before a judge "well before late 2006."
Glenn Gritzner, special assistant to Romer, said that the lawsuit could delay the school for several years. He said that if a judge rules in the Conservancy's favor, the district would have to undertake yet another EIR.
"The only way it wouldn't delay a school is if they lost," said Gritzner. "They are going to have to decide whether their agenda is important enough to potentially deny a school for those kids."
Tokofsky said he will lobby elected officials to set up an independent commission to assess the accuracy of the district's EIR. He said he fears the Conservancy is "too weak-kneed" to sue the school district, since they might appear insensitive to the students who would enroll at the Ambassador.
"They came off as a bunch of white liberals trying to collect trinkets," said Tokofsky. "I think they will be politically correct and duck and cover."
page, 10/18/04
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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