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PRESERVING THE AMBASSADOR HOTEL

List of A+ Coalition Members Supporting Reuse of the Ambassador Hotel
Teaching History: How Historic Buildings Transform Into World-Class Schools (2.5MB pdf)

Eight Diverse Organizations Announce Litigation to Save Main Building of Historic Ambassador Hotel & Build a New School on Site  

On Tuesday, November 23, a diverse group of civic and community organizations, including the Conservancy, held a press conference to announce the filing of litigation to save the main building of the Ambassador Hotel.

Conservancy board member Diane Keaton joined board president Roland Wiley and other speakers in calling for a true compromise: proceeding with new school development on 75 percent of the 24-acre hotel property, supplying all the classroom seats needed, while preserving the main hotel building. The group sent a clear message to the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that the Ambassador and a school is truly a solution worth fighting for.

The lawsuits filed by the Conservancy, the Mexican American Political Association (Los Angeles Region), Latino Urban Forum, California Preservation Foundation, Historic Preservation Overlay Zone Alliance, Hollywood Heritage, Art Deco Society of Los Angeles, and Korean Culture Center challenge the Environmental Impact Report approved by LAUSD on October 12. The EIR approval solidified the District’s plan to demolish all of the Ambassador except for the Cocoanut Grove building. With LAUSD’s failure to reach a real and meaningful compromise on the future of the Ambassador, the litigation is the last chance to save the landmark. The Conservancy’s board of directors, after a detailed and thoughtful discussion of all possible options, voted unanimously to file a legal challenge to the District’s project approval.

Why is the Ambassador Worth Saving?

Security Pacific Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

What is at stake in this litigation is the fate of one of Los Angeles’ most important historic sites. The Ambassador, opened in 1921, was the catalyst for development of Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles’ most important commercial corridor and its linear downtown, which had been a dirt road before the Ambassador opened, surrounded by bean and barley fields. Architecturally, the Ambassador was one of the most notable works of famed architect Myron Hunt (designer of the Rose Bowl, Huntington Library, much of Occidental College and many other local landmarks), with significant later contributions by the pioneering African-American architect Paul R. Williams.

Security Pacific Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

The Ambassador is one of the most important landmarks of Hollywood and the entertainment industry -- home of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Los Angeles’ premier night spot for decades; host to nearly major Hollywood star for decades; and site of six Oscar ceremonies. The Ambassador helped launch the careers of many major performers, from Judy Garland to Merv Griffin, Lena Horne to Barbra Streisand.

The hotel was also the lodging of choice to kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers. The Ambassador hosted every U.S. President from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon (who wrote his 1952 “Checkers” speech at the Ambassador).

In addition to all of these layers of history and significance, the Ambassador was also the site of the tragic 1968 Robert F. Kennedy assassination. The only two comparable sites nationally are the Texas School Book Depository building in Dallas and the Lorraine Motel in Memphis (site of the Martin Luther King assassination). Both buildings, neither of which was as intrinsically significant as the Ambassador Hotel, have been preserved as museums. The Ambassador, as a vital educational campus, can be a living testament to the RFK legacy.

What Would LAUSD’s Plan Do?

The so-called “Heritage K-12” plan is a true misnomer, as it would actually erase almost all of the Ambassador’s tangible heritage. The six-story main Ambassador building would be entirely demolished. LAUSD has claimed that it would be preserving the heritage of the hotel’s grand Embassy Ballroom, but, in fact, only its ceiling would be salvaged and then reapplied to a new room in the new school building. Even worse, following demolition, the District would erect a large, six-story replica of the hotel’s former façade as the front wall of the new school.

The School Board left the fate of the hotel pantry, site of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination, rather uncertain. In approving the plan, the Board voted to create a five-member commission of “presidential scholars” to advise LAUSD on the appropriate treatment of the pantry. However, the District’s own Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has committed LAUSD to preserve the pantry according to historic preservation standards, and this commitment cannot be changed without reopening the final decision. Furthermore, Superintendent Roy Romer has acknowledged that because the hotel building in which the room sits will be entirely demolished, the pantry would somehow have to be “containerized” for possible re-creation and re-installment in a new building. The Conservancy fails to understand how such a solution could be feasible let alone meet historic preservation standards.

In the weeks before the vote, several members of the Kennedy family had expressed their support for full demolition of the Ambassador, arguing that preservation of the pantry would be “ghoulish” and that no additional school construction funds should be spent on preservation. The Conservancy greatly respects the views of the Kennedy family, but sites of national tragedy truly belong to history they belong to all of us. The Conservancy and the A+ Coalition also repeatedly underscored that preservation of the Ambassador was never about memorializing this single event: the Ambassador would still be one of the defining historic sites of Los Angeles if that tragedy had never occurred.

Why a Lawsuit?

The Conservancy’s decision to file a lawsuit, while unanimous, was certainly not an easy one. LAUSD simply has offered us no other choice. The Conservancy reached out from the beginning to LAUSD to find a win-win solution. Time after time, our solutions and suggestions fell on deaf ears. We agreed early on to sacrifice more than half of the property’s historic resources in order to save the main building -- only to be branded later as unyielding and inflexible.

The Conservancy and the large A+ Coalition reached out early and often to the many community organizations involved with the Ambassador. We worked with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to bring a detailed financial package of tax credits to the table, which LAUSD immediately dismissed. Then, just a week before the vote, Mayor Hahn issued an encouraging public call for all parties to return to the negotiating table to find a true compromise solution. Regretfully, we sat at that table alone.

Will a Lawsuit Cause Delays?

Because a school is so badly needed in this community, the eight organizations are not litigating for purposes of delay. The Conservancy specifically chose not to seek an injunction to stop LAUSD’s design and planning work for the new school. However, since LAUSD has stated that actual construction would not begin on the Ambassador site until late 2006 or early 2007, there is ample time for legal arguments to be heard by a judge before demolition and construction would begin. If LAUSD is correct and the District complied with the law, no delay would result. If LAUSD violated the law, then there should be a reconsideration of this issue -- and a window of opportunity to forge a true compromise.

It is important to remember that LAUSD itself has had a timeline of convenience on the Ambassador issue. The District abandoned efforts to construct a school at the Ambassador site from 1993 until 2001, and then delayed consideration of the Ambassador issue for several months this year -- until after the approval of its latest school bond measure. Compromise doesn’t have to cost time. A true compromise could be reached quickly, the litigation could be withdrawn, and everyone involved could move forward together to get the new plan approved on a fast track.

Our proposal is simple: LAUSD can develop 75% of the 24-acre hotel property to provide the classroom seats they need, while at the same time preserving the main building of the Ambassador Hotel. If LAUSD doesn’t want to use the main hotel building for classrooms, it can convert the building to offices, or teacher training facilities, or District meeting and conference facilities, or workforce housing for LAUSD teachers.

What Are the Grounds for Litigation?

The Conservancy has benefited tremendously from the remarkably skilled and generous pro bono legal assistance of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, one of Los Angeles’ premier law firms. (The seven other plaintiffs are being separately represented in this case by attorney Joseph C. Markowitz and have filed a separate, though similar, petition.) The attorneys have identified several legal shortcomings of the School District’s analysis and approval of the project. Among the grounds for the lawsuit are the following:

• LAUSD’s illegal failure to comply (until a few days after the decisive October vote) with the Conservancy’s August request under the State’s Public Records Act for the financial estimates behind the various alternatives -- information that would have been critical in allowing for rebuttal of LAUSD’s flawed cost analysis
• LAUSD contradictory commitment to preserving the RFK assassination site (the pantry) in the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR). LAUSD adopted this as a mitigation measure for demolition, even while separately adopting a Board motion to create an expert commission that may or may not recommend preserving the pantry
• The Board of Education’s impermissible approval of the EIR without first adopting legal findings and a required “Statement of Overriding Considerations”
• The District’s finding that the impacts of demolition were “unavoidable” when other available alternatives would have substantially reduced these impacts

Final Thoughts

The Conservancy and the other organizations filing the lawsuit believe it is simply tragic that LAUSD blindly accepted the Ambassador issue as a false choice of “education vs. preservation” -- and, in the process, missed the opportunity to preserve a defining Los Angeles landmark while creating a better school for L.A.'s kids.

This is a defining moment for the preservation of L.A.’s history. This issue sets a precedent for how we treat our historic resources and what we teach our kids about the value of history and its tangible reminders. The Conservancy will also use this as an opportunity to rededicate itself to a broad, proactive advocacy and education agenda across Los Angeles. For all of the remarkable, recent progress our community has made in historic preservation, the Ambassador issue underscores that there is still much work to be done.

Finally, many, many thanks to the thousands of Los Angeles residents and interested supporters nationally and internationally who have spoken up to urge LAUSD to preserve the Ambassador Hotel. We need and appreciate your support, now more than ever.

How you can help save the Ambassador :

The fight to save the Ambassador Hotel is not over! Please take a moment to write the Board of Education urging the Board to reconsider its Ambassador Hotel decision and create a real compromise. By clicking here, you can email all of the board members at once, as well as other key elected officials who represent the area around the Ambassador Hotel site, and be added to our alert list to receive updates on the Ambassador situation. If you'd like to be added to the alert list without emailing the Board members, send an email to us at info@laconservancy.org.

The litigation filed by eight diverse community organizations seeks to spur a real compromise on the Ambassador issue: a badly-needed, state-of-the-art new school for L.A.’s kids on 75 percent of the Ambassador property, and preservation of the main building of the Ambassador Hotel. If LAUSD doesn’t want to use the main hotel building for classrooms, it can convert the building to offices, or teacher training facilities, or District meeting and conference facilities, or workforce housing for LAUSD teachers.

In your letters, you should also emphasize the rich history and tremendous significance of the Ambassador Hotel, and discuss why preservation of the Ambassador can offer intangible benefits for tomorrow's students or could house important services for the LAUSD and the Los Angeles community.

We also hope that, if you’re not already a member, you’ll join the Los Angeles Conservancy (click here for membership information), to help us in our ongoing fight to save the Ambassador and preserve and revitalize other important Los Angeles landmarks!