On my recent trip up to Los Angeles, I wanted to get some then and now comparison shots of the Ambassador Hotel. Designed by architect Myron Hunt and located on 24 acres just off Wilshire Boulevard, it opened at midnight on January 1, 1921. That must have been one heck of a New Year’s Eve party! Preservation efforts failed, and the hotel began demolition in 2006 to be replaced with the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, a K-8 facility. There are still remnants of the original complex that remain, such as the entrance pillar and fountain, minus the lettering and the water. While it’s nice that these art deco items remain, it’s somewhat sad that they appear to be in a state of disrepair and the area has become an encampment for the homeless.
How the statue/fountain looked in the 1950’s:
And how it looks now:
In writing this article, I learned that the statue I saw is not even the original one. From calisphere:
An unknown sculptor created the bronze statue in the fountain, which might have been originally named "Gloria." This statue was lost and artist Bobbie Carlyle recreated a replacement version for LAUSD (now titled "Seaswept"), lightly clothed as a concession to the new use by the school district.
It was wonderful to see this Art Deco bas relief up close, although its context has now been removed. Again, from calisphere:
The bas-relief shows four human figures: a man wearing a turban and holding a box; a woman sitting on a low settee with her arm resting on a telephone; a man standing next to her holding a goblet; and a chef holding a tray and long napkin.
Ah, Futura Black - one of my favorite Art Deco fonts.
Circa 1954:
October 2005, which was the last time I saw the original structure semi-standing:
What it was replaced with, which has a slightly similar look to the Ambassador:
What was retained? Not much. From the Los Angeles Conservancy website:
The porte cochere and one wall of the Cocoanut Grove were retained; the rest is replicated. The campus interprets the site’s history but does not preserve it. We were very mindful of the need to provide a school as soon as possible, which was one of the reasons we chose not to pursue further litigation when it became clear we wouldn’t prevail. Nor was the approved plan part of a compromise between LAUSD and preservationists. We didn’t compromise on the Ambassador Hotel; we lost. Whatever “preservation measures” LAUSD undertook were entirely self-imposed and did not amount to actual preservation.
Yikes. At the front of the complex facing Wilshire is a memorial to Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated at the Ambassador in June 1968, a sad event that signaled the demise of the once great hotel.
The school came under fire when it opened for being the costliest (approximately $578 million) at a time when nearly 3,000 teachers had been laid off in just two years. Adding to the controversy, a mural depicting actress Ava Gardner (a nod to the hotel’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub) was unveiled in 2016;
Edited from the rafu.com website, a Japanese American newspaper:
In 2018, the sun-ray motif became an issue as some Korean Americans said it was reminiscent of the Imperial Japan battle flag, a reminder of Japan’s decades-long occupation of the Korean Peninsula. The Los Angeles Unified School District initially agreed to the Wilshire Community Coalition’s demand that the mural be removed, then backtracked. [Artist Beau] Stanton pointed out that the orange-red and blue rays are a different color and thickness from the Japanese flag, and are a common motif in his works and those of other artists. Artist Shepard Fairey threatened to have his mural of Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel, removed in solidarity. Gyopo, a group of Korean American artists and community members, said in a letter to LAUSD that those who think the mural isn’t offensive do not understand the pain and trauma that such imagery elicits for victims of wartime Japanese aggression. While acknowledging that Stanton did not mean to offend anyone, Gyopo said it was troubled by “the lack of community involvement in the mural’s selection process, the mural’s imagery itself and its memorialization of a whites-only club, and the ways in which the media has directed these narratives.” In 2019, Stanton said in a statement, “Over the past several months I have had the opportunity to meet with a diverse cross-section of stakeholders regarding my mural at the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, including students, faculty, fellow artists, and members of the Koreatown community. “These interactions have allowed me to synthesize a solution that aims to rise above the original binary conversation of ‘keep or remove the mural’ in order to build upon the original work and create something that speaks to the past, present, and future of the RFK campus. “My proposal involves creating a transformative work utilizing the original mural as a base for layering and weaving additional imagery into the original image much like an urban wall with many historic layers. Parts of the original will remain visible while focusing on themes related to the important conversation that the original work had initiated. The new mural retains some of the original design, with the addition of images that celebrate Koreatown’s diverse immigrant community. Also, the stripes have been shortened so that they don’t touch the mural’s borders. “A lot of students had decorated their caps and sashes with colors and flag designs that were specific to where their family members had immigrated from – Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador,” said Stanton, who incorporated those countries’ flowers into a crown on Gardner’s head. To pay tribute to Koreatown’s history, he included a Korean hotel worker and a man working in a Central L.A. citrus grove.
The original mural on the left and the revised one on the right. My eyes hurt it’s so busy.
See more Ambassador Hotel photos at my main website.
