LA Observed: Clock ticking on the Ambassador

Clock ticking on the Ambassador

Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email

The fight over the Ambassador Hotel just got more complicated, and the momentum may have shifted away from preservation. A community coalition with political connections came out Thursday for razing the Wilshire Boulevard landmark and building a full K-12 school from scratch. They got a symbolic boost from Paul Schrade, who was wounded in the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. He says the Los Angeles Conservancy is wrong to call for saving some of the hotel as a memorial to Kennedy.

The school board is weighing several alternatives, and the Conservancy is pushing for one that incorporates historic parts of the hotel -- such as the former Cocoanut Grove nightclub -- into the school. I hope the hotel itself can be used in some meaningful away, but anything is better than what Donald Trump proposed. When he owned the land he wanted to erect a 125-story office tower, the tallest in the country.

1:49 AM Friday, November 21 2003 • Link
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