Ambassador Cam, #42

A year after the destruction of the final piece of the Ambassador Hotel (the Cocoanut Grove, which had survived the initial tear-down), here’s what’s now on the site. So far, the frame looks a lot like the old hotel, as if it had been stripped to its studs.

According to the LAUSD’s December “Monthly Program Status Report” for new construction, here’s the latest news from the site:

• The Phase I K-3 project is currently 70% complete and is scheduled for occupancy in fall 2009. The methane mitigation system and underground utility rough-ins are complete. Classroom framing is complete, utility rough-ins are complete, and interior finishes are well under way. The structures for the central plant and parking facility are complete and finishes have commenced. Delivery and installation of central plant equipment is well under way. Site retaining walls and other structures are well under way.

• The MS/HS project is 38% complete, with school occupancy scheduled for fall 2010. Underground utilities, methane mitigation system and building foundations are nearly complete. Structural steel framing is complete, with a traditional “topping out” ceremony scheduled for November 21, 2008. Fireproofing, utility rough-ins and interior framing are well under way. Site retaining walls are well under way. Off-site work is well under way.

Meanwhile, here’s the view from Catalina Street.

Ambassador Cam, #41: The Skeleton Rises

So far, the new building mimics the footprint of the old Ambassador (but what a sad sight). They continue to move fast on the construction.

The Ambassador entryway pillar, now under wraps.

(For full coverage of the Ambassador’s final days, check out our companion site, The Ambassador’s Last Stand.)

Lamenting the Ambassador

Actress and preservationist Diane Keaton wishes now that an environmental argument had been used in the battle to Ambassador Hotel. She writes in an LAT op-ed:

Preservation has always been a hard sell in Los Angeles. But maybe in the years ahead it won’t be as hard as it used to be, considering several new facts. No. 1, as my Dad would have said, a building represents an enormous investment of energy — much bigger than we thought when we were fighting to save the Ambassador. No. 2, we now know that construction of new structures alone consumes 40% of the raw materials that enter our economy every year. No. 3, according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the resources required to manufacture these materials and transport them to a site and assemble them into a structure is the equivalent of consuming 5 to 15 gallons of oil per square foot. No. 4, a Brookings Institution study indicates that the construction of new buildings alone will destroy one-third of our existing building stock by 2030. And finally, No. 5, the energy used to destroy older buildings in addition to the energy used to build new ones could power the entire state of California for 10 years, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

We’ve treated old buildings like we once treated plastic shopping bags — we haven’t reused them, and when we’ve finished with them, we’ve tossed them out. This has to stop. Preservation must stand alongside conservation as an equal force in the sustainability game. More older and historic buildings have to be protected from demolition, not only because it affects our pocketbooks but more important because it threatens our environment.

Of course, as Keaton notes, every other argument failed to sway the LAUSD, and I’m doubtful these assertions would have changed anything.

Auctioning Off A Final Look at the Ambassador

(Photo by Nancy Duron.)

The Los Angeles Conservancy tipped us off to a silent auction for photos that were taken a few years ago by high school photography students as part of an effort to document the Ambassador Hotel pre-demolition.

The Location Managers Guild, which sponsored the project, is now auctioning off the images from the exhibition. Half of the proceeds will go to Animo Film and Theater Arts High School, a new Green Dot charter school.

The auction takes place at downtown’s Wilshire Grand Hotel. Check out the evite here and the gallery of photos here.

Ambassador Cam, #40: Construction Pace Quickens

After months of waiting, the skeleton of the new school complex is really rising fast at the Ambassador site. Curbed LA has more on the new Robert F. Kennedy pocket park (which will take up just 1/3 acre off Wilshire) here.

Ambassador Cam, #39: The Skeleton Rises

As the LAUSD prepares to break ground on a new, tiny pocket park and Bobby Kennedy memorial at the Ambassador site (see Curbed LA for full details), construction has already begun on what appears to be the high school portion of the site’s three-school complex.

Curbed L.A. had more details last month:

The scope of the project includes a K-3 School, a 4-8 Middle School, and a High School, for a total of 4,624 students. The 92,000-square-foot K-3 building will accommodate 1,150 seats within 46 classrooms on three floors. The school will be located on the Ambassador Hotel site. The 4-8/High School building will accommodate 3,474 seats within 130 classrooms on six floors. The area is 382,000 square feet, and the rehabilitated Cocoanut Grove building is an additional 48,410 square feet of enclosed and covered areas.

The proposed subterranean parking structure will accommodate a total of 442 parking spaces on two levels for faculty and administrative staff. Playfields for the proposed 4-8/HS will be constructed above the parking structure. The scope also includes construction of a gymnasium building. This structure will accommodate the gymnasium court for grades 6-8 and Central Plant equipment on the first floor, and a gymnasium court for grades 9-12 on the upper level. This is one of the first LAUSD schools with an extensive public art program.

Yes, you’ll notice that the main, high school building has been designed to emulate the old Ambassador. But it’s pretty much a token gesture.

Remembering Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Site

It wasn’t much, but I guess it has been 40 years. Nonetheless, at least a few people last week visited the Robert Kennedy Memorial Parkway (that’s the stretch of Wilshire in front of the Ambassador) to recognize the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s assassination at the Ambassador Hotel.

Above, a large portrait of RFK was hung on the chainlink fence outside the Ambassador construction site, while candles were illuminated underneath. Sadly, there was no remembrance inside the hotel, or the pantry where RFK was shot. That, of course, as you’re well aware, is because of the LAUSD’s move over the past few years to tear down the storied but long-vacant hotel.

RFK Assassination: It Was 40 Years Ago Today

Sadly, the Ambassador Hotel, where Bobby Kennedy was shot in the early hours of June 5, 1968, no longer stands. And as Patt Morrison writes, that’s a shame:

Imagine studying American history within the very walls where Richard Nixon wrote the “Checkers” speech that saved his political bacon.

But the Kennedy family pretty much wanted the place razed and the ground sown with salt. Coupled with the LAUSD’s desperate need for classrooms, it was adios, Ambassador. The first of the three new schools on the property is supposed to open 15 months from now.

So where is the pantry now?

After the preservationists’ lawsuits and the environmental impact reports, the LAUSD agreed to pluck it out and maintain it intact. But the LAUSD’s senior project manager, John Kuprenas, told me that an engineer said no way. “Hold the bus,” is what Kuprenas told me the engineer said. “This plan looks kind of iffy.” The fear was that if the district “tried to take it out in a mass, it’d all completely crumble,” Kuprenas said.

So the pantry exists today not even as a kit to be eventually reassembled but in sample pieces — 2-foot-diameter cores of floor, walls and ceiling, along with doors, electrical panels and the biggest piece, the ice machine behind which Sirhan Sirhan stood, waiting to open fire. It’s all on 30 pallets, shrink-wrapped and stored in a secure, undisclosed location, waiting for a special commission and the school board to decide what historical institution might deserve them.

Except for some recycled steel, the rest of the pantry, along with most of the Ambassador Hotel, went to a landfill.

Morrison swings it to now, noting that the Universal fire got more press attention than the Ambassador pantry destruction.

Meanwhile, for an as-it-happened piece of history, check out the live coverage of the RFK shooting, archived from 1968. I first posted this a few months ago, and mentioned at the time how a YouTube user named JFK1963 has posted, in chronological order, nine videos from CBS News that chronicle the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on June 5, 1968. It’s chilling to watch the videos in order, as if you’re watching coverage of the event live — starting with RFK’s victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel, having just won the California primary.

Ambassador Cam: New School, Coming in 2010

I’ve actually been meaning to post this for months, but never had the camera handy… so here goes, the recently revised LAUSD poster for “Central LA New Learning Center #1″ — a.k.a. the Ambassador Hotel school.

Remember when the old drawings for the school made it look virtually identical to the Ambassador? Obviously those plans are long gone, as the school is looking much more modern these days. Not that I object — attempting to create a fake Ambassador facade is pointless; the real building is gone.

Also, as you can see, the opening date has now been pushed back to fall 2010; until recently, the goal date was fall 2009. Again, makes sense, since actual construction has yet to begin.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed the Angels Walk markers that are all over downtown have now made their way to the Mid-Wilshire area. Starting with MacArthur Park, the signs continue west on Wilshire (until at least Western). Below, the Ambassador Hotel marker — which just missed being installed in front of the actual Ambassador by two years. (LA Observed‘s Kevin Roderick handles the text; Kevin, of course, wrote the “Wilshire Boulevard” book.)

Retro Friday: RFK Edition

A YouTube user named JFK1963 has posted, in chronological order, nine videos from CBS News that chronicle the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on June 5, 1968. It’s chilling to watch the videos in order, as if you’re watching coverage of the event live — starting with RFK’s victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel, having just won the California primary (above).

Below, the cheers from the crowd have turned into screams, as word spreads that Kennedy has been shot and volunteers ask if there are doctors in the house. Other videos show reporters on scene and anchors back in New York (including Mike Wallace) trying to make sense of it all. Click on one of the videos to find the whole collection at YouTube.