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.

Boo: LAUSD At It Again, Threatening Another Historic Site

(Abandoned military bunker; Flickr pic by Eyetwist.)

It’s hard to argue against building new schools… yet the Los Angeles Unified School District continues to destroy old L.A. landmarks in the process. The recent victims have been heartbreaking — the Ambassador Hotel, of course, on the top of that list.

Next up: The Los Angeles Times reports that the LAUSD plans to tear down historic buildings on the site that was once San Pedro’s Ft. MacArthur:

When the bulldozers come to Ft. MacArthur next spring, Joe Janesic will take it personally.

For more than two decades, the 40-year-old has been a mainstay of the historic military site in San Pedro that was built in 1914 and served as an Army post until 1974. He organizes events, conducts tours, handles media and even restores vintage phones — all as a volunteer. A founding member of the Ft. MacArthur Museum, he has dedicated his life to preserving every relic on the grounds.

“The buildings here were unique because of the time they were built and the methods they used — old construction techniques that don’t exist anymore,” Janesic said excitedly one rainy Sunday as he pointed to a map outlining the area. “The look, feel and smell of the tactile structures — you can’t reproduce that.”

So if one day the row of beige military barracks where Army reserves once slept is mowed over, if the dilapidated mess hall where tens of thousands of soldiers once ate is destroyed, if the Quonset hut that housed olive drab trucks and jeeps is demolished — Janesic will be just as devastated as the buildings.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has plans for the land, which it has owned since 1979 when the military turned it over to the school system for educational use. The district plans to raze the structures for what is referred to as South Region High School No. 15. The 47 acres may soon be a 128,000-square-foot annex to San Pedro High School that will include the marine science and police academy magnets.

Ambassador Hotel: That’s All, Folks

(Photo by Tod Tamberg, by way of LA Observed.)

And so it goes. The ghosts of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., the Academy Awards and the hundreds and hundreds of others who once graced the stage of the Cocoanut Grove now have no place to go.

As LA Observed reports, the final tear down of the Ambassador Hotel has begun.

As you’re well aware, the final challenge to the LAUSD wound down at the end of last year, paving the way for the school district to tear down the last remaining part of the hotel. The majority of the Ambassador was torn down in 2006; full coverage can be seen at our Ambassador’s Last Stand blog.

Ambassador Hotel: That’s All, Folks

(Photo by Tod Tamberg, by way of LA Observed.)

And so it goes. The ghosts of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., the Academy Awards and the hundreds and hundreds of others who once graced the stage of the Cocoanut Grove now have no place to go.

As LA Observed reports, the final tear down of the Ambassador Hotel has begun.

As you’re well aware, the final challenge to the LAUSD wound down at the end of last year, paving the way for the school district to tear down the last remaining part of the hotel. The majority of the Ambassador was torn down in 2006; full coverage can be seen at our Ambassador’s Last Stand blog.

Cocoanut Grove Demolition Halted — For Now

Some movement on the Cocoanut Grove (well, what’s left of it) preservation front: The L.A. Times writes that the Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to temporarily halt demolition of the famed nightclub:

The Los Angeles Conservancy sought to halt the wrecking ball until a judge had time to rule on whether the district was breaking the law by tearing the club down…

In a second, related matter, the conservancy dropped its call for an injunction to bar the district from destroying items collected from the hotel’s pantry, the site of the 1968 assassination of U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The district said the matter was moot, as it has no plans to destroy the items, including electrical fixtures.

Demolition is halted until at least February, when a hearing will discuss the conservancy’s allegations.

The L.A. Conservancy has filed suit over the decision to tear down the Cocoanut Grove — which originally was slated to be saved, even as the rest of the Ambassador Hotel was sadly torn down.

Adds the paper:

The district also quietly destroyed the pantry but saved fixtures, sections of the structure, and the ice machine, and 3-D imagery was taken of the room.

Those moves led to the current lawsuit, in which the conservancy alleges that the district hasn’t proven that its only option is to tear down and replicate the club and that it improperly handled the pantry. The district said it discovered that the pantry would crumble if it were moved in one piece and that its method of preservation was better.

Meanwhile, Hensel Phelps has been contracted to build the middle school, high school, auditorium and other structures on the 24-acre site for $566 million.

The Cocoanut Grove’s Last Stand

Cocoanut Grove at its peak. Of course, by the 1970s, Sammy Davis had turned the room into the cheesy, disco-ish "Now Grove." Which is how it pretty much remained to the end.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to Franklin Avenue and Ambassador’s Last Stand readers, but it’s now official: Most of the last remnants of the fabled Cocoanut Grove structure — part of the last remaining pieces of the 1921 hotel still standing after last year’s demolition — will be torn down shortly.

As I noted back in November, the L.A. Unified School District had posted signs at the Ambassador site, noting that it felt the original plan to preserve the Cocoanut Grove structure was no longer feasible:

The “Notice of Preparation, Supplement to Final Environmental Impact Report” reads: The 2004 FEIR included mitigation measures for the adaptive reuse of the Cocoanut Grove as an auditorium subject to structural materials testing. Based upon extensive testing and evaluation by the District’s structural engineer, consultants and staff, the District determined that it is technically infeasible to retain and reuse all of the features that were described in the 2004 FEIR due to their age and degraded and unstable condition.

Now, the L.A. Times reports that the LAUSD board voted 7-0 to approve the changes — and tear down what’s left of the old Cocoanut Grove. Demolition begins next month; the paper notes that the new school should be completed by 2010:

In a state-mandated environmental impact report, the district acknowledged that the property was historically significant. To mitigate the impact of tearing most of it down, L.A. Unified said it would preserve the pantry where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 and keep the Cocoanut Grove, turning it into a high school auditorium.

In public statements and during court proceedings, the district said it would cut out the pantry and preserve it whole. Officials said those plans were based on a review of blueprints and visual inspection of the site.

But under current plans, only the east wall, the circular entry and a portion of the glass west wall of the nightclub and historic Paul Williams cafeteria will not be destroyed, along with some interior features that were removed and will be incorporated into the design. As for the pantry, L.A. Unified decided in 2005 that the district would collect 29 items from it — mostly doors, electrical items and an ice machine — put them in storage, and tear down the rest of it.

According to a supplemental environmental impact report approved by the board Tuesday, testing found that the concrete connections were inadequate and the cement content and strength of the concrete were too low in most of the Cocoanut Grove.

Shoring the walls would take up so much space that ceilings would be low and hallways too narrow for the area to be functional, said Jim Cowell, the outgoing head of new construction for the district. Instead, the district will tear down the concrete walls and build new ones in the same place, move the stage and slope the floor, so the nightclub can work as an auditorium. The east wing was stronger than the rest of the building, so the structural elements there will be maintained.

Another nail in the coffin, I suppose, but since the Ambassador has already been buried, all I can do is once again sigh.

The Cocoanut Grove’s Last Stand

Cocoanut Grove at its peak. Of course, by the 1970s, Sammy Davis had turned the room into the cheesy, disco-ish "Now Grove." Which is how it pretty much remained to the end.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to Franklin Avenue and Ambassador’s Last Stand readers, but it’s now official: Most of the last remnants of the fabled Cocoanut Grove structure — part of the last remaining pieces of the 1921 hotel still standing after last year’s demolition — will be torn down shortly.

As I noted back in November, the L.A. Unified School District had posted signs at the Ambassador site, noting that it felt the original plan to preserve the Cocoanut Grove structure was no longer feasible:

The “Notice of Preparation, Supplement to Final Environmental Impact Report” reads: The 2004 FEIR included mitigation measures for the adaptive reuse of the Cocoanut Grove as an auditorium subject to structural materials testing. Based upon extensive testing and evaluation by the District’s structural engineer, consultants and staff, the District determined that it is technically infeasible to retain and reuse all of the features that were described in the 2004 FEIR due to their age and degraded and unstable condition.

Now, the L.A. Times reports that the LAUSD board voted 7-0 to approve the changes — and tear down what’s left of the old Cocoanut Grove. Demolition begins next month; the paper notes that the new school should be completed by 2010:

In a state-mandated environmental impact report, the district acknowledged that the property was historically significant. To mitigate the impact of tearing most of it down, L.A. Unified said it would preserve the pantry where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 and keep the Cocoanut Grove, turning it into a high school auditorium.

In public statements and during court proceedings, the district said it would cut out the pantry and preserve it whole. Officials said those plans were based on a review of blueprints and visual inspection of the site.

But under current plans, only the east wall, the circular entry and a portion of the glass west wall of the nightclub and historic Paul Williams cafeteria will not be destroyed, along with some interior features that were removed and will be incorporated into the design. As for the pantry, L.A. Unified decided in 2005 that the district would collect 29 items from it — mostly doors, electrical items and an ice machine — put them in storage, and tear down the rest of it.

According to a supplemental environmental impact report approved by the board Tuesday, testing found that the concrete connections were inadequate and the cement content and strength of the concrete were too low in most of the Cocoanut Grove.

Shoring the walls would take up so much space that ceilings would be low and hallways too narrow for the area to be functional, said Jim Cowell, the outgoing head of new construction for the district. Instead, the district will tear down the concrete walls and build new ones in the same place, move the stage and slope the floor, so the nightclub can work as an auditorium. The east wing was stronger than the rest of the building, so the structural elements there will be maintained.

Another nail in the coffin, I suppose, but since the Ambassador has already been buried, all I can do is once again sigh.