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If the Los Angeles Unified School District has its way, the historic Ambassador Hotel will soon be reduced to little more than a reconstructed facade after being demolished to make way for a badly needed school (badly needed due to the LAUSD's bungling attempt to build the Belmont Learning Center on a toxic waste site).
Historic preservationists are understandably upset as, once again, Los Angeles prepares to raze its cultural heritage in the name of progress. This city seems bent on erasing any architecturally remarkable or historically important edifice as it grows, recreating itself as a landscape of hideous utilitarian boxes with no past, and a future that promises only more of the same.
If this plan is approved, the Ambassador will join the list of LA landmarks that now exist only in the increasingly short memories of its inhabitants: the original Brown Derby, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, the Garden of Allah, the original Schwab's... the list goes on and on.
It's hard to imagine other great cities engaging in this sort of war on the past. Would New York? Chicago? San Francisco? Why does LA?
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Because this town is run by short sighted idiots, that's why.
But I do feel that the razing will be held up again, once the Conservancy meets on this...
Yes, and don't forget Irving Gill's Dodge House, also eradicated thanks to the LAUSD. That was so long ago that one would think such a thing couldn't happen again, especially to so high-profile a landmark. I guess one thing is consistent! Sigh.
I wonder if it ever occured to the LAUSD that they might want to lobby the city for more help. There are all sorts of urban development issues that aren't being addressed here. What I would really like to know is how Hollywood and Highland was greenlighted with little trouble while LA's history is being trampled for a new school. It seems awfully ridiculous to build more mega shopping-and-entertainment complexes when there isn't even enough space to build a school without tearing down landmarks.
Besides, one of the most important political events of this city's history happened at the Ambassador. It seems that the assassination of Bobby Kennedy would carry a little bit more weight in the discussion.