City Council Supports Building Schools on Ambassador Hotel Site

After months of debate, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to support the construction of one or more schools on the property of the former Ambassador Hotel, while leaving open the possibility that the school district might preserve the historic structure.

The council stopped just short of taking a position supporting preservation of the building and instead agreed to encourage the district to “review the historic aspects of the site.”

Councilman Nate Holden said the council should not force preservation if it would hinder building schools or providing new commercial uses along Wilshire Boulevard near the hotel, which is in his district. The council action urges the Los Angeles Unified School District to pursue development consistent with the city general plan, which designates the Wilshire Boulevard frontage for commercial uses.

The Los Angeles Conservancy, which has been working to get the school district to renovate the hotel as part of a new school development, said the compromise language was acceptable.

“Perhaps the language could have been stronger, but we are pleased the council is interested in having the school district consider reusing the hotel as a school,” said Ken Bernstein, director of preservation issues for the conservancy.

The conservancy, which contends that the buildings are architecturally significant and of historic importance, does not want the hotel torn down.

The hotel hosted six Academy Awards, was visited by every president from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon and was the site of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination.

School officials lobbied the council not to take a position that would force the district to commit to one option now.

“We feel that it is too early to choose--or foreclose--any particular use of the Ambassador Hotel site beyond the need to build schools,” Glenn Gritzner, a school district official, said in a letter to the council Tuesday.

He said more analysis and community comment will be considered before a decision is made.