"Sexy" iconic 60's hotel in Los Angeles endangered, says historical group

[Bluebear]

Actress Diane Keaton, a trustee of the preservation group, said the hotel is worth saving. "It's curvy, it's this beautiful kind of crescent shape," she said. "It's a sexy building."



(L) The Century Plaza...(R) Proposed development

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Century Plaza Hotel hosted President-elect Ronald Reagan's victory celebration, a welcome home gala for the Apollo 11 astronauts and Bob Hope's celebrity-studded Century Ball.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sees that history and the hotel's mid-century architecture as reasons to stop the wrecking ball. The group names the hotel on its annual list being released Tuesday of historic places it considers endangered by neglect or development.

Also listed are the Utah hangar that housed the Enola Gay B-29 bomber that dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan; the Hawaiian town of Lanai City featuring plantation-style homes built by 1920s pineapple baron James Dole; and Miami Marine Stadium, which along with the Century Plaza is an example of 1960s modernist architecture that preservationists say is increasingly under threat of redevelopment.

It's hard for a generation that has grown up with such architecture to recognize it as historically significant, said Richard Moe, director of the trust.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ENDANGERED_HISTORIC_PLACES?SITE=NVLAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[elleng]

1. Oy, we're preserving mid-TWENTIETH CENTURY architecture???

.

[ContinentalOp]

6. Never heard of mid century modernism?

It's that kind of evil ignorant thinking that got us in the mess we're in. How old does it have to be to deserve being saved? 100 years? 200 years? Oops, too late, we tore down everything that was more than a decade old. Sorry.

[elleng]

8. Dunno.

If I did, I probably didn't take it seriously; MY fault, I guess, but what worthwhile attributes? Its not a crescent; it looks like 3 blocks, fitted together to mimic (badly) a crescent shape. The NEW, proposed bldgs appear crescent shaped to me.

AGE is not important, ART and design is. Glass, Lever Bldg? Yes.

Evil, ignorant thinking? If you're trying to make a point/teach, I think snark is not helpful.

[ContinentalOp]

15. I meant no snark. This is a serious problem that I'm very passionate about.

Art and design is too subjective to leave to greedy developers to decide.

To be honest I'm not familiar with this hotel and it doesn't look like much from that photo. But then that's obviously a photo from the developers who are trying to make it look unimpressive next to their tall new towers.

The history of L.A. development is riddled with these kinds of boneheaded decisions.

We lost the Ambassador Hotel (where RFK was assassinated, some of the earliest Academy Awards were held, etc.). Even the parts they promised to save ended up getting demolished.
http://www.theambassadorhotel.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel


The last remaining brown derby was threatened.
http://www.savethederby.com/

the famous hat shaped brown derby was turned into a strip mall

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_m4jWhASJ8wg/SZjH7dNirGI/AAAAAAAAAaI/bxt_z0W3kF4/s400/Brown+Derby+today.jpg

Or how about the Venice canals! One of the saddest losses of all IMO.


Anwyay, I'm rambling and these are just a drop in the bucket. If you're not willing to save something that's 43 years old then you're not going to have anything that's older than that to save. Sadly that seems to be the history of development in L.A. Tear it down when it's middle aged and the next generation can mourn its loss when they finally appreciate it. Just in time to tear down whatever cheap monstrosity was built in its place.

[Starry Messenger]

17. Thank you for posting that about the Brown Derby.

Every time I'm down that way and see that mall I practically cry. A lot of great stuff has been lost in California but LA suffered the worst.

[elleng]

18. I'm from New York, love it, love to wander and look,

and I'm older than many here. I live in DC (MD) now.

I've 'studied' art and architecture (NOT in depth) and have traveled. I love cities, and seriously enjoy comparing the way people live and have lived. I love discussions, and hope to learn from disagreements. I HATE fights!

Were there Venice Canals in LA? Hadn't heard of those. I think I stayed with my family at the Ambassador, briefly, but I could be mistaken.

[ContinentalOp]

27. Yeah, still are a few canals.

Abbot Kinney built Venice as a seaside resort complete with canals, amusement parks, etc. A couple of canals remain but most of them were filled in and paved only about 20 years after they were dug!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice,_California

http://www.westland.net/Venice/canals.htm

[ContinentalOp]

28. oops, duplicate post . -nt-

[Sequoia]

34. Yes, there were canals in Venice.

I used to ride by bicycle near those that remained which were like big ditches as you go down the street towards Marina del Rey. And I would hate to see the Century Plaza torn down. I used to work in that area and just loved going by that lovely hotel with the fountain. Whatever the city plans to put in its place will be large and ugly no doubt.

[misanthrope]

10. Yeah, what about it?...

...It doesn't count unless it's overwrought baroque stuff from 100 years ago?

[elleng]

14. Misanthrope, you appear to be attempting to 'interpret' my statement,

with no basis for doing so. Have we ever met?

[misanthrope]

16. See post #15**nm

**

[elleng]

19. See post #18.

.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. We keep tearing down our history.

We need to take a lesson from the Europeans...

They tend to gut their historical buildings, and renovate them from the inside. The facades are preserved and the historical views as well...

Why don't we do this too?

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Because we're not socialists? n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. What does socialism have to do with preserving historic buildings?

Really.

:wtf:

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. I second that!

:wtf: :wtf:

[elleng]

21. Nothing, of course,

but the communists erected HORRIBLE, characterless buildings, in Moscow, East Germany, Rumania, Poland, and elsewhere.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

23. I agree about Communist buildings!

What I was referring to are the buildings in, say, Paris, that are gutted and reinvented to be modern. All the while maintaining their historic looks...

And of course, Paris isn't the only city to do this.

[elleng]

26. That's been done with some buildings in DC too.

I remember years ago (college years) visiting with a friend an artist acquaintance of hers in Rome, entered a very old, decrepit looking building, to discover lovely living space inside, not modern, but surprising to find such nice space therein.

[ColbertWatcher]

36. Maybe my user name was not clear ...

;)

[bottomtheweaver]

22. This thing doesn't have a facade. It's an office building.

I know part of it is a hotel, but any of it could be anything. The office towers are triangular, big deal, it just makes them fuglier, and the whole mess is coated in rusty aluminum.

P.U.

This is of course JMHO.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. I spent five days and nights in a penthouse suite at the Century Plaza

It's a beautiful hotel, and given the glutted state of commercial real estate right now, why do we need to tear down one thing to put up another?

Leave it alone. Learn to appreciate what we have and not always want MORE MORE MORE.

TG

[ContinentalOp]

7. Forget it Diane, it's L.A.

They couldn't save the Ambassador. Trader Vics suddenly and shockingly disappeared not too long ago. This town is a fucking lost cause when it comes to historical preservation.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. yep. We save NUTHIN here.

[BuelahWitch]

35. The outside facade of the Chaplin studios was made an historic landmark

I'm very happy about that. And his 80 year old soundstage is still there, as well as many of the original buildings. The backlot was sold off though and some if it was made into a strip mall...

[diva77]

9. Century City is the epitome of lousy city planning. No street parking, nowhere

for pedestrians to roam, nothing but asphalt and concrete; all parking garages with checkpoint charlies and $30 per hour rates. I guess they should preserve it all so they know what not to do next time around. I'll bet the Century Plaza isn't very "green." Maybe they could give it an energy efficiency makeover if they decide to save it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. and they have their own tow truck service. pull up and leave your car for 10 minutes, it's towed.

Use to work in Century city.

[david13]

32. That building is an ugly monstrosity, century city is too,

and none of that is worth saving. The scale is way too big. The human cannot relate to a monstrosity like that thing. Tear all that down and put in something human friendly. dc

[ContinentalOp]

33. Um, nice sentiment...

except that they're planning on building something even bigger.

[bottomtheweaver]

20. Wow. Of all the dogs to love she picked this piece of shit?

No accounting for taste but this thing has about as much personality as a speed bumb. Nuke it, please.

[ContinentalOp]

29. It's a hell of a lot better than the twin towers, which the same guy designed.

Just sayin...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Yamasaki

[bottomtheweaver]

31. Not sure that's a reason to save it, but it could be.

Mostly though I think it's another reason to nuke it. I suppose he was brilliant but his buildings were beyond hideous. Do they get any butt fuglier than Pruitt Igoe? That thing didn't even last 20 years:



But I notice it's the hotel they want to nuke, not the towers, which is a shame, because the triangular towers are the bigger eyesore. JMHO of course.

[bridgit]

24. I know egg-zackly where that is, if LA don't know a face lift when it sees one...

then *no* municipality does...they should pull it down BECAUSE Reagan was in there :thumbsup: "it's this beautiful kind of crescent shape" oh Diane honey...just count your money and be happy :)

[cherokeeprogressive]

25. Let It Go. n/t

[ContinentalOp]

30. "The developer's attack follows a proven strategy for the razing of historic buildings"

"In March, this column waved goodbye to the Robinsons-May in Beverly Hills. Up for the count this month is another monument in our dwindling legacy of under-appreciated midcentury modern. It is the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel at 2025 Avenue of the Stars...

The year construction began on the Century Plaza, Yamasaki presented his plans for New York's World Trade Center. NYC's towers and L.A.'s hotel captured the essence of two cities, one a financial behemoth, the other an American paradise. While New York lost its Yamasaki to the violence of terror, we may lose ours to the voracity of money.

Local investor Michael Rosenfeld owns the Century Plaza with the D.E. Shaw Group. Their plans, to be reviewed by the city, call for leveling Yamasaki's landmark to make way for two mixed-use monoliths, one with a 240-room hotel designed by the firm founded by I.M. Pei, architect of Century City's original apartment buildings.

The developer's attack follows a proven strategy for the razing of historic buildings, the same one used for Robinsons: Seduce city officials with a big-name architect, promise some open space and green construction, project high revenue and underplay historic significance. The prize: lucrative tax abatements, forgiving zoning variances and a demo permit."

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-lostla25-2009apr25,0,4004631.story