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.

What Could Have Been (And Thankfully Wasn't): The Doomed Ambassador International Project

"Ambassador International"

Talk about a fascinating find: Franklin Avenue reader Steven dug up these old drawings from 1957 of an ill-fated plan to completely re-develop the Ambassador Hotel site. (Above, a drawing of the proposed site. That's Wilshire Blvd. in front, and yes, the hotel here has been complete rebuilt and turned 90 degrees.)

Fifty years before bulldozers finally tore down the Ambassador for good, plans were already in the works to do the same thing, but replace it with a new, streamlined Ambassador Hotel surrounded by high-rises.

Yup, it looks like the Ambassador narrowly avoided its fate several times before disappearing last year. The so-called "Ambassador International" project, with its several high rises, also reminds one of Donald Trump's failed plans to build the world's tallest building there.


A night shot of the proposed development.

Steve writes in:

I've been following the dismantling of the Ambassador on your site with great sadness. I worked next door at what was then Tishman Plaza at 3440 Wilshire beginning in 1971. The monthly parking fee there was a bit too steep (when you're starting at $85 a week), but I found a lot just east of the Ambassador, off Catalina where 7th St. dead-ends at the grounds, where parking was only $8 a month. So, every morning, I crossed the grounds and went through the hotel lobby and the little arcade of shops, and out the main entrance to get to my office. That and the walk back
through in the evening were my favorites parts of the day. That parking lot can still be seen (as can the intact hotel itself, bungalows and all) on Google Earth. I rather hope they never get around to updating those images.

Yes, I know; all terribly exciting. But my main purpose here is to share some renderings from 1957 of a project called Ambassador International, which, mercifully, never got off the ground. They serve to illustrate that the LAUSD project which ultimately led to its demise was not the
first threat the Ambassador faced, and I thought you might find them interesting..

Beyond interesting, Steven, and thanks for sharing with us.

Now, here are the renderings of how the Ambassador International would have been built, in three phases:


Phase one: A new hotel lobby is built, as well as a new chunk of hotel off the existing Ambassador's north wing. An office building replaces the northeast bungalows.


Phase two: More office buildings, including one that takes over a chunk of the south east wing. The new hotel arm off the old hotel's north wing gets larger.


Phase three: Even more office buildings, while the old Ambassador is destroyed (and the new one completed).