How Diane Keaton Tirelessly Campaigned to Preserve Los Angeles’ Architectural History

On a brisk February evening in 2006, around a hundred people gathered in the venerable Koreatown watering hole HMS Bounty to pay their last respects to Los Angeles’ historic Ambassador Hotel. Despite the best efforts of the Los Angeles Conservancy, the Ambassador had been torn down — and among the speakers decrying the fate of the legendary institution that evening was Diane Keaton.

Keaton, who died Saturday at 79, is of course known the world over for her on-screen credits, from “Annie Hall” to “The Godfather,” “Father of the Bride” and so much more. But in Los Angeles, she was also known for her passionate work in trying to preserve the city’s history. Keaton spent nearly two decades on the board of the L.A. Conservancy, and lent her voice to the org in countless campaigns to save some of the city’s historic and culturally significant homes and buildings.

“The more I got to know her, the more I understood where that passion came from,” said former L.A. Conservancy president Linda Dishman, who retired after 31 years with the org in 2023. “A lot of that came from her family and growing up in Los Angeles. Really having a connection to the stories and places that make L.A. the city that it is. She had a very genuine passion for historic preservation, not only for the buildings or the cultural landscapes, but for what they mean to people and what they would mean in the future. She definitely got the relationship with how we’re doing this for future generations.”

Keaton first became involved through her interest in historic homes — one of which, built by famed architect Lloyd Wright, she called her own. Her association with the group started when she was curious about the Spanish house owned by one of the Conservancy board members — but soon she got deeply involved with the org, speaking at one of its benefits and then joining its board.

“She was just charming, and it was great being with her, because we shared a passion for historic places,” Dishman said. “Houses were her first interest, and she bought historic houses and restored them, like the Lloyd Wright. But she very much cared about the whole architectural landscaoem and so the fight that she probably was most engaged with, because it took so long, was the Ambassador Hotel.”

Read more here.

Lamenting the Ambassador

Actress and preservationist Diane Keaton wishes now that an environmental argument had been used in the battle to Ambassador Hotel. She writes in an LAT op-ed:

Preservation has always been a hard sell in Los Angeles. But maybe in the years ahead it won't be as hard as it used to be, considering several new facts. No. 1, as my Dad would have said, a building represents an enormous investment of energy -- much bigger than we thought when we were fighting to save the Ambassador. No. 2, we now know that construction of new structures alone consumes 40% of the raw materials that enter our economy every year. No. 3, according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the resources required to manufacture these materials and transport them to a site and assemble them into a structure is the equivalent of consuming 5 to 15 gallons of oil per square foot. No. 4, a Brookings Institution study indicates that the construction of new buildings alone will destroy one-third of our existing building stock by 2030. And finally, No. 5, the energy used to destroy older buildings in addition to the energy used to build new ones could power the entire state of California for 10 years, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

We've treated old buildings like we once treated plastic shopping bags -- we haven't reused them, and when we've finished with them, we've tossed them out. This has to stop. Preservation must stand alongside conservation as an equal force in the sustainability game. More older and historic buildings have to be protected from demolition, not only because it affects our pocketbooks but more important because it threatens our environment.

Of course, as Keaton notes, every other argument failed to sway the LAUSD, and I'm doubtful these assertions would have changed anything.