In Support of LAUSD Teachers: The Strike Begins

The rain is pouring in Los Angeles, but that's not dampening spirits on the picket line as teachers and supporters fight to improve the quality of education being offered by the Los Angeles Unified School District. Maria took these shots this morning outside the Blogger Teen's school.

Higher pay, smaller class sizes, more support staff. Our children, and the people tasked with preparing them for the future, deserve it. And as a society, we need to get our priorities in order. 

The fact that we rank so low in education funding is California's shame. Time to do something about it. It's truly unfortunate that we got to this point. In solidarity with LA's teachers.

Watch the LAUSD and Jamie Oliver Make Nice on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live'

LAUSD Supt. John Deasy made a surprise appearance on Tuesday's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in order to make nice with Jamie Oliver. Oliver's ABC series "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" famously clashed with the LAUSD schools -- but now Deasy is pledging that the school system will no longer serve sweetened (think chocolate or strawberry) milk. Hey, it's a start. (Watch above.)

Amabassador Cam: Robert F. Kennedy Schools and Pocket Park Finally Open

The LAUSD is finally taking down that ugly chain link fence in front of the Ambassador Hotel site -- making the new street-level "Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park" open to the public.

The new park is unveiled just as the long-in-the-making Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools complex officially opens its doors today.



The new schools, which sit on the land where the Ambassador Hotel once stood -- have been controversial, and not just because of how the hotel was razed. The Wall Street Journal just wrote a scathing editorial on the complex's price tag, including the park (pegged at $4.9 million).



Here's how LAUSD describes the park, via the Wilshire Center Business Improvement District:

The Kennedy Inspiration Park occupies a 19,000-square-foot section of the site fronting Wilshire Boulevard. The park slopes downward from the busy street, preserving views of the school buildings from the street, terminating in a focal stainless steel wall designed by artists May Sun and Richard Wyatt. The rectangular sheet is etched with an image of Robert F. Kennedy in sandstone and displays an array of inspiring quotes from champions of social justice. The idea is to create a space that encourages contemplation of Kennedy's legacy of social justice. The park also provides spaces for eating lunch, playing chess and quiet contemplation.

Read our coverage of the Ambassador Hotel's demise here.

Hawthorne on the Ambassador School: "Worst of Both Worlds"

(Photo by Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)

L.A. Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne has gotten his first lengthy glimpse of the new school on the old Ambassador site -- and color him unimpressed.

Ultimately, the school is a double tragedy, he notes: Not only did the LAUSD destroy the historic 1921 Ambassador Hotel on the site.. but then it turned around and built its most expensive school ever ($578 million) -- in a misguided attempt to emulate the look of the original.

That's a lot of money spent just to copy the original -- without preserving much of the original at all.

Double fail, he writes:

L.A. and its cultural guardians, in other words, had the decisiveness neither to save the original hotel complex as a school nor to make a clean break with the past by building an ensemble of entirely new buildings. Instead the LAUSD settled on an architectural path — confused, expensive and a little macabre all at the same time — that suggests that the city has now entered a kind of limbo when it comes to cultural maturity. It is neither young enough to energetically (if blithely) embrace the future nor self-aware enough to fully protect its architectural heritage, particularly when that protection requires significant investment from cash-strapped public agencies.

What other city would knock down a major cultural landmark — a hotel where half a dozen early Academy Award ceremonies were held, to say nothing of the site's architectural and political significance — but then insist that the school replacing it squeeze into the same shape, so that anybody who remembers what used to be there is confronted not with tangible history but a ghostly shell of the original?

I kinda agree with Hawthorne, yet there is that macabre part of me that likes the idea of looking at Fake Ambassador, and pretending that it's still the real thing. But I suppose that's akin to the horrific attempt at preservation right across the street, where the shell of the old Brown Derby restaurant derby sits atop a strip mall.

Check out our coverage of the Ambassador Hotel's last days here.

It's Official: The Ambassador Hotel School Will Be Named After Robert Kennedy

It obviously makes sense that the high school rising from the ashes of the late, great Ambassador Hotel be named after Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, of course, was assassinated at the hotel in 1968, moments after giving a victory speech for winning California's presidential primary.

The historic value of the Ambassador was one of the arguments used in the attempt to save the hotel from destruction. Students might have once been able to go down to the actual pantry where RFK was shot; instead, they'll have to make do with knowing they're on the same grounds.

The Kennedy family weren't so nostalgic about the site, having put their weight behind tearing the hotel down in order to more quickly build a school.

On the bright side, there does seem to be an effort to at least pay tribute to history. The school itself has been built over the exact same footprint as the hotel -- which means it takes the same shape as seen from the street. And the LAUSD has restored the old entryway to how it once looked.



Here's the details from the L.A. Times:

he education complex at the site of the once-grand Ambassador Hotel will be named in honor of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was killed there by an assassin in 1968. The long-expected honor, approved by the Los Angeles Unified school board this afternoon, faced no opposition. The discussion quickly evolved into a tribute to the senator, who was cut down as he celebrated his win in the Democratic presidential primary at the storied Wilshire Boulevard hotel.

“We can now continue the legacy of Robert F. Kennedy,” said Kennedy friend Paul Schrade, who has worked with local allies for years to create a school as a fitting memorial for the senator.

The Ambassador school project has become “a symbol of hope for so many of us,” said board member Nury Martinez, who like others struggled to keep her composure.

The effort that resulted in the Kennedy complex began in the 1980s, when the school district battled over the decaying Ambassador Hotel with developer Donald Trump, who wanted to build the world’s tallest building on the site. That tug-of-war persisted for more than a decade, even after Trump ceded his interest to other developers.

I guess that's one other bright spot -- thank goodness Trump's nutty idea of building the world's tallest building on the site never got anywhere.

Ambassador Cam, #44 in a series

One final look this year at the new high school on the Ambassador Hotel site -- still without a name -- as it moves closer to completion. (The school is set to open in fall 2010.)

Here's the updated info on the site, from the LAUSD:

This project is the second phase of improvements for a comprehensive K-12 learning center being constructed at the site of the former Ambassador Hotel in the Mid-Wilshire District of Los Angeles. This project will provide 1,000 new middle school seats, 2,440 new high school seats, construction of a public park, restoration of the Cocoanut Grove and pylon structures, athletic facilities, and two-thirds of the site-wide methane mitigation system. Ultimate improvement of the Cocoanut Grove will include a 500-seat auditorium, and the restored Paul R. Williams Coffee Shop to be used as the staff/teacher lounge. This phase also provides four of the six commissioned art pieces for the site-wide public art program, commemorating the Ambassador Hotel's cultural and social history. The budget for the K-3 facility is included in the total budget for this project.

The school district cut the ribbon on the site's K-5 school back in October. The official press release:

CLALC#1 K-5 opened to more than 800 students on September 9, 2009.

"My father was a champion of those who suffered disadvantages in America. He was actively engaged in helping people help themselves through community action," said Maxwell Kennedy, son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. "This new K-12 learning center will educate and empower our young people and their parents to fight for economic and social justice. I know of no better way to advance the living legacy of Robert Kennedy."

"The messages Robert F. Kennedy worked to deliver to us decades ago - that we can all be part of a change for a better world, a greater world - are alive with us as we celebrate the opening of not one, but two exciting new pilot schools here at Central Los Angeles Learning Center #1 K-5," Board President García said. "Years of commitment and struggle led by parents and the community come to fruition today as we mark profound change for students that now have two unique small schools dedicated to incorporating new and innovative methods of teaching."

The new elementary school site features two pilot schools (schools within the LAUSD given charter-like autonomy over curriculum): University California Los Angeles (UCLA) Community School (UCS) and New Open World (NOW) Academy. Both schools provide students with an opportunity to continue their education on the same school site once the middle and high school portions of the larger campus are completed.

An Early Look at the New School on the Ambassador Hotel Site

They destroyed Los Angeles' landmark Ambassador Hotel. Now, if there's any consolation, the LAUSD is at least making an effort to pay tribute to the legendary hotel by re-creating the famed Paul Williams coffee shop, as well as modeling the school's auditorium after the Cocoanut Grove.

I guess it's something. LA Mag's Chris Nichols was contacted (he has a rare color photo of what the coffee shop looked like) and filed this report (at the LAMag site) on his visit to the Ambassador site:

The main building was demolished in 2006, but vestigal remains (very vestigal) were retained and are being restored. Other elements are being recreated, and that’s why I got a call.

Being a collector of vintage Los Angeles ephemera, I had what turned out to be the only color photograph of the Paul R. Williams-designed coffee shop at the hotel in its prime. South Pasadena-based restoration architect Mark Stankard is rebuilding this lost dining area as a teacher’s lounge in the new school and planned to match its 1940s colors and finishes.

During our visit Mark showed off the west wall of the Cocoanut Grove, the entrance canopy, and the original driveway pylons that have been retained and are being restored. The main auditorium, modeled after the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, will be on the same site as the original. Along Wilshire, workers swarmed all over the sign tower, which will once again feature elaborate water jets and a replica of the classical nude sculpture that welcomed visitors. This time she’ll be draped in a “negligee” added by the Denver-area sculptor. Much of the Wilshire frontage, including the driveway, will become a pocket park complete with art installations of tile and benches inspired by the hotel that feature a repeating soundtrack of music from the Grove and ghostly, disembodied memorials from long ago visitors.

Go to the site (scroll down) to read more -- including a bizarre-o Sharon Stone story.

Ambassador Cam, #43

Construction on the LAUSD's $572 million new high school on the site of the old Ambassador Hotel continues. The district says the new school (still unnamed) is on tap to open in fall 2010. Here's the fact sheet for the construction, which will encompass 391,840 square feet.



And here's the latest LAUSD monthly program status report on the project:

-- The Phase I K-3 project is currently 83% complete and is on schedule for occupancy in fall 2009. The methane mitigation system and underground utility rough-ins are complete. Classroom framing is complete; utility rough-ins are complete and interior fixtures and finishes are nearly complete. The structures for the central plant and parking facility are complete and finishes are nearly complete.

-- Delivery and installation of central plant equipment is complete and initial commissioning steps are underway. Site retaining walls and other structures are nearly complete. Permanent power is expected by the first week in March.

The school promises to deliver 1,000 new middle school seats and 2,440 new high school seats.

Ambassador Cam, #42

A year after the destruction of the final piece of the Ambassador Hotel (the Cocoanut Grove, which had survived the initial tear-down), here's what's now on the site. So far, the frame looks a lot like the old hotel, as if it had been stripped to its studs.

According to the LAUSD's December "Monthly Program Status Report" for new construction, here's the latest news from the site:

• The Phase I K-3 project is currently 70% complete and is scheduled for occupancy in fall 2009. The methane mitigation system and underground utility rough-ins are complete. Classroom framing is complete, utility rough-ins are complete, and interior finishes are well under way. The structures for the central plant and parking facility are complete and finishes have commenced. Delivery and installation of central plant equipment is well under way. Site retaining walls and other structures are well under way.

• The MS/HS project is 38% complete, with school occupancy scheduled for fall 2010. Underground utilities, methane mitigation system and building foundations are nearly complete. Structural steel framing is complete, with a traditional "topping out" ceremony scheduled for November 21, 2008. Fireproofing, utility rough-ins and interior framing are well under way. Site retaining walls are well under way. Off-site work is well under way.

Meanwhile, here's the view from Catalina Street.

Boo: LAUSD At It Again, Threatening Another Historic Site

(Abandoned military bunker; Flickr pic by Eyetwist.)

It's hard to argue against building new schools... yet the Los Angeles Unified School District continues to destroy old L.A. landmarks in the process. The recent victims have been heartbreaking -- the Ambassador Hotel, of course, on the top of that list.

Next up: The Los Angeles Times reports that the LAUSD plans to tear down historic buildings on the site that was once San Pedro's Ft. MacArthur:

When the bulldozers come to Ft. MacArthur next spring, Joe Janesic will take it personally.

For more than two decades, the 40-year-old has been a mainstay of the historic military site in San Pedro that was built in 1914 and served as an Army post until 1974. He organizes events, conducts tours, handles media and even restores vintage phones -- all as a volunteer. A founding member of the Ft. MacArthur Museum, he has dedicated his life to preserving every relic on the grounds.

"The buildings here were unique because of the time they were built and the methods they used -- old construction techniques that don't exist anymore," Janesic said excitedly one rainy Sunday as he pointed to a map outlining the area. "The look, feel and smell of the tactile structures -- you can't reproduce that."

So if one day the row of beige military barracks where Army reserves once slept is mowed over, if the dilapidated mess hall where tens of thousands of soldiers once ate is destroyed, if the Quonset hut that housed olive drab trucks and jeeps is demolished -- Janesic will be just as devastated as the buildings.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has plans for the land, which it has owned since 1979 when the military turned it over to the school system for educational use. The district plans to raze the structures for what is referred to as South Region High School No. 15. The 47 acres may soon be a 128,000-square-foot annex to San Pedro High School that will include the marine science and police academy magnets.

Ambassador Hotel: That's All, Folks

(Photo by Tod Tamberg, by way of LA Observed.)

And so it goes. The ghosts of Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., the Academy Awards and the hundreds and hundreds of others who once graced the stage of the Cocoanut Grove now have no place to go.

As LA Observed reports, the final tear down of the Ambassador Hotel has begun.

As you're well aware, the final challenge to the LAUSD wound down at the end of last year, paving the way for the school district to tear down the last remaining part of the hotel. The majority of the Ambassador was torn down in 2006; full coverage can be seen at our Ambassador's Last Stand blog.

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.