[Image of the Ambassador Hotel site by flickr user GrahamKo]
The Ambassador Hotel has been mourned, eulogized, and commemorated. But just because almost the entire site has been demolished to make way for a new school, doesn't mean the LA Conservancy isn't going to go out fighting. The latest in a long series of legal battles, the LA Conservancy has filed suit AGAIN against the LA Board of Education for failing to make good on a couple of promises:
The litigation stems from the refusal of LAUSD to complete certain mitigation measures under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that were approved in 2004 as conditions of the Ambassador Hotel’s demolition. According to the LA Conservancy, the Board of Ed has approved its own "modified plan" for the site, one that doesn't include the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop, the Cocoanut Grove, or the pantry where RFK was assassinated. The pantry has already been dismantled and is sitting in 29 pieces in storage containers. The new plan also calls for the demolition and partial reconstruction of the Cocoanut Grove and the coffee shop would be “salvaged” and “reconstructed.” Not so fast, says the Conservancy, who senses the LAUSD may have intended to demolish these pieces all along:
LAUSD cited “unforeseen structural conditions” that make reuse “technically infeasible” but did not provide substantial evidence of infeasibility. Despite the Conservancy’s response citing the lack of evidence and the nonconformity of the modified plan with the one approved in court in 2004, LAUSD approved the modified plan with no changes on September 25.Don't the kids deserve to learn their reading and 'rithmetic in an architecturally and historically significant, partially reconstructed, adapted nightclub? We hear it makes long division so much easier.
· Preservation Issues: Ambassador Hotel [LA Conservancy]
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