Landscape Architect Articles

Schools, Park and Art Find Home on Historic Ambassador Hotel Site04-30-11 | News

Schools, Park and Art Find Home on Historic Ambassador Hotel Site

AHBE Landscape Architects
Editor Stephen Kelly

Looking south from above Wilshire Boulevard in central Los Angeles, we see Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park (foreground) and the campus (top) of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools. The school entry lawn (center) is reminiscent of the grand elevation from Wilshire Blvd. to the old Ambassador Hotel, which was completely demolished by January 16, 2006. The front building (the school auditorium) is on the footprint of the hotel?EUR??,,????'?????<

Once Upon a Time on the West Coast, 1921 to be exact, in a pueblo that had grown into the biggest metropolis on the West Coast, their resided a hotel called the Ambassador. The name was apt, for it hosted dignitaries from around the world. A number of U.S. presidents slept there, as did the chief adversary of the U.S., Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

A pylon tower (circa 1938) announced the vehicle entrance to the old Ambassador Hotel. The new pylon, on the footprint of the original, acknowledges the historic entrance. The new fountain and statue were reconstructed in the original basin. The bronze by Bobbie Carlyle depicts a woman riding a wave with sail-like wings. She based it on photographs of the original statue, said to depict Betty Grable. Tungsten halogens uplight the monument wall, and Atlantis 1407 ultra compact underwater fixtures (Lumiere Lighting) with low-voltage MR16 lamps light the fountain.

Back in the day, the Ambassador was Howard Hughes?EUR??,,????'?????<

In short, the hotel was a significant piece of Los Angeles cultural history. If you happened to have just watched that pretentious annual, over-inflated, overproduced ego boost for actors, the Academy Awards, you might have some nostalgia for the more intimate but no less ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The north end of Inspiration Park abuts busy Wilshire Blvd. The Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park was designed below street level to buffer the boulevard noise. The memorial wall is uplit with ingrade metal halides (Lumascape LS343), 39 watt T6. The housings are marine grade stainless steel, suitable for wet locations. The step lights are louvered compact fluorescents, 18 watt 4 pin T4 (Bega 2226P) with die-cast aluminum face plates.

When the hotel closed for business in 1989, the Los Angeles Unified School District scooped up the property with plans to build more schools. The Los Angeles Conservancy and seven other plaintiffs fought to save the hotel from demolition, but surrender that protracted fight in 2005. The following year the iconic hotel was demolished.

The Ambassador lives on in infamy for those who lived through the turbulent final years of the 1960s. Those who did won?EUR??,,????'?????<

The site artwork includes a freestanding stainless steel wall with a quote from Kennedy?EUR??,,????'?????<

Designing the Space
Working with Gonzalez Goodale Architects, AHBE Landscape Architect?EUR??,,????'?????<

More Robert Kennedy quotations and those from other social justice leaders are engraved on the extended sandstone wall behind the stainless steel wall. Surrounding the stainless steel wall is blue glass pavement with ingrade metal halide fiberoptic illuminators (Visual Lighting Technologies) depicting a star constellation pattern from the night of Robert Kennedy?EUR??,,????'?????<

Pilot Schools
The K-5 school is integrated with the middle school and high school. The campus was designed to accommodate six pilot schools, transforming the area?EUR??,,????'?????<

The high-density location of the site required AHBE and the design team to optimize the area?EUR??,,????'?????<

From the west-side middle school courtyard we see the six-story school building?EUR??,,????'?????<

Design Inspirations
In collaboration with LAUSD and Gonzalez Goodale Architects, AHBE incorporated several elements of the famous hotel into the campus design. The former entry lawn is reminiscent of the grand elevation from Wilshire Boulevard to the hotel, with the addition of field space for outdoor practices. Other historic references from the Ambassador Hotel include placement of the main high school entrance at the end of 7th Street, which was the hotel?EUR??,,????'?????<

The main entrance to the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools is on the east side of the campus at the end of 7th Street, the former site of the Ambassador Hotel?EUR??,,????'?????<

RFK Inspiration Park
The linear park is the northern end of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus and occupies one-third of an acre fronting Wilshire Boulevard. It was constructed by the L.A. Unified School District in 2010. The park slopes down from the busy thoroughfare, preserving views of the school buildings that now sit on the original Ambassador Hotel site.

Stepping down to the park?EUR??,,????'?????<

The amphitheater seating here is perfect for outdoor classrooms or just a place to relax and contemplate. Security, safety, maintenance and scale of landscape elements had to be incorporated into the design to meet the goals of the school district and the city. AHBE tied each landscape element spatially to the artworks, while supporting the park to transcend an inspiration and celebration of RFK?EUR??,,????'?????<

The pocket park adjacent to the pylon is a quiet, meditative spot with a grove of king palms, plantings of evergreen laurel cherry hedges, underplantings of Senecio, ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Audio Chronologies
Artist Mayra Alford designed two audio benches for the park titled ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Two linear terrace garden rooms connect the palm grove to the west and Inspiration Park to the east. They are characterized by double rows of white flowering crape myrtle trees planted in manicured lawns, framed by decomposed granite and metal benches against north facing vine covered walls.

The Pylon
The pylon at the west end of the park was built in 1938. It was a visual landmark for the automobile entrance into the hotel. It originally served as an advertising element for the hotel and celebrated the rise of car culture in Los Angeles. The pylon structure was designed in the 1930s Streamline Moderne style and included two concrete relief-wall sculptures (circa 1938) that portray hotel guests and hotel serving staff. The water spray fountain and statue at the base of the pylon have been reconstructed in the original basin to resemble the original water feature. The current bronze statue of a woman riding a wave with sail-like wings was designed by artist Bobbie Carlyle and is based on photographs of the original statue, said to have depicted Betty Grable, a popular movie star at the time.

Inspiration Park brings much-needed green space to one of Los Angeles?EUR??,,????'?????<

The landscape design of the park strives to inspire, a kind of spiritual journey told through artwork, highlighting the site?EUR??,,????'?????<

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Palm Grove
The palm grove is a quiet, cove-like, meditative pocket park at the base of a historic pylon tower, a vestige from the demolished Ambassador Hotel. It is surrounded by historic walls, evergreen Laurel Cherry hedge and adjacent high rise buildings. There?EUR??,,????'?????<

California native groundcover forms a ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The asymmetrical landscape layout shifts visitor?EUR??,,????'?????<

Terrace Gardens
Two linear terrace garden rooms connect the palm grove to the west and Inspiration Park to the east. They are characterized by the double rows of white flowering crape myrtle trees planted in manicured lawn carpets laid out in the center. This center green is framed by a decomposed granite paving and metal benches against north facing vine covered walls, creating familiar park geometry. These terraces are separated from the Wilshire Boulevard sidewalk by a series of steps. Park visitors strolling the sidewalk experience the green respite of deciduous Ginkgo biloba trees and Lomandra ?EUR??,,????'?????<

It?EUR??,,????'?????<

Within the Terrace Gardens, mural spaces are reserved for future art works by the Korea Town community. In pockets of planters orthogonal to the street are Hibiscus syriacus ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Lighting Design
HLB?EUR??,,????'?????<

Surrounding the stainless steel wall is blue glass pavement and a pattern of buried fiber optic lights that slightly pulse via a fiber-optic wheel within the illuminator to depict a star constellation pattern from the night of Kennedy?EUR??,,????'?????<

Moving west along the linear park, the art installation transitions into adjacent walls that terminate at the hotel?EUR??,,????'?????<

Throughout the park, low-level compact fluorescent step lights and bollards are integrated into walls and steps for night safety, without obstructing the vibrant view.

About AHBE Landscape Architects
AHBE Landscape Architects is an award-winning firm providing comprehensive landscape architecture and environmental planning services. The firm?EUR??,,????'?????<

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Design Team
AHBE Landscape Architects
Gonzalez Goodale Architects - Design/Executive Architects
Tetra Design - Historic Architect
Englekirk Co. - Structural Engineers
HLB Lighting - Lighting Designer
TMAD/Taylor & Gaines - Civil Engineers
JOMA Design Studio ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Photographs ?EUR??,,????'?????< Artwork by Judith Baca, Lynn Goodpasture,
Gale McCall, Kim Abeles
Art by May Sun, Richard Wyatt. Jr. and Bobbie Carlyle
Kennedy photo courtesy of RFK Center for Justice.

Vendors/Firm Responsible
DuMor Site Furnishings
Shaw & Sons
KRC Rock
Haws Corp. (drinking fountain)
Madrax (bike rack)