Links

Timeline

Frequently Asked Questions

Documents

Past Handouts

Ambassador Hotel Project Frequently Asked Questions

Is there going to be a school at the Ambassador site?
Yes! In fact, the District's goal is to provide 3 schools at the Ambassador site to help meet the intense overcrowding at schools in this neighborhood. The District is planning a K-12 campus on the site: an 825 seat elementary school, a 1,400 seat middle school, and a 2,150 seat high school.

How overcrowded are the schools in this area?
This community contains the most overcrowded schools in the District. The Ambassador would relieve five very overcrowded schools: Belmont High School, Los Angeles High, Berendo Middle School, Virgil Middle School, and Hoover Elementary. More than 3,800 children who live around these five schools are bused out of their neighborhood each day - sometimes over an hour each way. This is 3-4 times more children than are bused out of any other community. Simply put, this community is in desperate need of new schools.

Los Angeles High's current enrollment is 4,722, when it was built for approximately 3,373 students. Belmont High has 5,410 students though built for 3,300. Berendo's population is 3,332 students, built for 2,380. Virgil has 2,791 enrolled, built for 1,994. And Hoover Elementary has 2,177 students, built for 1,555.

What will happen to the hotel?
We don't know yet. There are many, many people interested in various uses of this site; the District cannot possibly please them all. When the District hosted the first community meeting about this project in January 2002, we assured the community that we would pursue as fair and open a process as possible in order to include a wide variety of voices in this decision making process. In fact, the comments and suggestions heard at that community meeting helped in creating the project alternates studied in our Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR).

The DEIR contains five project alternates instead of the usual single 'preferred' alternate. This is a strong indication of the District's due diligence and commitment to fully explore as many possibilities as feasible, while continuing to move forward on our obligation to provide this school as quickly as possible. The DEIR is scheduled to be released in June.

What are the five alternates currently under consideration?

A: Alternate One, Maximum Reuse, would reuse the original hotel tower, Embassy Ballroom, and Cocoanut Grove while preserving the corridor where Robert K. Kennedy was assassinated and the Paul Williams-designed coffee shop. Alternate Two, Partial Reuse, would reuse the Coconut Grove, reconstruct the Embassy Ballroom, and preserve both the RFK site and the coffee shop. Alternate Three, Reuse of North Tower, would reuse the North tower of the existing Ambassador Hotel building (the side facing Wilshire), and the Cocoanut Grove, while preserving the coffee shop. Alternate Four, New Construction, is entirely new construction, with no preservation. And Alternate Five, Commercial Frontage, would sell off the front six acres for commercial use while reusing and preserving most of the existing structure, much like Alternate One. Under this alternate, an elementary school could not be constructed and a new site for it would have to be identified.

How much would this cost?
A: Costs vary. Alternate Four, New Construction is the cheapest at about $286 million. Alternate Five, Commercial Use is the most expensive at a net total of about $379 million because we would need to purchase a new site to build the elementary school. Alternate One, Maximum Reuse (which reuses the entire existing structure) has a net total of about $374 million.

Why are the costs so high?
First, remember that three schools are being constructed on this site. However, there are a variety of other reasons that the costs are somewhat higher than usual. Because it is so dense, land in this area is quite expensive. Because we are building three schools on a relatively compact 24-acre site, we have to build underground parking and multi-story buildings - both of which are more expensive. In addition, there are a number of design considerations that are required to maximize open space, such as the need to stack the middle school gym on top of the high school gym, which also increase costs. However, even with all this, these schools will cost approximately just 10% more per seat than other schools in the District.

How would the District cover the higher cost if it chooses a more expensive option?
This is an open question that would have to be investigated further. The District has some discretion as to how much it spends on any particular school, but any project budget must be evaluated for its impact on the total construction budget for other schools in the District.

Can the hotel be converted into a school?
Yes. However, there is a cost premium as well as a number of operational challenges that must be addressed. There are also construction challenges of historic preservation that involve safety, supervision, and other instructional issues.

Will there be commercial frontage along Wilshire?
Alternate Five of the DEIR explores this thoroughly. In order to allow for commercial frontage, the LAUSD School Board would have to declare about six acres of land along Wilshire 'surplus' in order to allow it to be sold. In other words, the Board would have to vote that the District does not need this land. Because the size of the site would be reduced, the District would no longer be able to provide an elementary school and would have to find a new site in the surrounding heavily residential area. This need to identify a new site is what makes this particular alternative the most expensive of the five. A final decision will not be made, however, until the DEIR comment period is complete and is brought before the LAUSD Board for approval.

What's the timeline when will these schools open?
The District hopes to certify the final EIR by October, 2003. We would then complete our designs and environmental due diligence, get State approvals, and begin construction by March, 2005. Depending on the option chosen, the earliest completion date is September 2007 for Alternate Four, New Construction. Alternate One, Maximum Reuse and Alternate Five, Commercial Frontage have the longest timeline and would be completed around March, 2009. The other alternates fall between these two ends of the spectrum. This, of course, presumes no legal or construction timeline challenges that delay the schools beyond these dates.

Does the Ambassador site contain any environmental or seismic hazards?
The site does not contain any environmental problems that cannot be corrected. The District has done extensive exploration of the site - like most land in Los Angeles, there are some environmental issues, but they can easily be mitigated, and those plans are worked into our costs and schedules. There are no known seismic hazards.

Will the community be able to use the school's open space and athletic amenities?
Yes, absolutely. These three schools will have extensive open space and athletic amenities that will be open to community use after school hours and on weekends. These schools will also contain multipurpose rooms and an auditorium that can be used for special events, and will also contain adult education and training centers. These will be a tremendous benefit to a neighborhood that currently has a dearth of community-oriented amenities, facilities, and open space.