'I Checked In for One Day and I've Been Here Ever Since'

Long after the last beat of rave music has ended, after the film crews have packed up every last foot of cable, after the wedding party has disbanded, the Park Plaza Hotel is still alive.

It just hums at a lower pitch.

To veteran night-lifers, the hotel is a steady venue for dance clubs like Scream and Power Tools in the '80s, and Truth in the '90s. Its grand halls are in constant demand for location shots. Glimpses of the place can be found in "The Bodyguard," "Chaplin," "Bugsy" and Hammer and Guns N' Roses videos.

But like a parallel universe, another kind of life goes on within the thick walls of this 68-year-old Art Deco building.

It's a life that belongs to the hotel's 50 permanent residents, whose home comes equipped with hand-painted vaulted ceilings, ornate chandeliers, a tiled lap pool, a marble lobby and enormous stone statues outside that stand like silent sentries, protecting those within.

What was built in 1925 as the Elks Club is now a 160-room hotel. When the club moved, the building was sold at auction in 1966 and converted. Rooms are rented by the day (starting at about $50) and residents--working people, retirees and students--lease rooms for about $350 a month.

Now the Park Plaza is listed as a historic site, and passers-by often mistake its imposing facade for a church. The 11-story, 200,000-square-foot ocher structure looms over MacArthur Park, a no-man's-land haunted by crack addicts and panhandlers swathed in grimy blankets. It lies within the boundaries of the LAPD's Rampart Division, one of the city's highest-crime areas.

Wilhelmina Fortner calls the Park Plaza "the eye of the storm. The activity kind of flurries around this place, but here it's safe."

The 3 1/2-year resident moved here after the Evangeline Residence for Women shut down. This was the next best thing: close to work--she's a therapist at USC's Child Guidance Clinic--and she could save money to buy a condo.

Fortner has since discovered a haven in the midst of an urban war zone.

"Each floor has a different surprise," she says in a soothing, whispery voice. Sitting in the lobby (she says her room is too messy for visitors), she adds: "I'm still working on different areas that I explore from time to time. There are several kitchens I didn't know existed. And there are little things, like I found that when I have my window open at an angle, it reflects all the sculptures. And I was polishing my doorknob one day and discovered that it was solid brass ."