Delivering yet another blow to historical preservationists, the Los Angeles Board of Education decided Tuesday to tear down most of the structure of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub at the former Ambassador Hotel as part of its plans to build a school there. Officials said testing determined that the structure was too weak to withstand an earthquake.
Neighborhood activists, who have been waiting for the K-12 campus for years, applauded after the speedy 7-0 vote, which followed very little discussion by board members.
"It's been such a long process to get to where we are. We're talking years and years and years," said Sherly Chavarria, director of education and technology programs for the Central American Resource Center, who appeared at Tuesday's meeting to support the changes. "The fear was that perhaps time would be taken to revise the plan, to analyze other options for the Cocoanut Grove."
But the Los Angeles Conservancy, one of a number of groups that were embroiled in a failed legal battle against the district to block the hotel's destruction, said the board broke its promise to the community.
"In my mind, this issue is really probably more about accountability for LAUSD -- that if you say you're going to do something, you do it -- than the nitty-gritty of what are the issues of preservation of the Cocoanut Grove," said Linda Dishman, executive director of the conservancy. "We'll be talking to our lawyers."
In the meantime, the district will move ahead with its $341-million plan to build an elementary, middle and high school that will house 4,240 students on the 24-acre property. Demolition of the three-quarters of the Cocoanut Grove is slated for next month. Current plans call for completion of the K-3 building in 2009 and the remainder in 2010.
The district bought the site of the fabled 1921 hotel -- where presidents and politicians rubbed elbows with Hollywood celebrities -- in bankruptcy court in 2001 with grand plans to build a sprawling campus. By then, the hotel was dilapidated, having been closed for more than a decade.
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, home to six Academy Awards shows, turning it into a high school auditorium.
