The Hollywood Premiere Motel has not won any price recently. He has a score of 1.5 star on Travel advisorwhich classifies it 112nd of 118 motels in Los Angeles.
“Never again,” writes a critic.
“I prefer to sleep in my car,” writes another.
But the chances of the motel to be named a historic cultural monument of Los Angeles? Strong. In fact, the first Hollywood could become the first motel on the city's monuments list.
The Motel, which is in Hollywood Boulevard and Serrano Avenue, is a backtime of 1960 whose neon brand rises on a granular section of Boulevard Hollywood.
Thursday, the cultural heritage committee of the voted unanimously to move forward with the appointment of the motel as a monument. This action opens the way to an inspection of the site and another vote, probably in May. Then, the appointment would pass to a vote by the municipal council.
“For me, this is a benchmark that defines the entire East Hollywood district,” said James Dastoli, a curator who named the property and spoke at the meeting. He called it “an excellent example of the modern style of the middle of the century”, noting its sign of Googie style, “simple geometric volumes, a low slope roof, relatively driven outdoor walls and decorative concrete blocks”.
“My initial response, looking at the appointment,” was, Really? “The chairman of the commission Barry Milofsky.
While the first decades of car cultivation and the roadside design begin to shrink in the rear view mirror, historians and conservatives say that civil servants are struggling more and more about the question of artifacts to protect. A Hollywood motel from $ 99 to $ 99 may not have a historic size to compete with the Ahwahnee in Yosemite or the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, but as John Margolies writes in “Home Away from Home: Motels in America”, a motel in the context “.
The first Hollywood was built in 1960 with 42 units in a two -story stucco building, a large Googie style neon brand on a post, a parking lot near the rooms and a swimming pool at the corner behind the Breeze blocks. He once had coffee, but this space is now inactive. The architect was Joyce Miller, a woman working in a profession then dominated by men.
In 1973, Dastoli noted, fewer independent motels were under construction, the style of the middle of the century was upset and the first Hollywood announced its water beds and its adult films in the pages of Los Angeles Times. However, during 65 years on the boulevard, Dastoli wrote, the building itself saw only “minimum modifications”. The Motel's look has attracted frequent filming in the last decade, including “Twin Peaks” from TV, “Fargo” and “Ncis: Los Angeles”, and 2016 by Justin Timberlake 2016 “I can't stop the feeling” Musical video.
If it is approved, the motel would join a large, various Historical-cultural monuments List, which includes more than 1,300 companies, houses and characteristics of the landscape. The list, started in 1962, includes many familiar icons (Union Station, The Bradbury Building, The Hollywood Sign, etc.) but also many less obvious choices, including the French restaurant Taix; The Biltmore Los Angeles hotel; The now closed studio city site The oil can be Harry bar; and Green Dog & Cat Hospital in South
The designation as a cultural historical monument of the city does not automatically protect a building against changes or demolition, or triggers public expenditure for conservation. But once a building is appointed monument, the City Historical Resources Office must examine the permit application before any modification is authorized. Demolition is prohibited unless an environmental examination has been approved.
The owners sometimes support historical designations and sometimes oppose it, in the hope of maintaining more flexibility to make changes. Bonnie XI, whose family has owned the motel since the 1980s, said that she had not taken a position on the appointment. She also said that the treatment of the neighborhood's homeless had become more difficult and that it could consider selling soon.
Although the first Hollywood is the first historic motel in the city, the city's main planner of the city's historic resources office, Ken Bernstein, stressed that the historic historical list of the city includes a forerunner from the motel.
It would be the Monterey trailer park, which was named monument In 2002. Before it became a carrot park, this property in the Hermon district (near South Pasadena) served in the 1920s and beyond as “car camp” for motorists benefiting from new car travel possibilities. The word “motel” was invented in 1925 after many car camps, short automobiles and car hotels crossed the United States
Beyond the limits of the city, at least a motel in southern California won the historic designation – San Bernardino's Motel Wigwamwhich has been listed in the national register of historic places since 2012. (its 19 “Teepees” in concrete along Route 66 remain open for business.)
The appointment to Hollywood also noted two other Motels in the middle of the century with prominent panels nearby on Boulevard Hollywood east of 101. One is the Harvard House Motel (built in 1947). The other is the Hollywood Downtowner Motel (1956), which was bought by the State Project HomeKey program. Thanks to this program, the County of Los Angeles and Covenant House convert the property of 30 units to serve as temporary housing for young people at risk of homelessness.
