On the plus side, I met a few local bloggers whom I enjoy on a daily basis. Oh yeah, baby. I get around, on the Internet that is. In no particular order there was one of the many Josh's from Curbed LA, who thinks I'm the nuttiest girl this side of Western...and he could be right. Then there was Pat from Eating L.A. who I instantly recognized, Jillian (a new voice over at blogging LA), Jim (Celia's little Trained Monkey) and the ever infamous Celia herself of 5th and Spring. On the non-blogging side of things we had Eric Lynxwiler of "that new Wilshire book" fame with his good friend Lynn Zook, Dave (the best bartender the Golden Gopher has ever seen), Craig Havens who's a damn good photographer, Bill who subcontracts for the LAUSD and worked on the demo of the building and some tall drink of water at the end of the bar that I briefly made eyes with. There were about 250 other people that I failed to meet...probably because we were holding court at the bar instead of mingling.
The evening was a very nice tribute to a building that undoubtedly helped shape numerous aspects of Los Angeles' history. Early on in this fight to save The Ambassador Hotel, just after the initial EIR, I attended a community meeting to listen to and discuss the alternatives to demolition. Now I can debate from here to get out on the pros of Adaptive Reuse, however it was then that I realized this was a no-win situation. The LAUSD has strict codes for classroom size, among other things. It was simply easier to demolish and construct new to their specifications than reconfigure and reinforce an already compromised structure. Perhaps I would feel more impassioned had I experienced the glory of the building in its heyday. Regardless, we should cherish the memories and look forward to a new generation who will hopefully one day understand what all the fuss was about.
I took a minimal amount of pics which can be found here.
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