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Larchmont Chronicle Neighborhood newspaper representing Hancock Park, Larchmont Village
Miracle Mile, Park La Brea Fremont Place in the Wilshire center area of Los Angeles. Local News and
stories about the local Los Angeles Scene. Historical informattion regarding the Larchmont Chronicle and
Hancock Park area. Founded in 1963 on Larchmont Bouelvard, Los Angeles, CA, California

October 30, 2009

SCHOOL OPENS ON AMBASSADOR HOTEL SITE

Marina Muhlfriedel

AT DEDICATION Paul Schrade, a campaign official for the late Sen. Robert Kennedy, with Kennedy's grandchildren Max and Summer and their mother Vicki.

After years of debate over the usage of the former site of the Ambassador Hotel, and finally the resolve to construct a state-of-the-art kindergarten-to-12th-grade school on the 24–acre parcel, two pilot elementary schools have opened their doors.

Half of the 500 students attend the UCLA bi-lingual Community School (UCS), and the other, New Open World (NOW) Academy.

According to Laurie Walters, one of NOW’s lead teachers and part of the design team that first proposed the school, “It’s about technology opening the world for children into a global universe, where they can see no boundaries.”

At a recent ribbon-cutting, hundreds of students, parents, neighbors, local leaders, elected officials and family and friends of the late Sen. Kennedy gathered to celebrate the completion of the first phase of the project. It took place on the site of the once-elegant hotel where Kennedy was assassinated in 1968. Next year the modern and environmentally progressive center will also include a middle and high school, plus a pool, library and soccer field that will serve not only students, but also residents of the surrounding neighborhood.

The $571-million campus with its eye-catching grey, orange and white geometric look was designed by Gonzalez Goodale Architects of Pasadena. The elementary school faces 8th St. The middle school, which is in mid-construction, is a literal step up from the elementary school, and the high school will border Wilshire Blvd.

“LAUSD is in the middle of a school bond project to build 160 new schools, and this site is in the middle of a very densely populated area. They wanted to build a K-12 campus, the first for LAUSD, and eliminate having to bus the students out of their neighborhood,” noted Harry Drake, one of the architects.

“A lot of the community wanted to keep the original buildings, and it turned out to not be structurally feasible.” The Embassy Ballroom ceiling, however, is being reconstructed in what will be the high school library, the site where Sen. Kennedy made his last victory speech. The Cocoanut Grove is being painstakingly recreated as the school’s performing arts center.

When completed, the school will have a population of 4,400 students from within a nine-block radius. It’s a far cry from 1920, when Myron Hunt broke ground on the Ambassador Hotel and Cocoanut Grove Auditorium as a resort, in what was then a dairy field, part of the rural lands between downtown and Santa Monica.

Larchmont Chronicle
542½ North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Editor & Publisher: Jane Gilman
Associate Publisher: Irwin Gilman

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