The Premiere Hollywood motel has not won any prize lately. It has a rating of 1.5 stars in Trip Advisor, which classifies it 112 of 118 motels in Los Angeles.
“Never again,” writes a reviewer.
“I prefer to sleep in my car,” writes another.
But the possibilities of the motel to be named a historical cultural monument of Los Angeles? Strong. In fact, the Hollywood premiere could become the first motel in the city's monuments list.
The motel, which is located in Hollywood Boulevard and Serrano Avenue, is a 1960 setback whose neon sign rises on a sandy section of Hollywood Boulevard.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted unanimously to advance with the motel nomination as a monument. That action erases the way for a site inspection and another vote, probably in May. Then the nomination would go to a vote by the City Council.
“This for me is a milestone that defines the entire East Hollywood neighborhood,” said James Dastoli, a conservationist who nominated the property and spoke at the meeting. He called it “an excellent example of the modern style of the mid -century,” pointing to its Googie style sign, “simple geometric volumes, low slope roof, relatively castes and decorative concrete blocks.”
“My initial answer, looking at the nomination, was, In fact? “said the president of the commission, Barry Milofsky. But the more he read, the more he was persuaded.
As the first decades of the car culture and the design of the road begin to reduce in the rearview mirror, historians and conservationists say that public officials are increasingly fighting with the question of what artifacts to protect. A Hollywood motel of $ 99 per night could not carry a historical greatness to rival the Ahwahnee in Yosemite or the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, but as the author John Margolies writes in “Home Away of Home: Motels in America”, a motel in context also tells a valuable history, as part of the time of the time of American mobilies and popular culture “
The Hollywood premiere was built in 1960 with 42 units in a two -story building coated with stucco, a high -style of Googie style in a post, parking near the rooms and a pool in the corner of the lot behind the Breeze blocks. Once it had a cafeteria, but that space is now inactive. The architect was Joyce Miller, a woman who worked in a trade, dominated by men.
In 1973, Dastoli said that less independent motels were being built, the style of the mid -century was fading and the Hollywood premiere announced its water beds and adult movies on the pages of Los Angeles Times. However, in the course of 65 years on the boulevard, Dastoli wrote, the building itself has seen “minimum alterations.” The appearance of the motel has attracted a frequent filming in the last decade, including the “Twin Peaks” of TV, “Fargo” and “NCIS: Los Angeles” and the music video “Can't Stohting” 2016 by Justin Timberlake.
If approved, the motel would join a list of large and diverse historical monuments, which includes more than 1,300 companies, houses and landscape characteristics. The list, started in 1962, includes many family icons (Union Station, the Bradbury building, the Hollywood sign, etc.) but also many less obvious options, including the French restaurant Taix; The Biltmore Los Angeles hotel; The Studio City of Petroleum site now closed can Harry's Bar; and Green Dog & Cat Hospital in South La
The designation as a historical cultural monument of the city does not automatically protect a building from changes or demolition, or triggers any government spending in preservation. But once a building is designated a point of reference, the City Historical Resources Office must review the permission application before the modifications are allowed. The demolition is prohibited unless an environmental review has been approved.
The owners sometimes support historical designations and sometimes oppose them, hoping to maintain more flexibility to make changes. Bonnie XI, whose family has owned the motel since the 1980s, said he has not taken a position on the nomination. He also said that dealing with homeless people in the neighborhood had become more difficult and that they could consider selling soon.
Although the Hollywood premiere would be the first historical motel of the city, the city's main planner in the city's historical resources office, Ken Bernstein, said that the historical list of historical city includes a precursor to the motel.
That would be Monterey Trailer Park, which was appointed a milestone in 2002. Before it became a Park of Houses, that property in the Hermon neighborhood (near South Pasadena) served in the 1920s and beyond as a “car camp” for motorists who enjoy the new possibilities of automotive trips. The word “Motel” was coined in 1925 after many car camps, car courts and motor hotels in the United States.
Beyond the limits of the city of Los Angeles, at least one motel from southern California has won the historical designation: the San Bernardino Wigwam motel, which has been included in the National Registry of Historical Places since 2012. (Its 19 “Tecos” concrete along Route 66 remain open for business).
The Hollywood premiere nomination also pointed out two other motels from the middle of the century with prominent signs near Hollywood Boulevard east of the 101. One is the Harvard House motel (built in 1947). The other is the Hollywood Downtowner (1956) motel, which has been bought by the State Project HomeKey. Through that program, the Count of the Covenant House are turning the property of 30 units to serve as provisional housing for young people at risk of homeless.
