Hollywood's premiere motel does not receive many favorable criticisms; In fact, it is among the lowest accommodations in the city. But thanks to its Googie design of the mid -century, it is the first motel to join the list of historical cultural monuments of Los Angeles.
The City Council approved that designation on Wednesday, pointing out the 1960 motel and its worn neon sign as the main examples of the glory days of road architecture. There was no opposition or discussion, nor the owner of the motel, listed as Yang Hua XI, took a position.
“It can have a 1.7-star tripadvisor rating, but we do not judge our reference points for the thread count,” said Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, whose district 13 includes the motel, in a statement.
This TripAdvisor score classifies the 110 motel of 118 motels in Los Angeles, and their Yelp reviews are not better. “He felt like vomiting,” wrote a Yelp user in May.
The two -story motel, found in Hollywood Boulevard and Serrano Avenue, was nominated by conservationist James Dastoli.
“This, for me, is a milestone that defines the entire East Hollywood neighborhood,” Dastoli said at a meeting of the city's cultural heritage committee in March.
“My initial answer, looking at the nomination, was, In fact? “said the president of the commission, Barry Milofsky.
Although the motel parking is often empty, its appearance has attracted a frequent filming in the last decade, including TWIN Peaks “of TV,” Fargo “and” NCIS: Los Angeles “, along with the music video” Can't Doelting “by Justin Timberlake of Justin Timberlake.
In their report on the site, city employees discovered that the motel serves as “an excellent example of a motel of the 1960s that accommodated automobile tourism in Hollywood” and is “a very intact and rare example of a motel of the 1960s in Hollywood.”
After the 1960s, the personnel report said that “the motels began to fall out of misfortune, since the holiday chains, La Posada, more and more dominated the industry” and tourists resorted to types of buildings more compact with interior runners, does not outside.
Soto-Martínez called the Hollywood premiere “a survivor, still standing after decades of change in Hollywood.”
The Hollywood premiere was built in 1960 with 42 units in a two -story building coated with stucco, with a high sign of Googie's style neon in a post, parked 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.
With Tuesday's vote, the motel joins a list of historical cultural monuments that includes more than 1,300 companies, houses and landscape characteristics. Started in 1962, the list includes family icons such as Union Station, the Bradbury building and the Hollywood sign, but also many less obvious options, including the French restaurant Taix (built in 1929); The Studio City of the Oil Can Harry's Bar site (which worked from 1968 to 2021; and Leone's Castle, a 1936 San Pedro Apartment building designed to resemble a French castle.
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 city staff report also cited several other housing on the road that serve as “exemplary and intact examples of the modern architectural style of the middle of the century”, including the Beverly Laurel Motor Hotel (1964), the Wilshire Twilight Motor Hotel (1958; now known as Dnes Inn) and the Motel of Hollywood Downtown (1956). of the state homekey project. Until now, the neon sign of the center on Hollywood Boulevard has been preserved.
