The Trinity Auditorium , later known as the Embassy Hotel and later still Trinity Hotel , is a historic building in Los Angeles, California . It was built as a plant for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South , in 1914. The Los Angeles Philharmonic debuted in this auditorium in 1919. It was used for jazz and rock concerts as well as labor union meetings from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was an annex of the University of Southern California from 1987 to 1998, when it was sold to the New York-based Chetrit Group . As of 2015, it has been vacant for more than a decade, with plans to remodel it into a new hotel.
28-561: The building is located on the corner of 9th Street and Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles . The nine-storey building was constructed with steel and concrete from 1911 to 1914. It was dedicated on September 20, 1914. It cost US$ 1 million to build. It was designed in the Beaux-Arts architectural style by Harry C. Deckbar as the main architect, assisted by Thornton Fitzhugh and Frank George Krucker . The building
56-579: A coherent, modern civic center. Charles Mulford Robinson 's 1909 plan focused on only a few major buildings between Main, Broadway, First and Temple. Lyman Farewell, Cook and Hall, the Allied Architects Association, the Regional Planning Commission, Frank Lloyd Wright , William Lee Woollett , Stanton & Stockwell , and landscape architect Ralph Cornell all contributed plans or partial plans, through
84-513: A complex of city , county, state , and federal government offices, buildings, and courthouses. It is located on the site of the former business district of the city during the 1880s and 1890s , since mostly-demolished. The Civic Center is located in the northern part of Downtown Los Angeles , bordering Bunker Hill , Little Tokyo , Chinatown , and the Historic Core of the old Downtown. Depending on various district definitions, either
112-471: A full build out around city hall by the year 2032, specifically the east facing front. The CCMP schedules for a full tear down of Parker Center (torn down in 2019), L.A. City Hall's "south" building, and the Los Angeles Mall . The CCMP is to connect City Hall in a pedestrian-friendly way with its surrounding neighborhood and Little Tokyo . The CCMP calls for active ground-floor uses, to stimulate
140-716: The Los Angeles Times newspaper. As part of the Grand Avenue Project , Grand Park was created in 2012, encompassing the former Civic Center Mall and additional areas such that it now stretches from the Los Angeles Music Center complex to City Hall . Now, the city looks to bring pedestrian life into the area. In March 2017, the Los Angeles City Council approved a new Civic Center Master Plan (CCMP). It details
168-561: The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco . Transportation is provided by Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority , and includes an A Line station , A and E Line station , J Line stops , and bus lines 37, 38, 55, 70, 76, and 78. Civic Center, Los Angeles The Civic Center neighborhood of Los Angeles, California , is the administrative core of the City of Los Angeles , County of Los Angeles, and
196-862: The Grand Olympic Auditorium . California Plaza is an outdoor plaza on Grand Avenue, next to One and Two California Plaza . The Millennium Biltmore , the largest hotel in the United States west of Chicago when it opened, is located on Grand Avenue and 5th Street . Los Angeles Central Library and the Gas Company Tower also abut Grand Avenue at this intersection. Several higher education campuses are located on Grand Avenue, including Colburn School , Los Angeles Trade–Technical College , Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising , and Metropolitan Junior College . High schools on Grand Avenue include High School for
224-525: The Los Angeles Police Department until 2009, opened on the east side of Los Angeles Street, pushing the civic district's eastern boundary to Alameda Street, establishing the current Civic Center footprint such that now nearly the entire area between Hope and Los Angeles streets, US-101 , and Second Street, consists of civic buildings - the single large exception being the city block called Times Mirror Square , former headquarters of
252-798: The Museum of Contemporary Art and The Broad . The Broad was built as part of the Grand Avenue Development Project. Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels , the largest church in California and sixth largest in the United States, is located on the corner of Grand Avenue and Temple Street . Glory Church LA, the American English ministry of the Korean Glory Church , is also located on Grand Avenue, in
280-678: The Van Nuys Civic Center in the San Fernando Valley , as well as a neighborhood city hall in San Pedro . The Regional Connector that opened on June 16, 2023, serves this area with two stations at Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill station and Historic Broadway . Part of what is now the Civic Center occupies what was the central business district (CBD) of the 1880s and 1890s , which was first centered at
308-614: The 1930s to the 1950s, jazz artists like Duke Ellington , Count Basie and Charlie Parker performed here. By the 1960s, the auditorium was used for rock concerts. The building was acquired by the University of Southern California in the 1987, when it was used as a residential building and an annex. They sold it to the Chetrit Group , chaired by Joseph Chetrit , in 1998. By 2005, the Chetrit Group decided to remodel
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#1732780099644336-672: The Civic Center or Bunker Hill also contains the Music Center and adjacent Walt Disney Concert Hall ; some maps, for example, place the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the Civic Center but the Disney Concert Hall in Bunker Hill. The Civic Center has the distinction of containing the largest concentration of government employees in the United States outside of Washington, D.C. The reason for
364-701: The Grand Avenue Committee was created with the goal of "uniting the separate government entities that often were at odds — the City and the County of Los Angeles — by bringing their representatives together in a joint powers authority focused on just one issue – reimagining Grand Avenue." In 2005, Frank Gehry was hired to design an entertainment area and shopping complex, and this along with the Walt Disney Concert Hall were critical to
392-593: The Visual and Performing Arts and Orthopaedic Hospital Medical Magnet . Dignity Health 's California Hospital Medical Center is located on Grand Avenue at 14th Street . Other landmarks on or abutting Grand Avenue include the Wells Fargo Center , Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration , Stanley Mosk Courthouse , One Wilshire , South Park Lofts , Trinity Auditorium , and the Los Angeles branch of
420-629: The avenue's success. In 2022, the Grand Avenue Project was completed, further developing the avenue. The Los Angeles Dodgers 2024 World Series championship parade was held down Grand Avenue. An estimated 225,000 fans attended the event. The Los Angeles Music Center , located on the corner of Grand Avenue and 1st Street is a performance arts complex that houses the Ahmanson Theatre , Dorothy Chandler Pavilion , Mark Taper Forum , REDCAT , and Walt Disney Concert Hall . The Walt Disney Concert Hall, famous for its steel focused design,
448-656: The building as the Gansevoort West hotel scheduled for 2006. The new hotel was supposed to be an LA version of the Hotel Gansevoort in New York City. However, by 2007, the project had been cancelled. By 2012, the owners decided to turn it into another hotel called the Empire Hotel, with "183 hotel rooms, a groundfloor restaurant, an outdoor garden, a bar, and an entertainment venue." The remodel
476-581: The high concentration is simple: Los Angeles is the most populous county in the United States and its second largest city, and houses several state and federal functions for the region. Los Angeles' 1949 master plan called for branch administrative centers throughout the rapidly expanding city. In addition to the main civic center downtown, there is the West Los Angeles Civic Center in the Westside (built between 1957 and 1965) and
504-419: The late 1950s. There was a "Mulholland Committee" to adopt one, and the location was put to the public for a vote in the late 1920s. The public voted overwhelmingly to confirm the location, but the city and county differed on which plan to adopt. There was later a Civic Center Advisory Committee and then in 1945, a Los Angeles Civic Center Authority. But never was a single plan adopted. Nonetheless, construction of
532-637: The northern section of that neighborhood (from Temple south to Second St.). The plan also conceived two County buildings: Stanley Mosk Courthouse completed in 1958, the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration opening in 1960, designed by Stanton, Stockwell, Williams and Wilson in Late Moderne style, flanking either side of a new pedestrian mall , Civic Center Mall, now part of Grand Park . A new Los Angeles County Hall of Records arose nearby in 1962. The 1955, Parker Center , headquarters for
560-676: The pedestrian traffic that the Civic Center currently lacks. Four new government and office towers are described in the plan as well as the planned Park 101 recreational area. A design approach idea to cover U.S. Highway 101 as a trench with green space above. Connecting with Union Station and Olvera Street . West side of Figueroa between Temple and First: Between Figueroa and Hope: Between Hope and Grand: Between Grand and Hill: Between Hill and Broadway: Between Broadway and Spring: Between Spring and Main: Between Main and Los Angeles St.: Between Los Angeles St. and Alameda: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services operates
588-620: The southern end of the Los Angeles Plaza and grew to the south and west along Main Street , Spring Street and Broadway , with Third & Broadway forming its southwestern anchor by the mid-1890s. As upscale businesses moved further south into the Historic Core around 1900–1910, the Victorian-era blocks became the "north end" of the business district and became increasingly neglected. There were numerous grand plans for
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#1732780099644616-575: The third president of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Beyond Methodist services, the auditorium was used to show silent films. For example, actress Norma Talmadge watched a film she starred in, The Battle Cry of Peace , in this auditorium in 1915. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Philharmonic debuted here in 1919. From the 1920s to the 1950s, the auditorium was used as a venue for labor union meetings. Additionally, from
644-627: The various buildings proceeded one by one, starting with the City Hall and the Hall of Justice in the 1920s, and the California State Building (already demolished) in 1931. One of these plans which was not adopted in its entirety, the 1947 Civic Center Master Plan, nonetheless envisioned the demolition of the once-tony residential area Bunker Hill , which happened in the 1950s and allowed the Civic Center to expand westward across
672-497: The wife of Norman Chandler , who was then the publisher of The Los Angeles Times, the avenue was intended as a citadel of office towers and cultural monuments at the top of Bunker Hill.” In order to do this, neighborhoods were bulldozed down, replaced by skyscrapers, freeway ramps, tunnels, parking lots, underground roadways, and streets. In 1966, the Civic Center was built between Grand Avenue and Hill Street . In 2001,
700-669: Was a church planting for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South , with a large auditorium boasting the largest pipe organ in the Western United States and a men-only hotel on the six upper floors (renamed the Embassy Hotel in 1930). It also came with "a cafeteria, roof garden, library, gymnasium, smoking room, bowling alley, nursery, barber shop, hospital and 16 club rooms." The pastor was Reverend Charles Claude Selecman , who later served as
728-603: Was completed in 2003 and since then has paved the way for further developments in the area. Grand Park is a three block park that connects the Music Center on Grand Avenue with City Hall on Spring Street . The park's redevelopment was a major part of the Grand Avenue Development Project. Grand Hope Park , the final landscape along the Los Angeles Open Space Network , is also located on Grand Avenue. Two museums are located on Grand Avenue:
756-478: Was renamed by City Council in 1887. During this time, the avenue was home to many mansions and hotels, with most of the mansions converted into rooming houses or hotels in the early the 20th century. In the 1950s, the much of Grand Avenue was converted from residential to a financial district. As stated in the New York Times , “first conceived in the 1950s by downtown power brokers like Buffy Chandler ,
784-494: Was still underway in 2014. Grand Avenue (Los Angeles) Grand Avenue is a major north–south thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California . Primarily located in downtown's Bunker Hill , Financial , and South Park districts, the avenue features many of the area's most notable destinations, and also connects to City Hall via Grand Park . Originally called Charity Street (or Calle de la Caridad in Spanish), Grand Avenue
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