A final farewell | Wilshire Grand Hotel to close after 59 years
Attorney Richard Macias works in his room at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and on Friday will be its last guest to check out. “I cherish the memories I have had here,” he says of the nearly 60-year-old hotel, which will be demolished to make way for a new 45-story hotel and a 65-story office tower expected to open in 2015.
See full story (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Mario Guillen, left, helps move the box spring for a mattress to a large storage room at the Wilshire Grand Hotel, which will be demolished and replaced by a $1.1-billion hotel and office complex. The 16-story hotel at Figueroa Street and Wilshire Boulevard was built for $25 million in 1952.
See full story (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Housekeeper Maria Jimenez closes a door on the 12th floor of the Wilshire Grand Hotel, where she has worked for 30 years. “I will miss my co-workers and my bosses the most,” she says. The hotel has offered laid-off workers severance packages or the right to return to their old position once the new hotel opens.
See full story (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Ernesto Vargas, left, and Wook Jin Lee enter a ballroom at the Wilshire Grand Hotel, where a party was held for current and former employees. The 896-room hotel is owned by Korean Airlines, a subsidiary of the South Korean conglomerate Hanjin Group. The owners had considered simply renovating the hotel, but found that the 1950s design was so inefficient that it made more sense to build a new hotel with more efficient air-conditioning and heating systems.
See full story (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
