PHOTOS: The W Hotel opens in the heart of Hollywood

Construction crews and staff members work to ready the W Hotel in Hollywood for its grand opening Friday.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The W Hollywood Hotel and Residences sits across the street from the Pantages Theatre and a few blocks from the Capital Records building.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The W Hotel surrounds the entrance to the Hollywood/Vine Metro subway station.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Trish Herremans, right, and Carl Staiger string LED lights across the courtyard of the W Hotel as construction continues on the hotel-residence complex. They are helping to install a sculpture by Erwin Radl using 40,000 lights strung across curved beams spanning the building’s courtyard.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The W Hollywod Hotel and Residences at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The W Hollywood Hotel and Residences is near the 101 Freeway and the Griffith Observatory.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Inside, Christian Moeller’s sculpture “Pushing” is among the works commissioned for public areas.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Outside, a rooftop pool boasts spectacular views of downtown.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Two staff members are reflected dozens of times as they ascend a mirror-lined spiral staircase in the hotel’s lobby. Call it unintentional art. Or is it?  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Undulating sculptured wood lines the ceiling of the residential lobby at the W Hollywood Hotel and Residences. The complex is in an area emerging as one of the more vital, walkable parts of Los Angeles.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Red carpet lines a staircase ascending over a bed of rocks in the hotel’s lobby.  (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)