Century Plaza’s Suite: Live Like a King--for $3,000 a Night

Some may settle comfortably into the raw silk chairs, turn on the remote control TV in the Italian Renaissance armoire and pronounce the suite atop the Century Plaza Hotel tower as serene as a Monet landscape.

Others might simply be dazzled by the giddy thought that for $3,000 a night, plus $300 tax, they are ensconced in the richest den in Los Angeles, sleeping in the same canopy bed where presidents doze.

In either case, it is more than just a room with a view.

It is the Plaza Suite, occupying the entire top floor of the whiskey-brown 322-room tower, an opulent 4,000-square-foot living arena and equally expansive wraparound balcony offering a view of the Pacific, the downtown skyline and the mountains that ring the Los Angeles Basin.

Bright Lights

At night, a million lights sparkle from 30 stories below. In the distance, the Hollywood Hills, flush with neon color, can be seen through the creamy white, sheer cotton curtains that hang with studied informality from the 10-foot-high ceilings.

This is where the Reagans come practically every time they’re in Los Angeles. “They love the place,” said publicist Georgianne Francisco, adding that the First Family were the Plaza Suite’s inaugural guests when the suite was opened Christmas Eve, 1984.

George Bush has hung his vice presidential hat here, high above Century City on the fashionable Westside of Los Angeles. President Li and Madame Jamei of China have slept here. So have the presidents of Japan, Ecuador, Algeria and Coca-Cola.

Elton John and his wife hold the record for consecutive occupancy, having last year spent 2 1/2 weeks (and running up a $56,100 hotel tab) in the city’s most expensive accommodations.

Marble From Italy

After a private express elevator lifts the well-heeled guests to the 30th floor, the doors open softly onto the foyer, its floors awash in marble from Carrara, Italy--the most expensive marble in the world.

The entry rolls gently into the spacious living room, which has a warm beige- and rust-colored theme that carries across the suite.

A light brown tuxedo couch anchors the lush center of the room. There are two chocolate-brown, satin-covered sofas that set off an authentic eight-foot-high Italian Renaissance armoire; its thick wooden doors open to reveal an oversized color television with remote control.

There is also a large antique desk of museum quality and a pair of raw silk chairs.

Call It ‘Eclectic’

“Eclectic” is the word Francisco chooses to explain the suite’s mix of American antiques, Italian and French Renaissance and Oriental motifs--all designed by the prestigious Los Angeles-based Intradesign.

The bleached pickled-wood floors are decorated with custom-made Dhurry rugs from India that blend surprisingly well with the 18th-Century French gilded mirror. The raw silk walls are only interrupted by the canvas works of Jay MacCatterty, a prominent California artist.

Each room is graced with a live ficus tree embedded in white chrysanthemums.

In the entertainment room, where Reagan and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone sat for a historic photo session in January, 1985, shiny black, classical Chinese chairs stand like sentries beneath six colorful 18th-Century Italian etchings done by Joann Ottavian under the direction of Pope Clement XIII.

Asian Artworks

Across the room, a carved Shinto priest is mounted atop a white lacquer cabinet. Cobalt-blue plates from the Ming Dynasty are displayed on top of a red Chinese chest etched with gold dragons.

It took construction pulleys to lift the 12-foot, egg-white wraparound couch into the entertainment room.

A sit-down dinner for 12 is easily accommodated in the dining room, where a 12-foot, white-lacquered table spreads out beneath an ample crystal and wrought-iron chandelier. A restaurant-sized kitchen is located at the back.

The master bedroom, divided from the suite’s other bedroom by a marble-topped wet bar and two all-marble bathrooms, has a canopy bed that can be enclosed completely by heavy silk and cotton curtains.

The bed is fitted with European goose-down comforters. The room’s ornate trappings include three plush sofas with oversized pillows, and three telephones.

The bathrooms ripple with light and are replete with dressing areas, a digital scale, electric shoe shiners, sunken tubs with Gucci soap and whirlpool sprayers, two Jacuzzis and a 10-foot-high steam room with two telephones.

It is the Plaza Suite. George Washington never slept here. But he would have liked to.