Westwood Marquis Hotel Getting New Look and Name

Work has begun on a major remodeling of the 30-year-old Westwood Marquis Hotel and Gardens in an effort to attract younger business travelers who prefer contemporary styles and such high-tech amenities as Internet television.

The hotel will also emerge from the $20-million make-over with a new name, the W Los Angeles/Westwood, and take its place among a growing chain of similar hotels operated by White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts, owners of the Sheraton and Westin chains.

Starwood, which launched the new chain in December in New York, hopes to have 14 W hotels in operation worldwide by the end of 2000.

Work on the 16-story Westwood Marquis began last week and is scheduled to be complete in December. Rooms will be stripped of their beige, neo-traditional English decor. The new look will include silver matte walls, sleek furnishings and overstuffed chairs and love seats.

One in four of the new hotel’s 258 rooms will also be “home offices,” complete with oversized desks and all-in-one machines that fax, copy and scan, marketing director Teresa Holden said. All rooms will have Internet television. The hotel will remain open during the make-over.