In the minds of many event planners, hotel parties conjure images of loud patterned carpets, tinselly chandeliers, and stale, passé decor—and their impressions are based on years of experience in those settings. But it’s a new age for Los Angeles hotels. Stylish properties are popping up all over town, old ones are being thoroughly revamped, and event producers are booking these spaces more than ever for their character, cachet, and convenience.
“Because of how the city is changing, properties that were in disarray are coming back again,” says designer Wayne Woods of Woods Exquisite Flowers, who worked on this year’s Sony/BMG Golden Globes celebration at the Spanish Colonial-style Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “And hotels make a lot more sense for parties than putting up tents in parking lots next to nightclubs at great expense and labor.”
The location of the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, the Roosevelt also hosted a poolside party for Details and Nautica in April, and just got a multimillion dollar face-lift from designer Dodd Mitchell (the renovation is so fresh, the gym still hasn’t opened). It’s just one of a number of Los Angeles’ newly chic hotels. Hotelier Jeff Klein (who owns the City Club in New York) is pouring money into a much-hyped remodel of the Sunset Boulevard landmark the Argyle, which survived several attempts to demolish it in the 70’s and 80’s before Vogue editor and style arbiter Anna Wintour hosted a party there during Los Angeles Fashion Week in March.
The Kor Hotel Group—owners of Avalon and Santa Monica’s boutique hot spot the Viceroy—opened the Chamberlain hotel on Westmount Drive with a clean, masculine look in April. “[Kor’s] specialty is finding undervalued properties in prime, up-and-coming locations and reinventing them,” says PR manager Jennifer Dowd. And these days reinvention requires dedicated event spaces to meet demand—even the petite 112-room Chamberlain has a 500-square-foot high-tech meeting room, as well as a rooftop patio space for receptions.
One impetus for the burgeoning popularity of hotels has been changes in the Hollywood area. When the Kodak Theatre (which now hosts the Academy Awards ceremony) went up at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue four years ago—in a new shopping complex, just above a stop on the subway’s Red Line—that area became the epicenter for events and tourists, sending hoteliers scrambling to capitalize on the renaissance. What was built as the Hollywood Hotel in the early 1900’s there reopened its doors as the new Renaissance Hollywood in late 2001, featuring 50,000 square feet of meeting space and a Wolfgang Puck-catered grand ballroom with 25,090 square feet and sweeping views.
Hollywood-area hotels are also desirable because of their proximity to historic theaters. “Parties after premieres at the Mann Chinese Theatre used to go much further west to the clubs in Beverly Hills or [southwest to] the La Brea and Wilshire areas,” says Bragman Nyman Cafarelli account director Stephanie Rudnick. “Now the area is seeing so much new business—it’s a safe, great area.”
The success of Hollywood hotels has spread the hotel sprawl elsewhere, too. In the downtown area traditionally known as a ghost town on weekdays past 5 PM and all weekend, Andre Balazs opened a Standard hotel in 2003 (four years after his original Standard on Sunset) with a lobby billiard lounge and a red-AstroTurfed rooftop bar. Among its recent parties were fashion authority Gwen Stefani’s album release party this past November and an Alias DVD release party last summer.
Nearby, and just a block from the Staples Center and the Harbor Freeway, the restored 1920’s Figueroa Hotel—which recently got a Morocco-inspired makeover—added the Rick’s Place outdoor bar to its slate of event spaces last fall, and promptly hosted Gisele Bündchen’s birthday bash for Leonardo DiCaprio. (And both hotels are conveniently close to Frank Gehry’s much-cooed-over Walt Disney Concert Hall.)
Of course, Los Angeles still has its share of popular bars and nightclubs, but the city’s cool new hotel options are reminding planners of the benefits hotels have always afforded—like extended load-in and -out times. “Hotels just make the job easier,” says TSE meetings and incentives vice president Lauren Levy. “They have all the resources in-house, and you don’t have to outsource anything.” Plus, Rudnick says, “It’s convenient for planners to stay in blocks of rooms at the hotel, then go downstairs to work on their events.”
In theory, their experience catering to out-oftown guests should mean hotels treat event guests better as well. “They just make better drinks because they’re in the service business,” says Amanda Demme, whose company, ASD Entertainment, operates three venues within the Roosevelt—the poolside Tropicana, the Lobby Bar, and private event space Teddy’s.
Even with all the new developments, for some it’s the old Los Angeles hotels that are more desirable than gleaming new nightclubs. “Hotels like the Chateau Marmont have the character and the history of old Hollywood, onto which you can impose your events’ own touches,” says Wendy Schellinger, E! Networks’ associate director of special events and promotions, who plans dozens of events each year. “Plus, they deliver on that great Hollywood Hills view.”
—Alesandra Dubin
Photo: WireImage
This story originally appeared in the June/July 2005 issue of the BiZBash Event Style Reporter.
“Because of how the city is changing, properties that were in disarray are coming back again,” says designer Wayne Woods of Woods Exquisite Flowers, who worked on this year’s Sony/BMG Golden Globes celebration at the Spanish Colonial-style Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. “And hotels make a lot more sense for parties than putting up tents in parking lots next to nightclubs at great expense and labor.”
The location of the first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, the Roosevelt also hosted a poolside party for Details and Nautica in April, and just got a multimillion dollar face-lift from designer Dodd Mitchell (the renovation is so fresh, the gym still hasn’t opened). It’s just one of a number of Los Angeles’ newly chic hotels. Hotelier Jeff Klein (who owns the City Club in New York) is pouring money into a much-hyped remodel of the Sunset Boulevard landmark the Argyle, which survived several attempts to demolish it in the 70’s and 80’s before Vogue editor and style arbiter Anna Wintour hosted a party there during Los Angeles Fashion Week in March.
The Kor Hotel Group—owners of Avalon and Santa Monica’s boutique hot spot the Viceroy—opened the Chamberlain hotel on Westmount Drive with a clean, masculine look in April. “[Kor’s] specialty is finding undervalued properties in prime, up-and-coming locations and reinventing them,” says PR manager Jennifer Dowd. And these days reinvention requires dedicated event spaces to meet demand—even the petite 112-room Chamberlain has a 500-square-foot high-tech meeting room, as well as a rooftop patio space for receptions.
One impetus for the burgeoning popularity of hotels has been changes in the Hollywood area. When the Kodak Theatre (which now hosts the Academy Awards ceremony) went up at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue four years ago—in a new shopping complex, just above a stop on the subway’s Red Line—that area became the epicenter for events and tourists, sending hoteliers scrambling to capitalize on the renaissance. What was built as the Hollywood Hotel in the early 1900’s there reopened its doors as the new Renaissance Hollywood in late 2001, featuring 50,000 square feet of meeting space and a Wolfgang Puck-catered grand ballroom with 25,090 square feet and sweeping views.
Hollywood-area hotels are also desirable because of their proximity to historic theaters. “Parties after premieres at the Mann Chinese Theatre used to go much further west to the clubs in Beverly Hills or [southwest to] the La Brea and Wilshire areas,” says Bragman Nyman Cafarelli account director Stephanie Rudnick. “Now the area is seeing so much new business—it’s a safe, great area.”
The success of Hollywood hotels has spread the hotel sprawl elsewhere, too. In the downtown area traditionally known as a ghost town on weekdays past 5 PM and all weekend, Andre Balazs opened a Standard hotel in 2003 (four years after his original Standard on Sunset) with a lobby billiard lounge and a red-AstroTurfed rooftop bar. Among its recent parties were fashion authority Gwen Stefani’s album release party this past November and an Alias DVD release party last summer.
Nearby, and just a block from the Staples Center and the Harbor Freeway, the restored 1920’s Figueroa Hotel—which recently got a Morocco-inspired makeover—added the Rick’s Place outdoor bar to its slate of event spaces last fall, and promptly hosted Gisele Bündchen’s birthday bash for Leonardo DiCaprio. (And both hotels are conveniently close to Frank Gehry’s much-cooed-over Walt Disney Concert Hall.)
Of course, Los Angeles still has its share of popular bars and nightclubs, but the city’s cool new hotel options are reminding planners of the benefits hotels have always afforded—like extended load-in and -out times. “Hotels just make the job easier,” says TSE meetings and incentives vice president Lauren Levy. “They have all the resources in-house, and you don’t have to outsource anything.” Plus, Rudnick says, “It’s convenient for planners to stay in blocks of rooms at the hotel, then go downstairs to work on their events.”
In theory, their experience catering to out-oftown guests should mean hotels treat event guests better as well. “They just make better drinks because they’re in the service business,” says Amanda Demme, whose company, ASD Entertainment, operates three venues within the Roosevelt—the poolside Tropicana, the Lobby Bar, and private event space Teddy’s.
Even with all the new developments, for some it’s the old Los Angeles hotels that are more desirable than gleaming new nightclubs. “Hotels like the Chateau Marmont have the character and the history of old Hollywood, onto which you can impose your events’ own touches,” says Wendy Schellinger, E! Networks’ associate director of special events and promotions, who plans dozens of events each year. “Plus, they deliver on that great Hollywood Hills view.”
—Alesandra Dubin
Photo: WireImage
This story originally appeared in the June/July 2005 issue of the BiZBash Event Style Reporter.
The Hollywood Roosevelt hosted a poolside party for Details magazine and retailer Nautica in April.
