page_title: Wilshire Grand Center
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wilshire Grand Center / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of the north facade of the former Wilshire Grand Hotel (the Statler Hilton hotel 1954-1968) — on Wilshire Boulevard at Figueroa, in Downtown Los Angeles (2006). Taken from S. Figueroa St., north of Wilshire Blvd. Demolished in 2013 for new Wilshire Grand skyscraper construction.
context_page_description: Wilshire Grand Center is a 1,100-foot skyscraper in the Financial District of Downtown Los Angeles, California, occupying the entire city block between Wilshire Blvd. and 7th, Figueroa, and Francisco streets. It is the tallest building in Los Angeles; in California; west of the Mississippi River; outside of New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia; and the 14th tallest in the United States. Its height surpasses the U.S. Bank Tower by 82 ft. The building is part of a mixed-use hotel, retail, observation decks, shopping mall, and office complex, expected to revitalize downtown Los Angeles and the area surrounding the building. The development of the complex is estimated to cost $1.2 billion. The plans include 67,000 square feet of retail, 677,000 square feet of Class A office space and 900 hotel rooms. InterContinental is the tower's hotel component, comprising 900 rooms and suites.
context_section_description: The original Wilshire Grand Hotel opened in 1952 as the Hotel Statler, on the site of the new Wilshire Grand. In 1950, the city of Los Angeles issued the largest single building permit at the time for the construction of the hotel, which cost over $15 million. The hotel quickly became a landmark of downtown Los Angeles, and over its 59-year lifespan attracted famous guests including President John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II.
  In 1954, two years after its opening, Hilton Hotels & Resorts purchased the Statler Hotels chain, renaming the hotel the Statler Hilton. In 1968 Hilton completed a $2.5 million renovation of the hotel and renamed it the Los Angeles Hilton, and later the Los Angeles Hilton and Towers. Reliance Group later purchased the hotel in 1983 and invested $30 million in renovations. Korean Air purchased the Los Angeles Hilton from Reliance in 1989. They changed the hotel's management and it became the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in 1995 and then later the Wilshire Grand Hotel in 1999.
  Seeking to revive the Wilshire Grand as a landmark and icon of Los Angeles, Chairman and CEO Cho Yang-ho of Korean Air conceived the idea of developing a new complex which would include the tallest building in Los Angeles, at 1,099 feet (335 m). It is also part of an urban development effort to revitalize the Figueroa Street corridor of downtown Los Angeles as a vibrant light-and-sign district, similar to New York's Times Square. Deconstruction of the original building began on October 23, 2012, and continued for over a year until November 21, 2013, when a bottoming-out ceremony was held in the 106-foot pit (32 m) in which the tower will stand, officially ending the deconstruction of the former hotel.
caption: Wilshire Grand Hotel, 2006
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "KONICA MINOLTA", "Image Model": "DiMAGE Z5", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DiMAGE Z5 v1.01", "Image DateTime": "2006:02:07 09:58:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "504", "Image SubjectArea": "[1280, 960, 320, 320]", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "Image GainControl": "None", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Image SubjectDistanceRange": "3", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 51, 48, 48, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 1, 0, 22, ... ]", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Landscape Mode", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "50", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:02:07 09:58:32", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:02:07 09:58:32", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "88", "EXIF FocalLength": "375/64", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2560", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1920"}