LA Downtown News - Grand Ave. Building to Become Boutique Hotel:
"A New York-based development firm plans to turn the vacant Embassy Hotel and Theater at 851 S. Grand Ave. into a 175-room boutique hotel. Kristen Hammer, a spokeswoman for WSA Management, said plans are in the early phases for converting the 91-year-old building. It marks the first West Coast project for Long Island-based WSA, which made a name for itself in 2004 with the opening of the Hotel Gansevoort, a swanky 187-room boutique hotel in New York City's meatpacking district. The Embassy was designed by architect Thornton Fitzhugh and is recognizable for the four-story Baroque dome on its roof. The steel and concrete building has served, at various points, as a hotel, church and a USC facility. As the Trinity Theater, it was the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1919."
