Formerly: The Regal Biltmore Hotel Built: 1923 Cost: $7,000,000.00 Designed by: Schulze and Weaver Type: Hotel Stories: 14 Maximum Height: 341 feet / 104 meters Location: 506 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, United States
M odest in terms of its impact on the Los Angeles skyline, the Regal Biltmore is nevertheless a heavy-hitter when it comes to the city's hospitality industry. It was designed in an Italian-Spanish Renaissance style by the same firm responsible for the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Though it was built early in the last century, its most notable feature is the 24-story towering red brick and cream-colored masonry, topped by a roof of terra cotta tile. This was the result of a $40,000,000.00 renovation in 1987 that saved the hotel at a time when some thought it should be razed. On the inside, the meeting rooms feature vaulted ceilings hand-painted by Italian artist Giovanni Smeraldi, whose work also graces the Vatican and the Blue Room of the White House. When it opened, the Biltmore was the largest hotel in the city with over 1,000 rooms. That number has since been pared down as successive renovations turned individual rooms into larger suites.
The Biltmore lobby has been used on a number of occasions in the television program Murder, She Wrote as a stand-in for a number of European hotels. The lobby was also used in the film The Poseidon Adventure.
There is a private elevator to the presidential suite.
1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded here, and Douglas Fairbanks announced an awards ceremony would be created. Those awards are now known as the Oscars.
1960 John F. Kennedy was nominated for president here.
1969: Designated a Los Angeles Historical Cultural Landmark.
