Ace Hotel Los Angeles

The STILE Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa, originally built as the California Petroleum Corporation Building and later known as the Texaco Building, is a 243 ft (74 m), 13-story highrise hotel and theater building located at 937 South Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, California. It was the tallest building in the city for one year after its completion in 1927, and was the tallest privately owned structure in Los Angeles until 1956. Its style is Spanish Gothic, patterned after Segovia Cathedral in Segovia, Spain.

The building contains the historic United Artists Theatre, the flagship theater built for the United Artists motion picture studio. The theater was later used as a church by pastors Gene Scott and his widow Melissa Scott under the name "University Cathedral". In October 2011, Scott's Wescott Christian Center Inc. sold the building to Greenfield Partners, a real estate investment company located in Westport, Connecticut, for $11 million. It was converted to a hotel, part of the Ace Hotels chain, the Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles, which opened in 2014 and closed in 2024. It reopened soon after as STILE Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa.

United Artists Theatre period

The theatre was designed by the architect C. Howard Crane of the firm Walker & Eisen for the United Artists film studio formed by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. The theater, a classic movie palace, was one of many constructed by United Artists and served as a major premier house. The theater occupies three floors of the 13-story building and has a 2,214-seat auditorium. Like many movie theaters, the seat rows sink in toward the front of the orchestra section, so ticket holders there must look up at the stage.

University Cathedral period

The building was first leased by televangelist Gene Scott in 1989, to be used as the location from which to broadcast the live Sunday services of his ministry. Scott held his first Sunday service there in 1990 and continued to hold Sunday services there until his death in 2005. A designated historic monument in itself, the building was for many years topped by the historic "Jesus Saves" neon signs (originally from the Church of the Open Door). They were located in the rear lower roof, one facing the west and one north, until September 10, 2011, when one sign was removed by crane. The building was claimed to house the largest collection of Bibles in private hands. After leasing for thirteen years, Gene Scott purchased the building in 2002. Following Scott's death, services continued to be held at the Los Angeles University Cathedral by Melissa Scott, the widow of Gene Scott, with services broadcast over TV, shortwave radio, and the Internet.

Hotel conversion

The building was completely restored and renovated to serve as a luxury boutique hotel called Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles. It featured 182 rooms, a pool, a restaurant and three bars, as well as the restored theatre. It opened on January 16, 2014. In December 2014, Greenfield Partners put the building up for sale, seeking about $100 million as the sale price. In May 2015, Chesapeake Lodging Trust bought the building for $103 million.

The theater was restored as well and re-opened on February 14, 2014 as the Theatre at the Ace Hotel, with concerts by the British rock band Spiritualized. L.A. Dance Project, a dance company founded by choreographer Benjamin Millepied, also took residence in the theater. Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a fundraiser at the Ace Hotel on February 5, 2016, in support of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

The hotel closed on January 31, 2024. The building's owners announced plans to remodel it as a limited-service, rooms-only hotel, managed via a tech platform, without any food and beverage establishments. The hotel reopened in February 2024, managed by Kasa Living, Inc. as STILE Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa.

The theater has been rebranded as The United Theater on Broadway.

Broadway Theater Historic District

The building is a historic district contributing property in the Broadway Theater District on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

See also

• Broadway Theater District (Los Angeles) — NRHP Historic district.
• List of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments in Downtown Los Angeles
• United Artists Theatre Building (Detroit)

References

External links

• STILE Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa official website
• The United Theater on Broadway official website
• Texaco Building — at You-Are-Here.com
• United Artists Building Exterior Archived 2010-03-05 at the Wayback Machine — at Public Art in Los Angeles