School Complex At Ambassador Site To Be Named For RFK

The Ambassador Hotel.

The $400-million schools complex at the site of the defunct Ambassador Hotel where Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 will be named in his honor. The Los Angeles Unified School District made no promises about the naming, but it was long expected.

The honor seems to neatly wrap up the site's contentious legacy in which preservationists fought to save the hotel and school board vowed to at least preserve the pantry where RFK was gunned down (only to demolish it too).

The hotel was razed in 2005 to make way for much-needed schools in the Koreatown area. It will be home to two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. While preservationists fought for keeping the storied hotel, once the stomping grounds of the Hollywood elite, as a central element of the complex, they were ultimately quieted with a $4.9 million preservation fund offered by the district.

Some members of the Kennedy family wanted the building torn down, too, arguing that his death as he campaigned for president wasn't a memory they wanted to see preserved.

The LAUSD board voted unanimously late Tuesday to name the school for RFK.