Above the billboards of the Sunset Strip rises a pale tower decorated with zigzag friezes, stylised plants and a stepped crown. Leland A. Bryant designed it as an apartment building, finished in 1931, and since the hotelier Jeff Klein took it over in 2004 it has traded as the Sunset Tower Hotel, the West Hollywood address most closely tied to the private social life of the film business.
History
When the tower went up, the Strip was unincorporated county land outside the City of Los Angeles, and its nightclubs and casinos drew the studio crowd away from the stricter city. The Sunset Tower became one of the most fashionable apartment houses in town. Howard Hughes kept apartments there, John Wayne lived there, and by a story told for decades kept a cow on his balcony, and Jean Harlow and the gangster Bugsy Siegel were among the other tenants.
The building declined after the war, and by the 1970s it faced demolition. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, restored in the 1980s and reopened as a hotel, first as the St. James's Club and later as the Argyle. Robert Altman used it as a setting in The Player in 1992. In 2004 Jeff Klein, a New York hotelier, bought it, restored the original name and set about making it a place where Hollywood would come to eat as well as sleep.
Architecture and design
Bryant's building counts among the finest examples of Art Deco in the Los Angeles area, its stucco facade carrying reliefs of plants, animals and zeppelins, and a stepped silhouette that is visible from much of the Strip. Klein brought in the designer Paul Fortune, who reworked the interiors with walnut panelling, deep sofas and a palette of creams and browns that suggests the 1930s and 1940s without reproducing them.
Rooms and suites
The former apartments have been turned into rooms and suites with tall windows. Those facing south look across the flat grid of Los Angeles, towards downtown on one side and the ocean on the other on clear days; those facing north look up into the Hollywood Hills.
Dining
The Tower Bar, on the ground floor, is the heart of the hotel. It is a wood-panelled room with a fireplace, a pianist in the evening and a terrace over the city, and it is said to occupy the apartment once rented by Bugsy Siegel. For many years its maître d', Dimitri Dimitrov, ran the room and its seating plan, a subject of Hollywood gossip in its own right. The Terrace, by the pool, serves lighter meals through the day.
Wellness
The pool terrace, lined with loungers and looking south over Los Angeles, is the hotel's outdoor living room, and a small spa offers treatments in the tower.
Weddings and events
The hotel takes private dinners, small receptions and press events in the Tower Bar and on the pool terrace, and the scale suits intimate gatherings rather than large banquets.
Location
The hotel stands at 8358 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. The Chateau Marmont lies a few blocks east, and the clubs and restaurants of the Strip stretch on either side. Beverly Hills begins to the west and Hollywood to the east. Of the luxury hotels in West Hollywood, it is the one with the longest Hollywood memory. Los Angeles International Airport is about 45 minutes by car.
At a glance
What sets it apart
- 01Art Deco tower by Leland A. Bryant, completed 1931
- 02Former residents include Howard Hughes and John Wayne
- 03Tower Bar, said to occupy Bugsy Siegel's old apartment
- 04Interiors by Paul Fortune for Jeff Klein
- 05Pool terrace overlooking Los Angeles
Chronology
Dates that matter
1931
The Sunset Tower apartment building, designed by Leland A. Bryant, is completed.
1992
Robert Altman films scenes of The Player at the building, then a hotel.
2004
Jeff Klein buys the hotel and restores the Sunset Tower name.
