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Architecture And Design
Los Angeles

The Georgian Hotel poised for Art Deco-style makeover

Owners BLVD Hospitality and ESI Ventures to revamp turquoise building known as “Santa Monica’s First Lady”

BLVD's Jonathan Blanchard and Nicolo Rusconi with The Georgian Hotel (BLVD Hospitality)
BLVD's Jonathan Blanchard and Nicolo Rusconi with The Georgian Hotel (BLVD Hospitality)

A Depression-era hotel in Santa Monica that has hosted the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe is poised for a major makeover.

BLVD Hospitality and ESI Ventures announced they will revamp The Georgian Hotel at 1415 Ocean Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The renovation is set to finish by January.

The 84-room Art Deco and Period Revival landmark, built in 1933, is known as “Santa Monica’s First Lady.” The eight-story hotel was among the first big buildings along its beach.

BLVD, based in Century City, and ESI, based in Beverly Hills, bought The Georgian in 2020 and plan to restore it to its early century grandeur. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Plans call for restoring its rooms and suites, as well as creating private meeting and dining rooms, with new restaurants overlooking the Pacific Ocean. An art gallery will rotate exhibits.

The interior renovation, designed by Fettle of Playa Vista, will retain the building’s defining features while adding custom-made Art Deco-style floors and furniture.

Thirteen years ago, BLVD Hospitality founder and CEO Jonathan Blanchard first stepped inside the beachfront hotel, and recognized its charm.

“She just needed to be brought back to her full potential,” he said.

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The Georgian, a turquoise and gold landmark since it opened in 1933, was a favorite haunt of Hollywood stars, including Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle, according to Variety. Clark Gable, while married, is said to have met up with Carole Lombard there.

Mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Al Capone frequented The Georgian, home to a speakeasy during Prohibition. Rose Kennedy spent summers at the hotel during the 1950s and 60s, visited by her son Bobby Kennedy.

While the hotel’s original bathrooms in 56 guest rooms were preserved, the antique tile in its 28 suites were not. The original floor was stripped decades ago. The renovation will try to restore many of the missing crowns and features.

It will also restore its ground-floor restaurant, once known as the Red Griffin, into a newly remodeled The Georgian Room.

“The story of Santa Monica’s First Lady is one filled with magic, intrigue, sophistication, and quite certainly, a touch of debauchery,” said BLVD co-founder and President Nicolo Rusconi. “Our vision is that each one of those elements will coalesce with contemporary California culture to once again make The Georgian California’s crown jewel.”

Among the company’s best-known projects was the 183-room Ace Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, originally a 1920s United Artists film studio. BLVD Hospitality sold it in 2019 for $117 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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