Bonaventure Hotel
Encyclopedia
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites is a 112 m (367.5 ft), 35-story
hotel in Los Angeles
, California
, constructed between 1974 and 1976. Designed by architect John C. Portman, Jr., it is the largest hotel in the city. The top floor has a revolving restaurant
and bar. It was originally owned by investors that included a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation
and John Portman & Associates. The building is managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts
(IHR), and is valued at .
In his book Postmodern Geographies: the reassertion of space in critical social theory (1989), Edward W. Soja describes the hotel as "a concentrated representation of the restructured spatiality of the late capitalist city: fragmented and fragmenting, homogeneous and homogenizing, divertingly packaged yet curiously incomprehensible, seemingly open in presenting itself to view but constantly pressing to enclose, to compartmentalize, to circumscribe, to incarcerate. Everything imaginable appears to be available in this micro-urb but real places are difficult to find, its spaces confuse an effective cognitive mapping, its pastiche of superficial reflections bewilder co-ordination and encourage submission instead. Entry by land is forbidding to those who carelessly walk but entrance is nevertheless encouraged at many different levels. Once inside, however, it becomes daunting to get out again without bureaucratic assistance. In so many ways, its architecture recapitulates and reflects the sprawling manufactured spaces of Los Angeles" (p. 243-44).
, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
, Blue Thunder
, Breathless
, This is Spinal Tap
, Hit the Booty Do, In the Line of Fire
, Nick of Time
, True Lies
, Midnight Madness, Showtime
, Hard to Kill
, The Lincoln Lawyer
, Chuck
, Moby Dick, The Fantastic Journey
and was destroyed (via special effects) in Escape from LA and Epicenter
. The television series It's a Living
was set in a restaurant atop the Bonaventure. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel is also showcased in episodes of CSI
and its exterior can be seen in Americathon
, Mission: Impossible III
, Almighty Thor
, Hancock
, and at the beginning of the Lionel Richie
Dancing on the Ceiling
music video.
Story
Story or Stories may refer to:*Story, a recounting of a sequence of events* Narrative* Bedtime story, a traditional form of storytelling, told to children to prepare them for sleep* Organization story, a narrative used in organization studies...
hotel in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, constructed between 1974 and 1976. Designed by architect John C. Portman, Jr., it is the largest hotel in the city. The top floor has a revolving restaurant
Revolving restaurant
A revolving restaurant is a usually tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on the revolving floor. The revolving rate varies between one and three times...
and bar. It was originally owned by investors that included a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation
Mitsubishi Corporation
is Japan's largest trading company , a member of the Mitsubishi keiretsu. Mitsubishi Corporation employs over 50,000 people and has seven business segments including finance, banking, energy, machinery, chemicals, food and more....
and John Portman & Associates. The building is managed by Interstate Hotels & Resorts
Interstate Hotels & Resorts
Virginia based Interstate Hotels & Resorts is a subsidiary of Maryland based Thayer Lodging Group. It operates in two sectors, hotel management and hotel ownership..-History:Interstate traces it roots to 1961...
(IHR), and is valued at .
Post Modern design
The hotel and its architects have been the subject of several documentaries.In his book Postmodern Geographies: the reassertion of space in critical social theory (1989), Edward W. Soja describes the hotel as "a concentrated representation of the restructured spatiality of the late capitalist city: fragmented and fragmenting, homogeneous and homogenizing, divertingly packaged yet curiously incomprehensible, seemingly open in presenting itself to view but constantly pressing to enclose, to compartmentalize, to circumscribe, to incarcerate. Everything imaginable appears to be available in this micro-urb but real places are difficult to find, its spaces confuse an effective cognitive mapping, its pastiche of superficial reflections bewilder co-ordination and encourage submission instead. Entry by land is forbidding to those who carelessly walk but entrance is nevertheless encouraged at many different levels. Once inside, however, it becomes daunting to get out again without bureaucratic assistance. In so many ways, its architecture recapitulates and reflects the sprawling manufactured spaces of Los Angeles" (p. 243-44).
Location filming
It has been featured in many movies and television series over the years including: Strange DaysStrange Days (film)
Strange Days is a 1995 cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and produced and co-written by James Cameron and Jay Cocks, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott and Vincent D'Onofrio. Despite positive reviews, the film was a...
, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979–1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series aired....
, Blue Thunder
Blue Thunder
Blue Thunder is a 1983 feature film that features a high-tech helicopter of the same name. The movie was directed by John Badham and stars Roy Scheider...
, Breathless
Breathless (1983 film)
Breathless is a 1983 American drama film starring Richard Gere and Valérie Kaprisky. It is a remake of the 1960 French film À bout de souffle and was released in France under the title A Bout de Souffle Made in USA. The original film is about an American girl and a French criminal in Paris...
, This is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock musical mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner about the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap...
, Hit the Booty Do, In the Line of Fire
In the Line of Fire
In the Line of Fire is a 1993 American thriller film about a disillusioned and obsessed former CIA agent who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States and the Secret Service agent who tracks him...
, Nick of Time
Nick of Time (film)
Nick of Time, starring Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, Charles S. Dutton and Courtney Chase, is a 1995 thriller movie. It was directed by John Badham. The film is rated R for "Violence and Language" by the MPAA...
, True Lies
True Lies
True Lies is a 1994 American action-comedy film directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Charlton Heston, and Art Malik. Eliza Dushku also appears in the film in one of her first major film roles...
, Midnight Madness, Showtime
Showtime (film)
Showtime is a 2002 action-comedy film directed by Tom Dey and starring Robert De Niro and Eddie Murphy.-Plot:The film centers on two cops, Mitch Preston and Trey Sellars , who are paired together for a reality police show and run into real trouble with a crime lord...
, Hard to Kill
Hard to Kill
Hard to Kill, a 1990 action film directed by Bruce Malmuth and starring Steven Seagal, Kelly LeBrock, Frederick Coffin and William Sadler. The film stars Seagal as Detective Mason Storm, who is shot into a coma in the same fire-fight that kills his wife Felicia and son Sonny...
, The Lincoln Lawyer
The Lincoln Lawyer (film)
The Lincoln Lawyer is a 2011 American thriller film adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Connelly, starring Matthew McConaughey, Ryan Phillippe, William H. Macy and Marisa Tomei...
, Chuck
Chuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
, Moby Dick, The Fantastic Journey
The Fantastic Journey
The Fantastic Journey is an American science fiction television series that was originally aired on NBC from February 3 through June 17, 1977.-Premise:...
and was destroyed (via special effects) in Escape from LA and Epicenter
Epicenter
The epicenter or epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates...
. The television series It's a Living
It's a Living (US TV series)
It's a Living is an American sitcom set in a restaurant at the top of the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The show aired on ABC from 1980 to 1982...
was set in a restaurant atop the Bonaventure. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel is also showcased in episodes of CSI
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
and its exterior can be seen in Americathon
Americathon
Americathon is a 1979 American comedy film starring John Ritter, Fred Willard, Peter Riegert, Harvey Korman, and Nancy Morgan, with narration by George Carlin, based on a play by Firesign Theatre alumni Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman...
, Mission: Impossible III
Mission: Impossible III
Mission: Impossible III is a 2006 spy film, the third based on the spy-themed television series Mission: Impossible starring Tom Cruise who reprises his role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt....
, Almighty Thor
Almighty Thor
Almighty Thor is a fantasy action film by The Asylum loosely based on Norse mythology, which premiered on the Syfy cable network on May 7, 2011 and was released on DVD on May 10, 2011 in the United States. The film is directed by Christopher Ray and is a mockbuster intending to "cash in" on the...
, Hancock
Hancock (film)
Hancock is a 2008 American action-comedy superhero film directed by Peter Berg and starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. It tells the story of a vigilante superhero, John Hancock from Los Angeles whose reckless actions routinely cost the city millions of dollars...
, and at the beginning of the Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
Dancing on the Ceiling
Dancing on the Ceiling
Dancing on the Ceiling is Lionel Richie's third album, which was released on July 15, 1986. The title cut was the second biggest single from the album, reaching #1 in the U.S. and #7 in the UK...
music video.
See also
Other John Portman hotels:- Renaissance CenterRenaissance CenterRenaissance Center is a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the International Riverfront, the Renaissance Center complex is owned by General Motors as its world headquarters...
, Detroit, MichiganDetroit, MichiganDetroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River... - Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel and the Peachtree CenterPeachtree CenterPeachtree Center is a multi-block neighborhood located in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the buildings that make up the district were designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman, Jr.. Many of the buildings are connected by a network of enclosed pedestrian sky bridges...
, Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in... - Embarcadero CenterEmbarcadero CenterEmbarcadero Center is a commercial complex of five office towers and two hotels on a site located off the Embarcadero in the financial district of San Francisco, California. The Trammell Crow, David Rockefeller and John Portman development was begun with Tower One in 1971, with the last...
, San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...