The Freehand Los Angeles Hotel, formerly the Commercial Exchange Building, is a historic structure in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, United States.

Location

The building is located on the corner of Olive Street and 8th Street in

Downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is the central business district of the city of Los Angeles. It is part of the Central Los Angeles region and covers a area. As of 2020, it contains over 500,000 jobs and has a population of roughly 85,000 residents ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

History

The 13-story building was completed in 1924. It was designed by the architecture firm of Walker and Eisen. The building has the distinction of having been vertically split to permit widening of Olive Street. The building's exterior also holds one of the tallest

neon sign In the signage industry, neon signs are electric signs lighted by long luminous gas-discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. They are the most common use for neon lighting, which was first demonstrated in a modern form in Decem ...

s in Los Angeles.Vincent, Roger. (January 13, 2013
''Downtown historic high-rise eyed by hotel developers''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

To allow the widening of Olive Street in the mid-1930s, a "10-foot slice" was removed from the center of the Commercial Exchange Building and engineers rejoined the remaining halves by sliding the western portion eastward. Total cost of the removal and realignment was $60,000, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1935.

Edgar Rice Burroughs Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. Best known for creating the characters Tarzan (who appeared in ...

operated his publishing company from offices in the Commercial Exchange Building. The structure also once housed the offices of Owl Drug Company. In early 2013 the building, which had been vacant for two decades, was put on the market for $14 million. A year later, in 2014, it was acquired by the Sydell Group, with financial backing from

AllianceBernstein AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. (AB) is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and Investor, retail investors. AllianceBernstein's headquarters are located ...

and

Yucaipa Companies The Yucaipa Companies, LLC is an American private equity firm founded in 1986 by Ronald Burkle. It specializes in a private equity and venture capital, with a focus on middle-market companies, growth capital, industry consolidation, leveraged ...

, an investment firm owned by billionaire

Ronald Burkle Ronald Wayne Burkle (born November 12, 1952) is an American businessman. He is the co-founder and managing partner of The Yucaipa Companies, LLC, a private investment firm that specializes in U.S. companies in the distribution, logistics, foo ...

. The owners remodeled it into the Freehand Los Angeles Hotel, which opened in June 2017.https://la.curbed.com/2017/6/27/15877284/freehand-hotel-downtown-la-sydell The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2019.

References

External links

Freehand Los Angeles Hotel official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Commercial Exchange Building Buildings and structures in Downtown Los Angeles Buildings and structures completed in 1924 1924 establishments in California 1920s architecture in the United States Skyscraper hotels in Los Angeles National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Hotels established in 2017 Hotel buildings completed in 1924