Hotel Shangri-La is a full-service

boutique hotel Boutique hotels are small inventory, design driven, unique hotels with their own character, personality and storytelling at the heart of their concept. Positioning is secondary for these hotels as they focus on authenticity and personalization ...

located at 1301 Ocean Avenue in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. It is an example of

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...

architecture and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

design. The Hotel Shangri-La is family-owned, and is currently run by Pakistani-American businesswoman Tehmina Adaya, who took over in 2004. Her late father, business and real estate tycoon

Ahmad Adaya Ahmad Adaya ( ur, ) (1927–2006) was an American real estate tycoon and philanthropist who was the founding partner of a California real estate company IDS Real Estate Group. He was known for establishing the New Horizon School for Muslim rel ...

, purchased the hotel in 1983. The hotel reopened in October 2008 following a $30 million renovation. It was ranked as having one of the top five rooftop bars in Los Angeles in 2013 by ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

''.

Design

The hotel is an example of Streamline Moderne architecture. Despite its extensive renovation, the hotel’s interior design maintains the original design of the Art Deco time period. The hotel has 70 rooms and 30 suites with views of either downtown or the Pacific Ocean. In May 2009, the Shangri-La was listed by ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' along with five other hotels in their

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

Design 100. The hotel utilises many energy saving features, such as a solar powered pool, Natura Green toiletries, low-flow dual flush toilets and an on-site water filtration system.

Notable guests and events

Hotel Shangri-La has been host to many celebrity guests, including

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper Thornton (born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. Her career has spanned over 40 years. Her album ''She's So Unusual'' (1983) was the first debut album by a female artist to achi ...

, Diane Keaton, Bill Murray, Matthew Broderick,

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

and

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Gol ...

. The Shangri-La has been a backdrop for the filming of many TV shows, music videos, movies, and other film productions, including: *

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

's '' I Love LA'' music video (1984) * ''

White Men Can't Jump ''White Men Can't Jump'' is a 1992 American sports comedy film written and directed by Ron Shelton. It stars Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson as streetball hustlers. The film was released in the United States on March 27, 1992, by 20th Century ...

'' with Wesley Snipes and

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor and playwright. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...

(1992) * '' The Net'' with

Sandra Bullock Sandra Annette Bullock (; born July 26, 1964) is an American actress and producer. The recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Sandra Bullock, various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, Bullock was ...

(1995) * The

rockumentary A concert film, or concert movie, is a film that showcases a live performance from the perspective of a concert goer, the subject of which is an extended live performance or concert by either a musician or a stand-up comedian. Early history The ...

'' DiG!'' (2004) * One Girl's Confession (1953) Most recently, ''

Melrose Place ''Melrose Place'' is an American prime time television soap opera that aired on Fox from July 8, 1992, to May 24, 1999, for seven seasons. The show follows the lives of a group of young adults living in an apartment complex on Melrose Place, in ...

'' and reality TV show '' The Bachelor'' have featured Hotel Shangri-La.

Controversy

In August 2012 the hotel was convicted for discriminating against a group of eighteen young Jewish people in July 2010. The group, mostly members of the Young Leadership Division of the local chapter of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces had been holding a pool party on the roof of the hotel. The

California Superior Court Superior courts in California are the state trial courts with general jurisdiction to hear and decide any civil or criminal action which is not specially designated to be heard in some other court or before a governmental agency. As mandated by t ...

heard that the hotel owner, Tehmina Adaya, a Pakistani-born Muslim, took a number of actions against the group including forcing the FIDF group to take down the banners, literature and other evidence of its presence and directing hotel security guards to prevent members of the group from swimming in the pool. The court ordered the hotel and its owner to pay damages and statutory penalties totalling over $1.6 million.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Hotel website
Buildings and structures in Santa Monica, California Streamline Moderne architecture in California Art Deco hotels Hotels in Los Angeles County, California Companies based in Santa Monica, California