Iconic Sunset Strip Building Has Stories to Tell

If there is a building that mirrors the ups and downs of Hollywood's own history, it's the Piazza del Sol, a fixture of the famous Sunset Strip that dates to 1927 and is known for its beauty and its colorful past.

"It's one of our most iconic buildings," Antonio Castillo, senior planner for the city of West Hollywood, California, said in an interview. "And it's one of my favorite on the Strip, personally."

The five-story structure at 8439 W. Sunset Blvd. in the Los Angeles County city was designed by Charles Sherman Cobb. He was an architect originally from upstate New York, though his most prolific period came when he lived in Toronto, where his work is well known, according to the "Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada" and the 1921 Canadian edition of "Who's Who And Why."

Cobb designed the building, which debuted as the luxurious Hacienda Arms Apartments, to bring to mind an Italian Renaissance villa, with delicate wrought-iron fixtures and ornate stone and plaster work centered around a grand stairway and fountain leading to a raised courtyard.

The building is a "rare extant example of the [Italian Renaissance Revival] style in the Los Angeles area," according to Marvin A. Brown of the Los Angeles Conservancy, who authored its successful 1983 nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

And its aura of "quiet elegance," as he described it, has survived undimmed by past scandals, neglect and arson.

Initially, Hacienda Arms was home to the rich and famous, and is rumored to have been home to industrial magnate Howard Hughes and Academy Award winning actress Loretta Young.

At some point during the 1930s, however, it became "the most famous brothel in California,” according to materials prepared in 2018 as part of a redevelopment proposal.

That era ended when madam Lee Francis was arrested in a police raid, and after that, the building was renamed Coronet Apartments and went into a long, slow decline.

The property kept a low profile until the 1970s, when it was purchased by rock star Rod Stewart, who hoped to convert the building into a luxury hotel and reportedly spent $1.6 million on renovations. The project stalled after Stewart got into a dispute with his partner in the endeavor, according to the redevelopment proposal and news reports.

In 1982, Stewart was robbed at gunpoint outside the building, and by 1983, he was ready to sell. That same year, the structure was gutted by a devastating fire, which was said to be intentionally set by people who had broken into the vacant building.

The buyer, a firm called Westcap Financial Group, paid $2 million for the property and pledged $4 million toward its rehabilitation, as reported in 1984 by the Desert Sun newspaper. Westcap renamed it Piazza del Sol and celebrated its conversion into high-end office space with a champagne toast in 1985, according to an article by the Los Angeles Times.

Since then, the Piazza del Sol's existence has been a placid one, for the most part.

The city of West Hollywood briefly contemplated buying the building and using it as its own city hall in 1992, but the property did not change hands again until the late 1990s.

The current owners, Mani Brothers Real Estate Group, bought the Piazza del Sol in 1997 for $11.2 million.

In 2018, Mani Brothers put forward a proposal to turn the building into a boutique hotel, but the firm ultimately withdrew the application, Castillo said, and since then he has not heard of any other possible development schemes involving the Piazza del Sol.

Neither Mani Brothers nor its brokers immediately responded to a request for comment for this story.

CoStar photographers capture images every day of distinctive buildings, each with its own story. Snapshots is an occasional feature showcasing their work.