The Waldorf-Astoria will be located in a new building to be designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects, according to Beny Alagem, chairman of Oasis West and owner of the Beverly Hilton. He notes that the 120-room hotel will be the first newly built Waldorf-Astoria on the West Coast.

The Beverly Hilton recently completed an $80-million renovation and is on its way to becoming a 402-room hotel with a host of upgrades and additions. Alagem has described the renovation and repositioning of the Beverly Hilton as a long-term plan to "protect the hotel's future competitiveness."

The plan for the hotel, subject to approval by city officials, would upgrade the entire property into "a resort-like environment that would include a sub-tropical garden." Other improvements will include new luxury rooms, a wisteria-rooftop garden, a new tree-lined entry for the hotel, a transformed executive meeting center and an expanded hotel pool area with cabanas.

The revitalized Beverly Hilton property will be designed to meet the US Green Building Council's LEED standards. It will create 4.5 acres of new open space and gardens, enhance water conservation by recapturing storm and wastewater for on-site landscape irrigation, design energy-efficient indoor and outdoor lighting and implement extensive recycling and waste management programs.

The plan to transform the property has been modified since last year's announcement, eliminating a previously proposed hotel-condo and replacing it with the new Waldorf-Astoria. Both the Hilton and the Waldorf-Astoria will be managed by the Hilton Hotels Corp.

Hilton launched the Waldorf-Astoria Collection in January 2006 as a new elite brand to capitalize on the reputation of the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The Waldorf-Astoria Collection now has hotels in New York City; La Quinta in California; Maui, Hawaii; Phoenix; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.