LA unveils $578M school, costliest in the nation

LOS ANGELES – Next month's opening of the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools will be auspicious for a reason other than its both storied and infamous history as the former Ambassador Hotel, where the Democratic presidential contender was assassinated in 1968.
With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever.
The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of "Taj Mahal" schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities.

April 15, 2010|By Sam Farmer
Eight years ago, two influential Los Angeles businessmen, Casey Wasserman and Tim Leiweke, unfurled a plan to build a privately financed NFL stadium near Staples Center.

The plan was scuttled almost as quickly as it arose, however, when the Coliseum Commission announced its intention to make its own NFL bid. Thus ended what many people believe was the last best chance to bring pro football back to the nation's second-largest market.