The location: The La Crescenta Hotel.


Q. What is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. The La Crescenta, a nice hotel where Ryan stays.


Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

    A. In Albuquerque, New Mexico.


Q. When did we see it on the show?

    A. Only once, in Episode 21 (of season three), "The Dawn Patrol", when Ryan goes to Albuquerque to find his estranged mother, and invite her to his high school graduation.

    While there, he stays at the "La Crescenta" hotel. We see an establishing shot of the hotel at night, and later we see the inside of his hotel room.

    He meets a cute waitress named Chloe at his Mom's diner, and they have a brief fling in his hotel room.

    Later, his mother & Chloe come to his hotel room so his Mom can show him the dress she bought for his graduation. He disappoints her by telling her that he's going to just skip the graduation ceremony - she is hurt when she realizes that he is ashamed of her.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

    A. It's a real hotel, but nowhere near Albuquerque.


Q. Where can I find it in real life?

    A. It's actually the Crowne Plaza Hotel Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), at 5985 Century Blvd., next to LAX, in Los Angeles. You'll find it on the north side of Century Blvd, between Sepulveda (on the west) and Aviation (on the east). The airport is located just west of Inglewood, CA, at the west end of the Century (105) Freeway.

    Here's a photo of the hotel from their website:

    (There are several Crowne Plaza hotels in the L.A. area, including one at the Redondo Beach Marina, right across from two other O.C. locations, the Balboa Lighthouse restaurant and the Newport Yacht Club.)

    Here is a map link with the exact location of the LAX hotel's location. And here is an aerial photo from Live Local.


Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

    A. I thought I recognized this hotel as one of the hotels near LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), but I wasn't sure which one it was. So I just Googled for images of "hotel" and "LAX" and looked for a few key clues visible in the establishing shot (at the top of this page): the V-shape, the wavy hotel logo, the windows, the unusual street lights... After going through a few pages of photos, I ran right into a photo the Crowne Plaza.  I double checked by viewing a few more photos of the hotel, and matched up all of the key features, including the street lights and that wavy logo...



By Episode - By Category - By Geographical Location - Clickable Map - Aerials

THE O.C. screenshots from the show and all related characters & elements are trademarks of and © Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
All other photos & text are Copyright © 1999-2024-Gary Wayne and may not be used without written permission.



Return to Seeing-Stars.com