French artist Lamouroux plans to briefly transform seedy, abandoned LA hotel into work of art

Its days might be numbered, but if LA's seedy, long-abandoned Sunset Pacific Hotel is going out, it will at least be doing so in style.

French experimental artist Vincent Lamouroux plans to bathe the aging Sunset Boulevard structure and its surrounding trees in special white paint starting April 20. The work, titled "Projection," will be unveiled April 26.

"It revisits our existing landscape with new eyes and envisions the building's surfaces as screens for the projections of our desires," the artist said Wednesday in a statement.

But it will only do so for a couple of weeks. Lamouroux plans to use ecologically sensitive materials that will quickly erode, returning the building and its surrounding trees to their original look.

It could likely be the last hurrah for the hotel, which in recent years has been a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes.

A September hearing will determine whether the structure, an eyesore in a gentrifying section of Los Angeles, should be torn down.

During the brief time of its transformation, however, it will anchor arts education programs in conjunction with several local schools.

Lamouroux has been planning "Projection" for more than a year and originally came up with the idea more than a decade ago.

The artist is known for such works as staircases leading nowhere, floors that undulate and other projects that seek to disrupt time and space and inspire imagination.