[11]In his book Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (1989), Edward Soja describes the hotel asa concentrated representation of the restructured spatiality of the late capitalist city: fragmented and fragmenting, homogeneous and homogenizing, divertingly packaged yet curiously incomprehensible, seemingly open in presenting itself to view but constantly pressing to enclose, to compartmentalize, to circumscribe, to incarcerate.

Everything imaginable appears to be available in this micro-urb but real places are difficult to find, its spaces confuse an effective cognitive mapping, its pastiche of superficial reflections bewilder co-ordination and encourage submission instead.

The four elevator banks (each containing three cars for a total of 12) are named by colors and symbols: Red Circle (the only one that goes to "35"; the other three only go to "32"), Yellow Diamond, Green Square, and Blue Triangle.

[13] Several bronze plaques commemorate elevator scenes from three major films: It has been featured in many movies and television series over the years, including The Driver,[16] Interstellar,[17] Strange Days, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (as part of the city of New Chicago), Wonder Woman,[18] Blue Thunder, It's a Living,[19] Starsky & Hutch, L.A. Law, The A-Team, Breathless, Matlock, This Is Spinal Tap, Nick of Time,[20] Rain Man,[20][21] Ruthless People,[20] Logan's Run,[20] My Fellow Americans,[20] Midnight Madness, Moonlighting (TV series), Showtime, Hard to Kill, The Lincoln Lawyer, Chuck, Heaven Can Wait, Xanadu, The New Dragnet, Time After Time, Moby Dick,[22] Zoolander,[23] MaXXXine, Lethal Weapon 2,[20] The Fantastic Journey[24][25] and was destroyed (via special effects) in Escape from LA,[26] Epicenter, and San Andreas.

In November 1979, the ABC soap opera General Hospital videotaped some on location scenes there dealing with Luke Spencer, played by Anthony Geary who was hired to assassinate Senator Mitch Williams.

The hotel is also showcased in episodes of CSI and its exterior can be seen in Americathon, Mission: Impossible III, Almighty Thor, Hancock, and at the beginning of the Lionel Richie "Dancing on the Ceiling" music video.