The restaurant Katana, co-owned by Ryan Seacrest and Tori Spelling and described by Newsweek as "so hip it hurts," also operates at the building.

"[2] The application to have the building added to the National Register of Historic Places noted its ornamented cream-and-tan plaster facade, its "grand entrance stairway and fountain, elaborate cast-stone decorations and arched entryway.

"[2] The building also retains original antique Italian marble and stonework, plaster edifices and wrought iron.

Built in 1927 for $382,000, the building was originally known as Hacienda Arms Apartments and became the home of wealthy Hollywood families.

[2] The Hacienda Arms was the home to motion picture actors, including Marie Dressler,[7] James Dunn, Grant Withers, Loretta Young, Jeanette MacDonald,[8] US child star Leon Janney,[9] and the film composers Josiah Zuro and Oscar Potoker.

[10] During the 1930s, the building gained notoriety as the site of the "House of Francis," described as the "most famous brothel in California,"[4] and the "classiest brothel on the Sunset Strip"[11] The "House of Francis" was featured in a 2005 book about Hollywood's "fixers," the men who worked to shield Hollywood's Golden Age stars from public scandal.

[12] The brothel was staffed largely by young women who had come to Hollywood to become movie stars but ended up as highly paid prostitutes, making as much as $1,000 a week—a fortune in the Depression era.

[7] As the costs escalated, Stewart and Monzio became engaged in a bitter legal dispute, and the renovation work was halted.

[2] Investigators believed the fire was set intentionally, because it started in three places, and its rapid spread suggested it had been "boosted" with a flammable liquid.

Katana, partly owned by Ryan Seacrest and Tori Spelling, serves "rustic Japanese fare" and sushi in a "sci-fi-inspired decor.

"[5][21] Newsweek suggested that the visitor to Katana "wear disaffected black and sit among the beautiful people outside on a veranda overlooking the bustle of Sunset Strip.