The four-star hotel is part of TrizecHahn's $430-million Hollywood & Highland project, a mixed-use development rising at the star-crossed corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The 640-room hotel will be operated by Maryland-based lodging giant Marriott International Inc.

The new hotel project includes the complete restoration of a small but popular Holiday Inn that has stood on the site for several years. Marriott is converting the well-known revolving restaurant at the top of the Holiday Inn into a Presidential suite.

Today's ceremony will include the traditional hoisting of a US flag and Christmas tree to the top of the hotel's steel frame. The lodging complex will open this fall, says Trent Anderson, the Santa Fe Springs-based Matt Construction SVP who is overseeing the hotel's renovation and expansion work.

In addition to the new hotel, TrizecHahn's Hollywood & Highland development will include TV broadcasting facilities, some office and retail space, and its own Metro Red Line subway station. Equally important, it will also provide a permanent home for the Academy Awards--the annual starfest that has been shuffled from one site to another in recent years because Hollywood itself hasn't had adequate space to host it.