Adaptive reuse, the hottest trend in redevelopment, is proving to be a boon for meetings. No longer needed for their original purposes, historic structures ranging from stately mansions to factories and office buildings are being reinvented these days as hotels and event venues.
Hotel Monaco Baltimore
With their whimsical, "world traveler" theme, Kimpton Hotels' Monaco properties are a natural fit for buildings that have a well-traveled history. Two prime examples are the Hotel Monaco Baltimore, located in what was the B&O Railroad headquarters, and the Hotel Monaco Washington, located in what was Washington, D.C.'s General Post Office.
"There's a real benefit to taking an old building that has real character and turning it into a hotel—if you do it right, you've created something that is highly unique," says Michael Depatie, CEO of Kimpton Hotels, which has a long history in adaptive reuse projects. "It's all about preserving history and recycling old buildings."
That being said, Depatie adds that it's a whole lot easier just to build a hotel from the ground up.
"When you start ripping out an old building, you never know what you'll find—it's very risky," he says. "A lot of large office buildings have huge floor plans that are challenging for creating guest rooms. And there are big economic challenges."
The Hotel Monaco Baltimore, which opened in downtown Baltimore last year, combines architectural elements from the 1906 Beaux Arts building, including Tiffany glass windows and a cascading marble staircase in the lobby, with bold colors and modern designs. The 202 guest rooms pay homage to the heyday of rail travel with bedside tables resembling steamer trunks and headboards with built-in sconces.
A cornerstone of Washington's vibrant Penn Quarter neighborhood, the Hotel Monaco Washington is the result of an ambitious conversion that transformed the General Post Office, completed in 1842 as the first all-marble building in Washington, into a 184-room hotel. The project involved a joint partnership between Kimpton and the U.S. General Services Administration.
While maintaining the building's high, vaulted ceiling and elegant exterior with its stately white pillars, the hotel provides a welcoming "living room" lobby area with plush furnishings and a fireplace. Accommodations include Robert Mills Suites, named for the building's 19th century architect, designed to take advantage of 20-foot ceilings and ornate plaster moldings.
Meeting space, which features rooms named after international cities, accommodates up to 300 people. The Poste Modern Brasserie, a restaurant accessed through the hotel's historic carriageway, serves contemporary American cuisine.
Kimpton's next adaptive reuse venture will be the Hotel Monaco Philadelphia, a 271-room hotel scheduled to open in fall 2012 in the Lafayette Building, an 11-story office building dating from 1906 across from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.
Upon completion, the new Hotel Monaco Philadelphia will feature a chef-driven, 120-seat restaurant and bar and approximately 12,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 3,200 square foot ballroom located on the ground floor with windows facing Independence Square.
Cork Factory Hotel
Built in 1865, the red brick buildings of what is now Urban Place, a mixed-use complex in downtown Lancaster, Pa., are where cork-lined bottle caps and other cork products were manufactured for nearly 150 years. In 2004, plans were set in motion to transform the abandoned cork factory into retail shops, condos, offices and a boutique hotel.
Open last March, the Cork Factory Hotel offers 75 guest rooms where the factory's original red brick walls and exposed wood ceilings are an integral part of the decor, as are more modern touches that include large work desks and spacious tile and granite bathrooms.
The hotel's past incarnation is also evident in the meeting space, which includes a 5,225-square-foot ballroom with brick walls, wooden rafters, a brick fireplace, rustic chandeliers and a large covered terrace overlooking the factory buildings, including the original smokestack.
"It was a struggle to take the old structure and make it work for a new purpose," says Jill Fanning, co-owner of the hotel and Urban Place complex. "But what we got out of this is the uniqueness of the historic buildings combined with modern conveniences."
Still in progress is an effort to collect historic memorabilia pertaining to the old cork factory and use them to adorn the public spaces.
"People from the community are bringing us things and sharing their stories—in some cases, a grandfather may have worked in the cork factory," Fanning says.
Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown Hotel
Located across the street from Philadelphia's iconic City Hall, the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown Hotel was built in 1926 as the City Hall Annex, a notable example of neoclassical architecture now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After a $75 million makeover that carefully preserved the building's original bronze work, plaster detailing and marble finishes, the Courtyard Philadelphia Downtown Hotel opened in 2007 with 489 guest rooms, making it the largest—and perhaps the most elegant—property in Marriott's Courtyard brand. While the 18-story building appears almost unchanged from the outside, inside, guests find such amenities as a high-tech fitness center with an indoor lap pool and whirlpool.
Guest rooms blend the past with the present, featuring 11-foot ceilings, murals of historic Philadelphia, 42-inch LCD televisions and docking stations. Public spaces include the Philip H. Johnson Library, named for the building's architect, where guests can read books about Philadelphia history.
Located a block from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Courtyard is a group-oriented hotel with 10,000 square feet of meeting space, including a ballroom seating up to 400 people. The hotel offers two restaurants, including the Annex Grill and Lounge, which serves breakfast and dinner.
The Mount
Designed as a summer retreat by novelist Edith Wharton, The Mount has been through several incarnations that have included a private residence, a school for girls and a location for a theatrical troupe, Shakespeare & Company. Now the Palladium-style mansion in the Berkshire hills outside Lenox, Mass., completed in 1902 and surrounded by three acres of formal gardens, is both a historic site and a cultural center with a full roster of tours and activities that include lectures, concerts, theatrical performances, festivals and exhibits every year from May 1 to Oct. 31.
Wharton, famed for her novels about Gilded Age society, resided at The Mount for 10 years, a decade in which she wrote one of her most acclaimed novels, The House of Mirth. Much of the house has been restored to illustrate the time in which she was in residence, a project that began in 1997 and took several years to complete, as extensive repairs were needed.
Guided tours, which can be arranged for groups of 10 or more, shed light on Wharton's remarkable life and literary legacy as well as showcase the mansion, where three floors of restored rooms include her library and the bedroom suite in which she did most of her writing. Tours can be combined with lunch at the Terrace Cafe and can also include the extensive gardens, which like the mansion were designed by Wharton herself.
The scores of cultural offerings at The Mount include the annual Berkshire Literary Festival, which made its debut earlier this year.
