Items Tagged ‘hotel’
Co. Seeks To Turn Ex-Nursing Home Into Hub Hotel
Synopsis:
A former nursing home in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston may soon be converted into a budget hotel. The current adaptive reuse plan calls for adding two additional floors on top of the old Pond View Nursing Home. Watertown-based SMC Management hopes to repurpose the nursing home into a 40-room hotel which is conveniently located by the city’s Emerald Necklace, MBTA Green Line and the Longwood Medical area. These plans, as well as the purchase of the site, are dependent on whether SMC Management will be granted a zoning variance to add the additional floors.
Interestingly, the article also notes that the former Cleveland Circle Cinema in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston may soon become a hotel as well. Although Goodison stated the hotel is planned for the theatre building, she clarifies that its really only the site that will be used as plans call for the demolition of the old building. There are no details provided as to why the developer for this other project, Boston Development Group, found it more advantageous to build new rather than reuse.
Marriott To Open Courtyard Seattle Downtown Pioneer Square In Adaptive Reuse Of 1904 Alaska Building
Synopsis:
What once served as the meeting place for gold prospectors will soon serve the visiting business sector in Seattle, Washington. Marriott plans to complete its adaptive reuse of the historic 1904 Alaska Building in the heart of Pioneer Square this May 2010. The new Courtyard by Marriott location will serve short- and long-term guests and feature a restaurant and 4,600 square feet of meeting space. The 15-story former bank building is perfectly located to allow for easy pedestrian access to Qwest Field, Safeco Field, and the Pioneer Square Station.
Developers Can Look To Boston Jail For Inspiration
Synopsis:
The old St. Louis County Jail in Duluth, Minnesota, is about to come out of dormancy. The sale to private developer Jail Holding LLC should close April 16th. It will mark a long time coming in adapting the vacant jail. Once considered for the wrecking ball, the building plans include office, conference and storage space. As the project gets underway, Renalls suggest that the developer look to the Suffolk County Jail in Boston, Massachusetts, for inspiration. That jail, shut down in 1990, went through an extensive five-year conversion and is now home to a premier New England Hotel and three hip bars/restaurants. While a much larger and expensive project, the conversion demonstrates the potential the St. Louis County Jail can offer.
Deal Reached to Save Landmark L.A. Hotel
Publication Date:
February 11, 2010Written By:
Jacob AdelmanSource:
Engineering News-RecordRead more...
Synopsis:
Next Century Associates purchased the historic Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles in 2008 with plans to replace it with new towers containing condos and shops. Since that announcement, the community has come out in full force to save this key building. The Century Plaza Hotel was built at the core of Century City – a district of high-rises on the former site of a 20th Century Fox movie lot – and opened in 1966. It was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki, whose later work included New York City’s World Trade Center towers. It is the heart of Century City and a true landmark as it had welcomed home the crew of Apollo 11 as well as hosted President-elect Ronald Reagan’s victory celebration and Bob Hope’s celebrity-studded Century Ball. Next Century has revised its construction plans. The hotel will now be converted to include 400 guest rooms and 45 condominium units. Additional tower/buildings have been approved to be constructing on the sides or back of the hotel, but not to obstruct the building’s presence on the street.
andel’s Hotel Lodz
Synopsis:
History
The weaving mill, built in 1852 by textile magnate Izrael Poznanski, is defined by its red-brick exterior and cast iron pillars. After over a century of use, the complex was abandoned in the 1990s.
(Re)Developer
The adaptive reuse project was commissioned by Warimpex Finanz-und Beteiligungs AG of Vienna, Austria. The real estate development and investment company if focused on building and operating hotels in Central and Eastern Europe. The firm operates in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, France, Germany and Russia.[1]
The interior design was handled by Jestico + Whiles who are famous for their practical, innovative and contemporary solutions. Jestico + Whiles, based on London, have won a number of national and international architecture awards for their work, among them the 2002 FX International Design Award for the andel’s Hotel Prague. The andel’s Hotel Łódź is already the fourth joint project with Vienna International.
The executive architect for the project was OP Architekten, founded by the architects Orlinski and Poplawski. The firm has made a name for itself thanks to its relationship with contemporary, elegant and functional architecture. OP Architekten’s achievements have already been distinguished at numerous architecture competitions. The accomplishments of the firm’s founders include Poland’s tallest hotel. With the andel’s hotel projects, the two architects further prove their experience in the field of exterior architecture.[2]
Outcome
The former factory has been transformed into the first four-star hotel in Łódź, Poland. Jestico + Whiles painstakingly followed the city’s strict codes of historic building preservation to honor the tradition of the building. The hotel is actually one piece to the larger reuse of the complex, now called Manufaktura (a retail and entertainment center). The 200,000-sq.-ft., four-level hotel includes 180 guestrooms and 80 long-stay apartments. The hotel lobby is marked by the building’s original cast iron pillars supporting the red brick vaulted roof, and three light wells that slice through the ceiling with sculptural displays of concentric circles denoting the balustrades of each floor above, each lit with changing colored LEDs. The hotel’s pool was created out of a 19th century fire water storage tank and is located in a cantilevered glass box on the top floor, overhanging the building’s brick exterior.[3]
Ames Boston Hotel
Synopsis:
History
The Ames Building was built in 1893 and was considered (though incorrectly) to be the tallest building in Boston until 1915. It served as an office tower and was Boston’s first skyscraper. Designed in Richardsonian Romanesque, it is the second tallest masonry load bearing-wall structure in the world.
(Re)Developer
Normandy Real Estate Partners purchased the building in 2007 and worked with Morgans Hotel Group to convert the National Historic Building.
Outcome
Opening in 2009, the adapted building now serves as a 114-room modern hotel in the heart of Boston. Along with the hotel, the upscale Woodward restaurant was incorporated into the ground floor. After eight years of vacancy, the Ames is alive and well again.[1]
Aloft Debuts Adaptive Reuse
Synopsis:
The Starwood specialty select brand, Aloft, has opened its first adaptive reuse hotel in Dallas. The company’s philosophy is to provide hotel rooms and guest common spaces with high ceilings and lots of light. The adaptive reuse of old commercial and industrial spaces fits right in with their philosophy. The company has shifted to focusing their new hotels on adaptive reuse projects, as a way to gain new market share in downtown districts that do not have the available land for new building construction. While the company admits the move into adaptive reuse is opportunistic due to the economic and sustainability focuses lately, this venture was in the business plan.