More than 300 motels once lined Route 66 in New Mexico, the heart of the legendary 2,500-mile road linking Chicago and Los Angeles. By the mid-2000s, though, less than a fifth were still operating in the Land of Enchantment. In recent years, developers have begun snapping up and renovating some of the remaining icons.
“There’s this sort of intrigue with the route and the motor inns and their connection to a time when the automobile came into its own,” says Chad Rennaker, president of Portland, Oregon-based Palindrome Communities, which recently completed its third renovation of a motel in the Albuquerque area, working with locally based Design Plus Architects in each case.
“These motels feel out of time,” he continues. “There’s a romance to the pre-internet idea of just driving into town and finding a strange place to check into, without having any idea of what it looked like or if there were any rooms available.”
The renovation boom started in 2018, when Austin-based hotel investor Jeff Burns partnered with Jay and Alison Carroll—who he had met through hotelier Liz Lambert, a mutual friend—to revamp the 86-room El Rey Court, a Santa Fe adobe motel from 1936. That same year, Palindrome acquired the El Vado, which opened in Albuquerque in 1937, and three years later bought and updated the adjacent Monterey Motel, which dates to 1946.
The redesigned guestrooms at the Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe
At the same time, bigger brands also began taking notice, including the Four Seasons Resort Rancho Encantado Santa Fe, which completed a multimillion-dollar refresh last spring. Nicole Surget, principal of Langlois Design in San Rafael, California, says she leaned on ties between Puebloan architecture and modernism to give the 65 guestrooms an organic and zen feel. “It was very important for the space to evoke a sense of place and pay homage to the native cultures,” she says. “I tried to be very thoughtful and purposeful with each element introduced to be sure the room was telling the story of the location in a pure and simple way.”
Here, we look at three new properties popping up along Route 66.
ARRIVE Albuquerque
Sandy, high-desert colors define ARRIVE Albuquerque
In February, the 137-key ARRIVE Albuquerque—a redo of Downtowner Motor Inn, which launched in 1965—opened its doors, marking the brand’s first new property since its portfolio was acquired by Los Angeles hospitality company Palisociety in 2020. The in-house design team kept the exterior intact, including its scalloped porte-cochère, restaurant patio, and original sign and pool.
“Other than those key elements, the property was tired, dated, and in need of a renovation,” says Palisociety founder and CEO Avi Brosh. The result boasts a palette of sandy, high desert colors accented by bold floral-patterned headboards and neutral-toned checkerboard flooring. The modern-meets-retro vibe of DWTNR cocktail lounge, he adds, “comes to life with mix-and-match fabric patterns and tile accent walls.”
Imperial
The Imperial motel in Albuquerque boasts a light, airy vibe
The pandemic put a kink in the momentum for smaller operations, but recently another spate of openings has arrived, and more are in the pipeline.
In late 2023, Motel El Rancho in Gallup—which originally opened in 1974 as a companion property to the historic El Rancho Hotel, a favorite of vacationing Hollywood stars—unveiled redesigned rooms replete with murals of the yawning highway leading to terracotta-hued mountains and kitschy 1970s accents, like retro dial phones and alarm clocks.
Last year revealed the latest team-up from Palindrome/Design Plus, Albuquerque’s Imperial, with 50 guestrooms and 16 extended stay suites.
“There’s a thrill about reinventing these things into something that makes them wanted again,” says Design Plus principal Rupal Engineer. “Since coming to the area in 1989 from Bombay, where I grew up, I’ve become fascinated with this hospitality typology. It’s a great design challenge to make buildings that are, in some cases, almost 80 years old work for today’s travelers.”
The team preserved and restored the pool, as well as the distinctive gull-wing roof over the front lobby, designed by the original architectural firm, Palmer and Krisel, in 1959. Guestrooms feature a wood lattice system across one wall, which serves as a headboard, concrete breeze blocks as room dividers, and what the team calls a Beach Boy vibe with coastal colorways that pay tribute to the California roots of the original Imperial 400 brand.
Mystic Motel
Designer-and-owner Amanda Turner crafted the interior of Mystic Motel
Also opened last year, Santa Fe’s Mystic Motel is a rebranding of the Silver Saddle, a Western-themed motel that many in the area, including designer Amanda Tucker, remember fondly. “I’ve always been intrigued by old, drive-up motels and felt like we could offer a unique lodging and venue option in Santa Fe,” she says.
When she and her husband Rick Goldberg started seriously considering buying a motel to remodel, the Silver Saddle was her first choice, even though it was not on the market. Soon enough, the couple persuaded the owners to sell the property.
Tucker’s refresh includes aspects of her brand of desert modernism, which, she says, is “minimalist with clean lines and a color palette derived from desert landscapes [that marries] global textiles and art to create warmth and interest.”
A favorite touch is the original motel office sign that they’ve burnished and placed in the lobby, after rescuing it from a backyard junk pile. Now, it’s the first thing guests see when they walk in. “I love paying tribute to what came before,” Tucker says.
