With some 5,000 rooms recently opened or in the pipeline through 2018, according to the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Big Easy is continuing to grow in the decade since Hurricane Katrina.
Last year’s $14 million transformation of the Ambassador Hotel by New York-based Parts and Labor Design into the Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery—a 167-key offering in the Warehouse District from Provenance Hotels—got the latest ball rolling. This year, several new and select brands have entered the market, a storied favorite—the Pontchartrain Hotel—has undergone a major renovation, and a few independents have landed in historic houses. Further down the line, plans call for a 350-room, 76-residence Four Seasons as part of a conversion of the vacant World Trade Center; a 183-room Virgin Hotels outpost on an empty lot in the central business district (CBD); and a restoration of the 1927 tower once home to the New Orleans Public Service Inc., also in the CBD, for the 214-key NOPSI Hotel.
“Developers continue to recognize the great opportunities that exist to rehab some incredible historic buildings,” says the CVB’s Kristian Sonnier. “Combined with the first set of post-Katrina renovations to hotels that suffered damage, there’s no other city of our size whose entire stock has received such a complete overhaul.” That equated to a record 9.8 million guests who visited last year.
Here’s a look at some recent openings and up and comers.
Ace Hotel New Orleans
The city’s appeal is obvious, especially for a brand like Ace where “hotels are built as monuments to the cities they live in and their design always attempts to link people with the local culture and community,” says Kelly Sawdon, partner and chief brand officer for Ace Hotel Group and its in-house creative studio Atelier Ace. “New Orleans is a true confluence of traditions, identities, and stories.”
The recently opened 234-key Ace Hotel New Orleans, an adaptive reuse of a nine-story Art Deco department store in the Warehouse District (bolstered by a four-story addition from local firm Eskew+Dumez+Ripple) uses a strong art program to avoid design clichés, says Robin Standefer, principal of New York-based Roman and Williams. “Paintings by local artists on the armoires, for example, allow us to bring some of that lush New Orleans nature into the rooms.” The hotel’s osteria, Josephine Estelle, is centered on handpainted backdrops from the New Orleans Opera production of “The Magic Flute.” Even oyster bar Seaworthy, located in a shack-like home behind the hotel and crafted by Brooklyn, New York-based Home Studios, features decorative wall finishes to accompany its marine palette of “maroon, navy, and high-gloss black,” says project manager Arica Wolfe.
Moxy New Orleans
A conversion of a Quality Inn just outside the French Quarter, the 108-room Moxy New Orleans opened this spring, its purple and green palette and reclaimed wood and iron material choices all inspired by the city, explains Sherry Dennis, senior design associate at New York-based Stonehill & Taylor. Marriott’s Moxy brand, much like the energy that permeates New Orleans, encourages convivial attitudes, and the design reflects that. A cool hanging chair sets the playful mood, for instance, as guests enter the lobby, “a moment that lets you know where you are,” she says. Brand standards on display in the rooms include hooks and pegs along the walls and a foldable chair-and-desk, all of which eliminate the need for closets and casegoods. Hanging leather-esque headboards, white subway-tiled bathrooms, and whimsically worded throw pillows complete the picture.
The Troubadour
Opening this fall, the Troubadour, Joie de Vivre’s conversion of a landmarked 1960s building in the CBD, will feature a “collage of identities and surprises, with each floor offering a unique design and personality,” according to David Lasker, principal of San Francisco-based Paletteur (which worked with locally based Campo Architects on the project). Embracing the brand’s building blocks of “culture, rhythm, industrial, spirited, and Creole,” a signature of the property’s 184 rooms will be two-person bartops for in-room cocktails. The design combines a warm color palette with patinated finishes, geometric patterns, and a retro vibe, while guestroom art and objects reference New Orleans’ mysticism, music, and local culture. In addition to the modern brasserie Petit Lion, local chef Phillip Lopez will helm rooftop bar Monkey Board, where Lasker promises a “rustic ambiance, embellished with graffiti and reclaimed architectural elements.”
Pontchartrain Hotel
The highly anticipated restoration of the classic Pontchartrain Hotel in the Garden District has “restored to the community something they felt had been taken away forever,” says Andrew Alford, chief creative officer for Chicago-based owners and developers AJ Capital Partners. Aside from converting a parking garage into event space, moving the front desk, and adding 20 guestrooms (bringing the total to 106) and a rooftop bar, Hot Tin, the footprint remains the same. An overall 1930s to ’40s aesthetic pervades: restored terrazzo floors and a trompe l’oeil wall marble (now in green) in the lobby; scarlet red grasscloth walls at reception; mismatched Persian rugs and upholstered and rattan furniture in green, blue, gold, and burgundy tones in the lobby’s living room; and a languid but cool palette of mint green and pink floral patterns and hues in guestrooms. The famed Caribbean Room (now overseen by celeb chef John Besh’s Our House Hospitality, as are the three other F&B offerings) also hints at throwback vibes with hanging plants, locally informed artwork, rattan chairs upholstered in alligator-embossed pink leather, and bold banana leaf-patterned carpeting. Meanwhile, Hot Tin channels an artist’s loft or a stage set, filled with found objects sourced on a road trip, a nod to American playwright Tennessee Williams, who lived at the hotel while writing A Streetcar Named Desire. Throughout, Alford says, “we wanted to capture the [richness] of the Garden District. We didn’t want to be hip.”
Henry Howard Hotel
A smaller Garden District property, the 18-room Henry Howard Hotel, is a reinvention of an 1860s mansion that had most recently operated as a boarding house. Named for its architect, the property features crown moldings and Corinthian columns. “Our brief was to honor the character of the building and its wonderful bones while highlighting the music and architecture that makes the city so special,” says Lauren Mabry, lead designer at New York-based Hunter Mabry Design. Brass instruments used as décor on the walls, custom toile wallpaper dancing with New Orleans motifs, and a bar crafted out of a large carved piece of marble do the trick.
Catahoula Hotel
Similarly, the 35-room Catahoula Hotel is an adaptive reuse of an 1840 Creole townhouse on an underused side street downtown. Owned and developed by locally based preservation architect Keely Williams, she along with fellow designers Chris Johnson and Kirk Fabacher went for a South American feel in what she says was a “labor of fine masonry details.” The spare but warm rooms feature millwork and furnishings of reclaimed wood, including pine salvaged from the house itself. A rooftop tiki bar is an “exercise in framing views,” she adds, while the lobby bar serves Peruvian-inspired drinks and bites.
Canopy by Hilton New Orleans
Not far from there, a Canopy by Hilton will open later this year in a nationally registered International Style office building that is receiving a new skin from Philadelphia-based architects spg3. “The building has retained a lot of design elements characteristic of the era,” says New York-based designer Mark Zeff. His interior finishes play off those features, with wide-plank wood floors, polished concrete and plastered walls, and guestrooms with concrete floors and midcentury-style light oak wood furniture. “The restaurant is designed to feel like a courtyard within the lobby space, with exterior concrete tiles on the floor and lush plantings,” he adds.
