Appearing on the National Register of Historic Places, the Lennox hotel was built in 1929 and recently renovated into a creatively designed Courtyard by Marriott hotel with new lobby space, bistro, and business and fitness centers. Featuring key design elements inspired by nineteenth century conventions and materials, it is one of the area’s only examples from this time period. The goal of the project was to reflect the owner’s affinity for mid-century modern design, resulting in an intentional contrast of 1920s exterior aesthetic with new modern interiors.
Upon opening in 1929, the hotel was estimated to cost $2.5 million and contained almost 400 fairly small guest rooms. The $25 million, 16-month renovation focused on integrating standard brand features in creative ways. The hotel now includes 164 very generous guest rooms with unique layouts, customized furnishings, and commissioned artwork from local artists showcasing the hotel’s heritage. In main areas of the hotel, all built-in elements are composed of straight, understated surfaces featuring simple, light-colored materials, which contrast with the existing heavily-ornate dark wall paneling, colorful stone wainscoting and gilded metals.
Bold, bright accent colors in smaller-scale furniture further enhance the contrast between the heavy, ornate existing materials and the new, sleek update. Volutes, urns and other swags molded in terracotta give the hotel a dignified appearance, while new timeless fixtures bring out the elegance of the architecture. Stabilizing the historic building through significant mitigation, new windows, flashing, and masonry and stone repairs was necessary as the exterior envelope had fallen into disrepair while locating the brand name in key areas, on the fascia and over the porte cochere, allowed brand signage to be incorporated in a sensitive way.
Our design team’s unique and unexpected approach successfully achieved the project goal, blending mid-century modern design with the building’s historic appeal.