Hospitality Design - December 2011 - 50

perspectives
Clockwise from right: Hotel Modern’s guestroom and façade at night; and a rendering of the new Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone.

places: new orleans

Down on Bourbon
These projects notwithstanding, as is always the case, the center of the action is in the French Quarter, where activity is taking place at most of the established properties. The biggest news, though, is the December arrival of a newcomer, the 166-room Saint Hotel, which has taken over a prominent Canal Street building that’s been vacant for a decade. This will be the ﬁrst boutique property for the new owner, David Mark Wyant, a former American Airlines pilot who has built 10 Hilton and Holiday Inn hotels. Wyant handled interiors, while local architects Trapolin Peer have designed custom-built white lacquered guestroom furniture and steered a sensitive renovation that exposes the building’s brick walls, varied window proﬁles, and makes the best of its soaring lobby spaces. Wyant says his idea for the minimalist rooms— which are dominated by white, with ceilings painted blue—is to “harken

New Kid on the Block
Another brand transition will occur much sooner, by the end of this year, when the recently sold Hotel Le Cirque is born again as the 135-room Hotel Modern, a nod to the building’s mid-century architecture. The hotel’s new owner, Klaus Ortlieb, is an experienced boutique hotelier—he has owned and developed properties such as New York’s Cooper Square Hotel and L.A.’s Chateau Marmont—and is designing the property himself. “New Orleans is an incredible city—but I don’t think it has anything like what we’ve done,” he says. Promising a mix of styles in an attempt to recreate the experience of staying at a friend’s home, the hotel, which is located in the city’s booming Warehouse District, will get rid of its front desk and incorporate touches like books, vintage gadgets, candy dishes, mismatched glassware, and old musical instruments.

back to a pilot’s adage to ‘keep the blue skies over your head.’ I want a feeling of being in the clouds; there’s a sense of the heavenly in the rooms that mixes with the naughty in the public spaces.” That sinful side will be best evidenced by bar Burgundy, which takes its name from the intersecting street and its wickedness from the nearby section of Storyville where Louis Armstrong grew up amidst bordellos in the early 1900s. Red crystal chandeliers will hang from red mock croc ceilings above red patent leather banquettes. Right next door to the Saint, the Ritz-Carlton has completed the ﬁrst re-do (excluding façade renovations and ﬂood clean-up after Katrina) in its 10-year history. Gone are the toile wallpaper and fussy lamps. In are jewel-toned satin and velvet bedspreads and geometric sconces. Marble replaces carpeting in suite foyers, and artwork has been updated to emphasize photos and collages that pay homage to the Big Easy. Karen Jenkins, principal at Atlanta-based Design Continuum, says she “wanted to match the elegance of the Beaux Arts building to the vibrancy of the

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hospitality Design - December 2011
