New Louisville Marriott Downtown Hotel Wins the Triple Crown

. October 14, 2008

LOUISVILLE, KY, August 29, 2005. Marriott's new downtown hotel achieved a rare triple crown by meeting budget, schedule, and design quality goals. Soon after it opened in March 2005, it already was booked for 100,000 room nights through 2010.

In March 2005, nearly a month ahead of a schedule requiring the hotel to be up and running smoothly before Kentucky Derby week in early May, Marriott unveiled a premier new convention hotel in the heart of Louisville.

This new 17-story hotel - the first to open in downtown Louisville since the 1970s - features 616 guest rooms, 50,000 square feet of ballroom and meeting space, and a 500-space, three-level underground parking garage.

An enclosed skywalk links the hotel to the Kentucky International Convention Center and to Louisville's new Fourth Street Live entertainment district. The hotel is within minutes of Churchill Downs, Louisville International Airport, and all the city's major attractions. It is helping to revitalize downtown while contributing to the city's efforts to expand convention business and attract tourists.

Russ Louderback, executive vice president in charge of design and construction for project developer White Lodging Services Corp. of Merrillville, Indiana, says the project has been "wildly successful" - both as a business for the owners and as a development catalyst for the city of Louisville. Occupancy rates, meeting space bookings, and restaurant revenue all have surpassed expectations.

An Ultra-Efficient Layout

Architects must strike a delicate balance to satisfy a building's functional needs, to meet the budget and schedule requirements, and to create an attractive design.

Hotel owners are even more focused than most on planning an efficient interior layout. To maximize revenue opportunities, the interior program has to be as tight as possible.

"We are a best-value client," says Louderback. "We don't design churches for Easter Sunday. We only want what we need. From that standpoint, this project couldn't be better."

The design team in architect HOK's Chicago office, which worked with architect-of-record Ratio Architects, Inc., was methodical about fine-tuning the interior plan to function efficiently while also optimizing the guests' experience. "This is a business for them, so the first priority was for the hotel to work from the inside out," says project designer Todd Halamka, AIA.

Entering from a porte-coch`ere and large canopy off West Jefferson Street across from the convention center, guests walk into a grand hall with a two-story atrium. From here they have clear views in all four directions of all the activities taking place within the hotel. Guests can easily see the registration desk; the two restaurants, a lobby bar, and a Starbuck's coffee shop; and all the meeting and ballroom space.

"Making this visual connection between the arrival point and all the hotel activities while bringing the lobby to life is important," says Paul DeCelles, AIA, HOK's project principal.

The Triple Crown: Budget, Schedule, and Design Quality

The hotel sits on a prominent site on the eastern edge of downtown Louisville, next to the convention center and a few blocks south of the Ohio River.

While efficiency is important, a well-designed hotel can bring value for the owners over the long-term. The city of Louisville also was urging the team to contribute a beautiful piece of architecture to the downtown skyline. "That is where HOK provided great value," Louderback says. "They designed a handsome building that fit within our budget."

This new hotel, which is primarily composed of glass, architectural precast concrete, and masonry, looks much more expensive than its relatively modest $71 million construction budget would indicate. "It's a perfect balance between an elegant piece of architecture and an affordable, well-organized hotel," DeCelles says.

The building provides a striking addition to the Louisville skyline while simultaneously creating a warm, comfortable feeling for guests. The design balances a contemporary character with a surrounding historic district of existing 19th century commercial structures. The architecture mediates the existing city scales and older context while, in the same breath, brings a fresh look.

"It's modern but it's also a real fit for Louisville," Halamka notes. "We wanted to design something contemporary but that through its scale and materials would complement the old-fashioned, lower brick buildings surrounding the site."

Two facades of the late-1800s Coleman Building were salvaged and reinstalled at street level on the hotel's northwest corner. This was a request from the Historical Society which added significant character to the project.

The two-story base is clad primarily in brick at a scale reminiscent of mercantile nature of this Ohio River neighborhood. Yet this plinth is carefully detailed to stand as a contemporary neighbor.

The 17-story hotel tower takes full advantage of the Ohio River valley's expansive view corridor. The east elevation is a mostly glass facade that appears transparent at night. The west elevation is a series of punched window openings matching the scale and rhythm of the adjacent moderately dense cityscape.

The tower's east-west orientation allows for long north and south facades. "From a solar perspective, this is ideal because it eliminates direct low-morning or low-afternoon sun while bringing in great northern light," Halamka says.

That east-west orientation is a good way to make any building more energy efficient. But it's especially important for a hotel, adds Halamka, "because the heating and cooling system is constantly battling Mother Nature."

In HOK's initial design, bricks were inlaid into the exterior architectural precast. "To reduce costs, we replaced the brick pattern with a different color of precast," says project manager Gaute Grindheim. "That still was a more expensive way to do the precast, but it was a good compromise for making the flat exterior look less monotone and more dynamic."

HOK's original design also specified a true glass curtain wall for the tower's entire north side. "We modified the design to place the windows between two precast panels," Grindheim says. This change helped the owner achieve the budget.

That, of course, made Louderback happy. "I am most pleased by the fact that we were able to absolutely achieve our budget - almost to the dollar," he says. "With the help of a great design team, we opened three weeks early and still delivered a quality building that the city is extremely proud of."

Meeting in the Middle: the Relationship Continues

White Lodging Services previously worked with HOK and general contractor Hunt Construction Group on a similar project - the 615-room Marriott Indianapolis Downtown Convention Hotel - that opened in 2001.

That relationship between White Lodging Services and HOK continues. Among the current projects the two firms have on the boards is the design of a 523-room hotel in downtown Chicago.

"HOK just works with us," says Louderback. "They won't let go of the design quality and I won't let go of the budget. We meet in the middle."

The team's ability to create a successful project improved vastly with an enlightened client that values quality and craft, says DeCelles. "White Lodging Services is a very demanding client, but it's a pleasure to work with them because they really know what they are doing and what they want."

Louderback has simple advice for other groups planning to build a new hotel: "Architects and consultants expect owners to provide timely information and timely payments. And they perform better when you make and then stick with decisions. When we as owners can do all that, we get great results."

By freelance writer John Gilmore ([email protected])

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