In Phoenix, The Egyptian Motor Hotel, which first opened in 1952 and operated for decades as the Las Palmas Inn, has been transformed into a boutique hotel with a midcentury vibe. With its large neon sign now restored, the two-story, open-air hotel features Egyptian-themed murals and other artwork.
The design by EDI International repurposed the hotel’s triangular parking lot into a 400-person live entertainment venue that includes a music stage and bar, while keeping most of the original parking spaces. The hotel’s first-floor cabana areas and second-floor balconies all have views of the stage. An onsite Mexican restaurant, Chilte, now serves as the permanent home of a former pop-up.
The Egyptian includes 48 guest rooms adorned with retro furnishings, including Bluetooth speakers that look like Marshall amplifiers, pillows resembling VHS tapes, egg chairs, Magic 8 Balls, refrigerators, and coolers. The rooms’ wallpapers take inspiration from classic drink labels. The guest rooms have a king bed or bunk bed, dinette table, and smart TVs. In one room, the names of The Doors’ songs and album titles form the face of late lead singer Jim Morrison. And a fully remodeled 1960s Airstream serves as a private guestroom.
The Egyptian Motel Hotel, which opened earlier this year, operates under Best Western’s BW Signature Collection.
On the Building Team:
Design architect and architect of record: EDI International
MEP engineer: IMEG Corp.
Structural engineer: PVE, LLC
General contractor: Western States General Contracting, LLC
Construction manager: PDL Enterprises
Related Stories
Mixed-Use | Oct 4, 2018
Four-story hotel and adjacent affordable housing community opens in California’s Sonoma County
Axis/GFA Architecture and Design was the architect for the project.
Reconstruction & Renovation | Aug 21, 2018
The massive facelift of New York’s famed Waldorf Astoria moves into Phase Two
The refurbished hotel will feature fewer, but larger, guest rooms.
Hotel Facilities | Aug 10, 2018
How hospitality design makes spaces of all types better for users
Responding to these shifting expectations, building owners and design teams working in other markets now regularly embrace leading ideas from the world of hospitality and infuse them into their projects.
Hotel Facilities | Aug 1, 2018
'Home away from home' is hoteliers' newest theme
Creating an experience, with the accent on local color, is flavoring hotel design.
Mixed-Use | Jul 17, 2018
Water Street Tampa’s developer reveals details about this project’s public spaces
This $3 billion waterfront neighborhood will also include three hotels.
Sponsored | Hotel Facilities | Jul 13, 2018
Hotel renovation: More than just minding the dust
Do you know the vital signs for avoiding moisture & mold problems? Will your brand standards cause you headaches? How will you recover costs if you do get into trouble?
Adaptive Reuse | Jul 9, 2018
Work, park, live: Inside Cincinnati’s parking garage turned lifestyle hotel
The Summit hotel and conference center is a converted parking garage that was once a factory.
Hotel Facilities | Jun 20, 2018
Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Morpheus Hotel includes world’s first free-form high-rise exoskeleton
The hotel provides 147, 860 sm of space across 42 floors.
| May 30, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: An AEC giant’s roadmap for integrating design, manufacturing, and construction
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), Skender CEO Mark Skender and Chief Design Officer Tim Swanson present the construction giant’s vision for creating a manufacturing-minded, vertically-integrated design-manufacturing-build business model.
| May 30, 2018
Accelerate Live! talk: From micro schools to tiny houses: What’s driving the downsizing economy?
In this 15-minute talk at BD+C’s Accelerate Live! conference (May 10, 2018, Chicago), micro-buildings design expert Aeron Hodges, AIA, explores the key drivers of the micro-buildings movement, and how the trend is spreading into a wide variety of building typologies.
