Originally designed by local El Paso architects Trost & Trost in the 1930s, The Plaza Hotel Pioneer Park has recently reopened after a historic rehabilitation project. The project includes 130 guest rooms, 7,600 sf of event space, a lobby bar, and a rooftop bar overlooking the Franklin Mountains and Mexican border.
The hotel’s design motif represents a hybrid of the Art Deco style of the 1920s and the naturalistic, Native American adobe architectural styles. The design team worked to accommodate modern hotel operation and amenities while also rehabilitating key aspects of the original design, including all of the historic signage, brick facade, precast deco reliefs and signature medallions, the bronze on many of the storefronts and second-floor windows, interior wood trim surrounding the tower windows, the clay and tile roof, and the Spanish-tiled pyramidal crown.
Upon entering the lobby, guests are greeted by the reinstated double-height atrium (which was previously enclosed during a mid-century renovation), stained glass, skylights, wood beams, decorative stenciling, and an original railing on the historic staircase connecting the first and second levels. The design team used old newspaper stories and photographs published around the hotel’s first public opening to reinterpret many of the original elements with custom light fixtures, materials, and color choices. In areas where the original terra cotta tile flooring was missing, Cooper Carry used concrete flooring to create a layered texture.
See Also: One of Europe’s largest office and warehouse buildings is made entirely of wood
The Ámbar Restaurante and Lobby Bar includes a 40-foot-high back bar that displays one of Texas’ largest tequila collections being a sheath of amber glass and polished stainless steel. A contemporary style staircase is partially concealed behind the bar and amber glass to provide server access to the wall of tequila as well as secretly connecting the main dining room and exposed theater kitchen to a cellar-like private dining space located in the former trunk and boiler rooms. Check-in is located to the side of the bar. La Perla, a 5,000-sf rooftop bar and restaurant, is located on the 17th floor in the former penthouse suite. The space includes tiered-seating and built in garden planters to create intimate seating areas.
The project officially opened on June 17.
Project Design Team
Cooper Carry's Hospitality Studio - Project Lead
The Johnson Studio at Cooper Carry - F&B; Restaurant + Bar/Rooftop Bar
Forrest Perkins - Lobby/Meeting Rooms/Guestrooms
Related Stories
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.
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?
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.
Hotel Facilities | May 4, 2018
Retro hotel is inspired by Spaghetti Westerns
There’s two types of people in this world: those who like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, and those who are wrong.
Hotel Facilities | Apr 27, 2018
Hotel Zachary opens next to Chicago’s Wrigley Field
Stantec Architecture and Studio K Creative designed the project.
Hotel Facilities | Apr 25, 2018
15-story Cambria Hotel opens in Philadelphia
DAS Architects designed the project.
Hotel Facilities | Apr 13, 2018
BIG’s Audemars Piguet hotel des Horlogers allows guests to ski down the roof
The 75,000-sf hotel is currently under construction.
Hotel Facilities | Apr 3, 2018
Downtown Seattle receives new flagship Embassy Suites in Pioneer Square
The hotel brings 282 suites to Seattle’s oldest neighborhood.
Hotel Facilities | Jan 24, 2018
U.S. hotel markets with the largest construction pipelines
Dallas, Houston, and New York lead the way, with more than 460 hotel projects in the works.