PORTLAND, Ore.—Portland’s Hotel Lucia has completed construction on the final phase of a $5.5 million renovation that began two years ago with the addition of Vitaly Paley’s restaurants, Imperial and Portland Penny Diner, continued with last year’s debut of all new guestrooms and is now finished following the renovation of the hotel’s lobby, meeting rooms and public areas. Embracing the needs and desires of today’s travelers, these spaces have been transformed by Portland’s Staicoff Design Company with an eye toward creating a sense of community and spaces for socializing, working, relaxing, and interaction.
The journey through the new lobby begins at the entrance, where a stone and brass floor inlay of the hotel’s new logo and new vestibule have been installed with two sets of double doors in glass and black steel that serve to welcome guests and insulate them from the weather. Hardwood floors like those found in Imperial have been installed throughout the lobby with metallic accents that echo the warmth of the rosewood furniture upstairs in the guestrooms. Dual reception desks made of white Calacatta marble and antique mirror are ensconced in an alcove clad in glowing brass and backed by a layered wall treatment made of woven wire mesh and bent brass and aluminum elements. Eliminating the traditional front desk and removing the separation between staff and guests, the new design encourages interaction and fosters a sense of community in the space.
With new seating areas facing the guest reception desks and nestled in the center of the lobby, the renovation has doubled the amount of seating options and introduced a jewel-toned palate featuring furniture and lighting elements that call to mind various eras of the hotel’s history. As one moves deeper into the lobby, the new design offers progressively more intimate options for conversation and connection.
The lobby features an extensive collection of regional art, including JD Perkin’s ceramic figure Untitled #5; Robert Colescott’s 1989 lithograph Lock and Key II; Shadows and Whispers #2 by Jay Backstrand; Bathers in Milford #2 by Lester Johnson; Crous and Uranus and Gaea #3 by Michael Spafford; and Repented Admonitions by Fay Jones. The space is anchored by a wall of prints by David Hume Kennerly, a native Oregonian and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who has documented prominent, powerful, and poignant personalities around the globe. With prints in every guestroom and artfully hung in the corridors upstairs, Hotel Lucia has always been home to the world’s largest collection of black and white photography by Kennerly. The lobby art display includes iconic images of Hugh Hefner with a bevy of bunnies, Nixon boarding the presidential helicopter on his last day in office, and Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
On the north side of the lobby, near the entrance to Portland Penny Diner and the guestroom elevators, a fireplace warms a space with gracious windows looking out onto the hustle and bustle of Portland. Here, guests can perch on stools and plug in to work at a window-facing counter equipped with iPad and Surface tablets or relax in lounge chairs upholstered in hues of and amethyst.
Hotel Lucia’s largest and most-in-demand meeting space, a gracious 1,160 sq. ft. room located on the main level off the lobby, has been rechristened Pettygrove in a nod to Imperial and Portland Penny Diner’s focus on local history. In a twist of fate, history dictated the final look of the room as well. During construction, as walls were opened in the space, original iron beams were exposed that retained painted markings from previous renovations calling out the former name of the hotel: Imperial Hotel. It is a name that Vitaly Paley reinstated when he opened his award-winning Imperial restaurant at Hotel Lucia so it was only fitting to keep these beams in the final design of the space. They are complimented by hardwood floors, subtly patterned wall paper, new lighting and a new projector screen as well as the addition of new electric and HDMI ports around the room for power and connection.
Downstairs, additional seating creates inviting breakout spaces and new finishes and art in the 870 sq. ft. Lovejoy and 472 sq. ft. Quimby rooms complete the transformation of the meeting space. The carpets, walls and fixtures have been updated and the rooms have received new electric and HDMI ports and new large screen televisions for presentations. The walls of these two rooms are now adorned with large photographic prints ranging from historic black and white photos – for example a woman cooking in a 1902 kitchen or fashion models in the Grand Trianon at the Palace of Versailles in 1952 – to surreal full color images that include an amusement park ride nestled amid the sands of Death Valley National Park and a girl in a pink bikini perched atop a three story diving board.
Hotel Lucia’s fitness center has also been upgraded with new Technogym workout equipment that features not only cable television on each machine but internet access and Bluetooth connectivity, too. Also in the works and slated to be installed by year’s end are a video window near the lobby entrance with a live feed into the Imperial dining room and an installation of vintage cameras above the fireplace by the guestroom elevator landing.
