Identifying Design Strategies in the Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings As Boutique Hotels
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MARTY MATOS, LUISA CAROLINA, M.F.A. Adaptive Hospitality: Identifying Design Strategies in the Adaptive Reuse of Historic Buildings as Boutique Hotels. (2018) Directed by Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll. 165 pp. Downtown revitalization has been at the forefront of many cities’ goals in the United States. Adaptive reuse of existing buildings is a crucial factor in this process by highlighting the uniqueness and identity of a place, maintaining the local sense of community, and differentiating it from the rest of the city. More and more historic structures are being adapted to boutique hotels in downtowns and becoming part of the main attraction of a city. The hospitality industry has recognized that there are a significant number of people that are looking for a different experience than traditional hotels can offer. Hotel chains and independent owners have turned to historic preservation and adaptive reuse to cover the needs of this market. Often the opportunities that adaptive reuse provides to a city are overlooked in favor of new structures, or if used there is no regard for the historic fabric of the building. The growing market of the boutique hotel industry and, the efforts to revitalize downtowns across the country, makes it necessary for a study that highlights the different possibilities in the creation of this type of hotel in a historic setting. This research focuses on identifying the different types of design strategies applied in the adaptive reuse of historic properties into boutique hotels. It also looks at how they provide the user experience associated with a historic-design boutique hotel and, how they incorporated the character-defining features into this design. The study examines the adaptive reuse of five historic-design boutique hotels in the state of North Carolina as case studies. Four successfully qualified for preservation tax credits. A database of historic-design boutique hotels in the state of North Carolina was created for this study, which had to comply with specific criteria to be eligible as samples. Archival research was then conducted using the Historic Preservation Tax Credit Applications to understand better what were the retained features and what changed. Site visits and a visual analysis were the final steps to understand the main reasons for change, the patterns found, and how they incorporated the boutique element. ADAPTIVE HOSPITALITY: IDENTIFYING DESIGN STRATEGIES IN THE ADAPTIVE REUSE OF HISTORIC BUILDINGS AS BOUTIQUE HOTELS by Luisa Carolina Marty Matos A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts Greensboro 2018 Approved by ______________________________ Committee Chair I want to dedicate this thesis to my family for their incredible support and belief in me. To my Mom, for teaching me how to fight. To my Dad, for teaching me never to give up. To my brother, I hope to be a good role model for you. To the rest of my family, for always having my back and cheering me up when I needed it the most and for always looking out for me even when I am away from home. ii APPROVAL PAGE This thesis written by LUISA CAROLINA MARTY MATOS has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair________________________________ Committee Members________________________________ ________________________________ ____________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the Fulbright Program and LASPAU for allowing me to achieve one of my goals. For providing guidance and support through this whole process. I am profoundly grateful to my thesis chair, Professor Jo Ramsay Leimenstoll, for her continued support during my time in this program, for guiding me during my research and for being an endless well of knowledge. I want to offer my great appreciation to my committee members, Dr. Maruja Torres-Antonini and Dr. Amanda J. Gale, for their valuable input and suggestions, for always having their door open to help. I also want to thank Tim Simmons at the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, for all his help and advice during my research, without his support this project would not have been possible. I want to express my eternal gratitude to the professors and staff of the Department of Interior Architecture for creating an engaging and friendly educational environment and for their continuous help and for understanding when I needed to work on my research. I’m also grateful to the Main Street Fellows Program for allowing me to spend a summer working on amazing projects all over the state. Thank you for the great experience. Finally, but never least, I want to thank my friends, Milkahiry Escotto, Jessica Ocasio, Isabel Leon, and Zuleima Hermida, for always having my back and believing in me even when I did not believe in myself. I can say I made it these two years thanks to you. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 Boutique Hotels ....................................................................................... 2 Adaptive Re-Use of Historic Properties ................................................... 4 Research Goals ....................................................................................... 6 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 8 Downtown Revitalization ......................................................................... 8 Downtowns success indicators. ................................................... 9 Historic preservation and adaptive reuse in downtowns. .............10 Downtown and the hotel industry. ...............................................11 Historic Preservation Guidelines .............................................................12 Secretary of Interior’s Standard for Rehabilitation. ......................12 Illustrated Guidelines on Sustainability for Rehabilitating Historic Building. .......................................................................13 Tax incentives for preserving historic properties. ........................14 Brooker and Stone .................................................................................15 Boutique Hotels ......................................................................................17 History and characteristics of boutique hotels. ............................17 Characteristics of boutique hotels. ..............................................18 Types of boutique hotels. ............................................................22 III. METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................23 Mixed Methods .......................................................................................23 Qualitative data: Generation of database. ...................................26 Sample selection. .......................................................................29 Case studies. ..................................................................31 The Cardinal Hotel in Winston-Salem, NC ...........31 21C Hotel and Museum in Durham, NC ...............35 Unscripted Hotel in Durham, NC ..........................39 The O’Neil Hotel in Kinston, NC ...........................41 v The Windsor Boutique Hotel in Asheville, NC ......44 Archival documentation. ..............................................................47 Visual analysis of sample. ...........................................................54 Design strategies.............................................................56 Site visits ....................................................................................57 IV. FINDINGS ....................................................................................................59 Overview ................................................................................................60 Retention of Authenticity and Historic Character .....................................64 Reasons for Change ..............................................................................65 Non-original feature. ...................................................................66 Code or ADA requirements. ........................................................66 Deterioration. ..............................................................................66 New use. .....................................................................................67 Design Strategies and Patterns Utilized to Maintain the Historic Character and Authenticity of the Building ...........................................68 Tactics. .......................................................................................69 Patterns. .....................................................................................73 Façade retention. ............................................................76 Features retained on the main floors. ..............................77 Changes in the upper floors. ...........................................77