Originally Posted by
James Luckard
I love how they pitch it as a "historic" building in the press release.
The historic part, if it can be called that, is the 5-story lower portion, which was originally the parking garage for the Hotel Texas. The garage was constructed in 1928. The 8-story hotel portion on top, reached from the main hotel building by a skybridge, was added by Sheraton in 1970, and isn't historic at all.
The structure was going to be converted to apartments a few years back, hope they gut it down to the skeleton for the hotel refurb.
I would presume they'll have to convert the lower parking levels to a lobby, restaurant, bar, etc, since the structure had only the upper-floor guest rooms before.
I did a lot of updating on the hotel's Wikipedia page a while back:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Texas
I also got a chuckle out of the use of "historic" - very liberal thinking for an ugly, faceless, Brutalist block.
I have the architectural schematics for the reconfigured building, and the parking levels will remain exactly as is. There are two entrances - one on Commerce and the other on the corner of Commerce and Third; these will feed into the open-plan lobby and restaurant respectively. The rooms all have generous entry corridors and will have three-fixture bathrooms with sink, commode and shower. Suites will be located in an outward-facing corner of the building fronting Third, as well as some in the corner above the pool. I reckon the rooms inside the U-shape of the building will stare right into one another and won't have much by way of views as the ends of the U protrude inwards towards each other. The press releases mention a revamp of the pool deck; I wonder if they'll keep the depth of the pool [I think the deep end is 8' feet, if memory serves] the same or will alter it.
Nice to see another LM property, nonetheless; I hope they do a nice job with the interiors.
khabah