Pushing the Envelope: 

Hotel Development on an Urban Infill Site

by Robert J. Boyd, AIA

The new Cambria Hotel New Orleans sits comfortably in its vibrant warehouse district neighborhood, surrounded by a mix of historic buildings, converted warehouses, and modern commercial and residential structures. With its brick facade and steel windows, it feels as if it has been there forever, an integral part of the neighborhood’s fabric.  The site of the new hotel had remained underutilized for years, bypassed by developers because of its odd footprint, limited street frontage, and strict regulatory restrictions.  With a clear vision of the site’s potential and a creative approach to design and construction challenges, owner Fillmore Hospitality worked with Holly & Smith Architects to transform this former parking lot into a handsome and functional full-service hotel, a hospitable and neighborly addition to the streetscape.

The Challenge

During the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, urban areas across America were undergoing dramatic change.  As older buildings outlived their original functions and car ownership boomed, historic buildings were demolished by the dozens to create parking space for those vehicles, leaving gaps in our urban streetscapes and sapping the vitality of our downtown areas. Much has changed since then.  Historic buildings are being adapted into apartments, restaurants, and shops, restoring the dynamism and energy of the inner city.  However, a surplus of surface parking and oddly shaped empty lots still plague these now-desirable neighborhoods.  Finding new uses for these old parking lots comes with many challenges:

• They are governed by outdated zoning and regulatory codes.
• They are often located in historic districts with extensive design oversight.
• Because of their dense, urban locations, these lots often have multiple neighbors who may object to increased density adjacent to their properties and to the idea of giving up valuable parking spaces.
• These parcels of land are often so small or oddly shaped that development for modern uses is not financially feasible.

Overcoming these obstacles requires ingenuity, determination, and a clear-minded planning process.

The Site

Located upriver from New Orleans’ Central Business District, the Warehouse District was once an abandoned, blighted section of the city.  In 1984 the World's Fair was staged on the edge of the neighborhood, allowing people to see the potential of this gritty, quirky corner of the city, and sparking a dramatic and ongoing regeneration.  Almost forty years later, the district is a real neighborhood, with art galleries, apartments, restaurants, and hotels, all helping to create a dynamic, walkable neighborhood. Despite its desirable location, with proximity to restaurants, galleries, and shops, and within walking distance of the Convention Center and French Quarter, the future site of the hotel remained undeveloped, even while the area around it experienced this remarkable resurgence.

The building site is an oddly shaped parcel of land, an angled “T” with no 90-degree corners, and no two sides parallel.   Five different buildings border the site with multiple owners, including an empty warehouse, a law firm, a popular dive bar, and a 16-unit condominium building.  Most of these adjacent buildings are historic, with shared party walls centered directly over the property lines.  Although it is a through-site, spanning from Tchoupitoulas Street to Commerce Street, the street frontage is actually quite small, with most of the developable area on the interior of the lot.   A deep lot with a narrow street frontage may have worked well for 19th-century warehousing needs, but it was not ideal for a modern hotel where every room should have a window and, preferably, a view.

The most significant factor limiting the property’s development, however, was the height limit.  Any building constructed on the lot was required to be no more than 65 feet tall and could contain only five stories, resulting in a limited floor area ratio (FAR).  In addition to the zoning limitations, the site is subject to review by the Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC) due to its location in the Warehouse District Historic District.  The commission has design oversight of all elements of the exterior of the building and requires that the new structure address its context in terms of scale, massing, and materials, and blend in with its historic neighbors without mimicking them.

The Solution

As a new upscale hotel brand from Choice International, Cambria Hotels was looking to establish themselves in New Orleans, one of the most vibrant hotel markets in the country, but developable sites in the core of the city were hard to come by.  The parking lot at 632 Tchoupitoulas Street did not meet the minimum requirements for the standard Cambria prototype, but the developers saw the potential to do something different here, and perhaps even set the standard for future Cambria hotels in urban markets. 

Before a feasible development strategy could be initiated, the height and story limits would have to be addressed.  The design team had to convince the City Planning Commission that the sixty-five foot/five-story limit for the site, coupled with the awkward footprint, would forever keep the property from any meaningful development.  The challenging layout of the parcel created tremendous inefficiencies that could only be mitigated by adding more floors, and, thus, more rentable space.  City planners would not agree to increase the overall height limit, but they did eventually agree to an increase in the number of stories, allowing seven levels on the site instead of five.  The adjustment was permitted only after the design team was able to demonstrate that a story increase would not negatively impact the overall scale and massing of the structure and that the final design would be appropriate to its historic district context.  Working closely with the planners early in the project was critical to the ultimate success of the design, and eventually resulted in the City Planning Commission voting to approve seven stories of construction on the site. 

The parking requirement for the site at the time of construction would have required two to three levels of structured parking, making the entire project financially unfeasible.  Instead, parking is provided at a nearby existing garage, freeing the entire site footprint for hotel functions.  The design team decided to reserve the narrow Tchoupitoulas Street frontage for a pedestrian entrance, with a covered vehicular drop off located on the longer Commerce Street façade.

The designers knew that forcing seven stories into the 65-foot height limit would have a significant impact on the quality of the interior spaces, so an innovative approach to the structural and mechanical systems would have to be devised.  The design team engineered a post-tensioned concrete structural system, with each floor only 6 ½” thick, and floor-to-floor heights of only 8’-8 1/2”.  The design team opted to leave the concrete slabs exposed in most areas to maximize the sense of space.  The concrete was exposed out of necessity, but the designers used the material to inspire the interior design theme for the entire hotel, creating an intimate, warehouse atmosphere.  Windows are larger than in most hotels, spanning from the floor to the ceiling to help create a greater sense of spaciousness.

The compact structural system allowed no room for horizontal runs of mechanical systems such as ductwork and plumbing.  Instead, these systems run through vertical shafts sandwiched between each pair of guest rooms and connect at the roof level in a mechanical penthouse. Fortunately, the zoning ordinance calculates the height limit from the sidewalk to the top of the roof edge, so neither the equipment nor the penthouse counted toward the overall building height.

Creating a functional floor plan that provides for windows and views at all guest rooms was difficult, given the overall depth of the lot.  Since windows cannot be located on the property lines, sections of the building were set back from the interior lot lines by fifteen feet or more.  The setbacks allow for larger exterior windows and minimize the potential for blocked views should the adjacent parcel ever get redeveloped.  The narrow Tchoupitoulas Street arm of the lot was laid out with a single-loaded corridor, and each room angled to maximize the views. 

Process

Overcoming the problematic site constraints could have resulted in an ordinary or dull facade.  Instead, the design team used the historic context as an inspiration for the exterior design, respecting the textures, rhythms, and massing of the neighboring buildings, while maintaining a modern edge. With a nod to historical warehouse design, a simple palette of brick, steel, and glass rendered in a contemporary manner lends the structure a timeless but distinctive appearance.  The exterior façade was designed to mimic the depth and detail of traditional masonry buildings. Because shallow floor-to-floor heights are more common in modern construction and unusual in this context, the exterior façade was manipulated to give the impression of a four-story structure, utilizing large, multi-paned windows, exposed steel beams, and wide masonry piers, much like the more significant historic warehouse buildings in the area.  Most of the ground floor detailing is simple, with sidewalk canopies of exposed steel and glass, steel framed doors and windows, and industrial lighting fixtures and signage.

Construction

The challenges of this site didn’t end with the design.  Construction of the hotel on this especially compact lot required constant coordination between the contractor, Landis Construction and the owners of the neighboring buildings to minimize disruption and maintain the schedule.  Three of the adjacent properties are historic buildings with shared masonry party walls straddling the property line, leading to questions about the ownership and construction of the walls.   Rather than try to resolve those ownership issues or impact the historic masonry walls, the new building was constructed just inside the party walls, avoiding them altogether.  Temporary air rights had to be negotiated with each of the adjacent property owners to allow overhanging scaffolding and formwork during construction.  Because the hotel sits on eighty-foot-long concrete piles, vibration and the potential for damage to aging brick and delicate foundations was a critical concern.  The contractor implemented extensive video documentation of existing conditions before work began, and performed vibration monitoring throughout heavy construction. The site constraints did not allow space for lay-down of materials or deliveries to the site without closing streets, so access had to be scheduled to occur before or after the morning rush hour, but not so early that it would disturb residents in the neighboring condominium buildings.

Thoughtful planning, a flexible and innovative approach to design, collaboration with local building authorities, and consistent team coordination has resulted in an inviting and neighborly addition to the district, successfully transforming a former parking lot and community blight.  Careful selection of materials and a focus on context has ensured that the structure is appropriate to its location, reinforcing the pedestrian streetscape and contributing to the overall character of the neighborhood.  The hotel opened to rave reviews in January of 2018 and, one year later, the property is still the number one rated hotel on TripAdvisor in the entire state of Louisiana. 

H/S EXPERIENCE

Holly & Smith Architects has completed renovation of two hotel projects in the downtown New Orleans area, along with two new hotels, a 162-key property in the Warehouse District, and a 255-key property in downtown Nashville.  We are also in partnership with a national hotel chain, performing test fits, site evaluations, and feasibility studies for dozens of sites across the country.  We are currently assisting them in the development of a new prototype design, and we are generating a new design standard manual.  H/S also designed, renovated, and currently operates a very successful multi-unit short term rental property located in the Bywater neighborhood

As architects, we create the spaces and places where people live their lives. How we learn, work, eat, sleep, heal, worship, and gather are all improved by the quality of the space and place. To take it further... We Design for Life.