The convention hotel emerged as a distinct building
type in the years of the Second World War and its aftermath.
The earliest examples of convention hotels were
distinguished from their pre-war counterparts by the
design of their meeting facilities and the layout of
public areas. In these projects, new techniques in architectural
design were used only where they were critical
to hotel operation.
As the number of hotels increased in the fifties,
competition for business required new approaches to design.
For some hotel companies, the policy was to improve a
hotel's capability for handling groups in order to attract
sizable conventions to the property. In resort cities,
hotel operators found that innovations in style and decor
enhanced popular appeal, thereby increasing business.
In the late fifties and early sixties, the participation
of developers and corporations outside the hotel
industry in building new properties brought about an
increasing diversity. In the projects, design was
based on potential profitability regardless of traditional
hotel principles. At the same time, the inclusion of
convention hotels in large-scale urban developments
called for innovations in site planning and expansion
of public amenities. While these hotels and their predecessors
of the fifties rarely displayed architectural
excellence, their contribution to guidelines for modern
hotel design was critical to later, more spectacular
developments of the building type.
One project of the late sixties, the Hyatt Regency
Atlanta, dramatically explored the potential of new
approaches to hotel architecture. The astounding design
of the public spaces, the integration of the hotel with
surrounding development, and the hotel's subsequent
popularity have served to transform this commercial
building type into significant public architecture.
The success of the. Atlanta Hyatt has led to a repetition
of the concept by the hotel company, while inspiring new experiments by the architect.
In the early seventies, a series of hotels of remarkable design
opened in the United States. Their public appeal
confirmed the value of good architecture to the successful
operation of a hotel. Hotel professionals were forced
to reconsider the necessary elements of hotel design,
while architects were encouraged to re-examine the possibilities
inherent in this commercial building type.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/42389 |
| Date | January 1976 |
| Creators | Cohn, Amy Elizabeth |
| Publisher | Boston University |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | This work is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author, and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author. |
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