Skip to main content



Showcase Stair | Hotel

application

In hotel design the Showcase Stair is employed as the main architectural feature of the lobby. It functions as the focal point of the space, and its design and execution are intended to reflect the ideals of the hotel.

research

The Showcase Stair in hotel design is found within or adjacent to the lobby. Whether it is traditional or modern, embellished or dematerialized, it functions as a focal point and the space's most prominent element. The Showcase Stair can be in any variation or form - be it fixed or freestanding, straight flight, helical, or composite - but must have a highly visible presence within the interior. The functionality of a Showcase Stair is secondary to the "spatial drama that is created by form, materiality, and visual access of the stairs." Keeping with theatrical nature of hotel design, where each individual is a player and the hotel their stage, the Showcase Stair draws attention to ascent and descent in such a way that it highlights the movement of those on the stairs.1

Throughout built history - and even today - buildings are comprised predominantly of vertical and horizontal planes with either intentionally exaggerated by the architect. Examples of this are the great Medieval Gothic cathedrals of Europe emphasize the vertical plane, encouraging individuals to gaze toward the heavens, as well as the 20th century designs of Frank Lloyd Wright that emphasized horizontal planes visually connecting his structures to the earth. The diagonal line, though, is comparatively unusual in the massing of structures, and "architects have always sought to understand and tame the vigorous, unruly heresy that the diagonal demonstrates within comfortable orthogonal schema." The diagonal line - often in the necessitated form of a stair - becomes a dynamic element in an otherwise static environment and may jeopardize an environment's order. For this reason, stairs inherently have "shock value" and garner attention within a composition.2  

In the early Renaissance, architects chose to place stairs in their own compartments or towers to ensure that they would not upset the balance in their compositions. As history progressed, though, architects began to celebrate diagonals created by stairs; they comprehended the ways in which stairs engaged the users' motions and senses more so than any other interior architectural element. Architect Berthold Lubetkin spoke of these qualities when he described some of the most ornate examples of Showcase Stairs. He said, "Naturally, any staircase is a sort of machine to climb up by or to descend, but in the best interpretation it is a display, it is a dance..."3  

Passenger elevators first began to appear in hotels in the 1860 decade and today they are the expected, effortless mode of transportation between floors. It is thus interesting to note that stairs as an element of architecture have an increased emphasis in interior compositions almost inversely proportional to their necessity in the general movement system. No longer imperative in a built structure (except for fire stairs as a means of egress which are outside of the interior composition), stairs are thus given particular emphasis when included in an interior. In contemporary hotel design, these Showcase Stairs have become an expected archetypical flourish. And based on current experience, the Showcase Stair will remain an integral element in the design iconography that architects continue to extend.4

Chronological Sequence
A great number of early hotels in Europe were born from former manors and palaces that had been privately owned by nobility. These structures may have featured grand, sculptural stairs, but in plan they were located most often in halls or alcoves of their own. Not incorporated into larger spaces that would later become public rooms, these stairs cannot be considered Showcase Stairs, because they did not function as a prominent display element.  It was not until the beginning of the 19th century with the advent of the modern hotel, that grand stairs began to be featured as the focal point in hotel's public spaces.

The first atrium hotel, Exchange Coffee House (1807), designed by Asher Benjamin was built in Boston at the turn of the century.  Meant to have a merchants' exchange on the first floor5 and seven stories tall, it featured an impressive five story interior court (that guest rooms looked out onto) topped by a dome nearly 100 feet wide that featured a central glass skylight.6  This hotel was the first to anticipate the desire for grand lobby spaces that occurred over the next two hundred years. The Exchange encompassed two hundred apartments, a dining room, a ballroom, a library, and a Masonic Hall. It also featured a grand spiral staircase designed to impress guests that was used to reach the ballroom on the second floor from the main level dining room.

The Tremont House in Boston, built in 1829 by Isaiah Rogers, was the first hotel to become an architectural monument,8 and it enabled the United States to become the leader in hotel design.  The Tremont, featuring a white granite neo-classical façade, was recognized as one of the most important buildings in hotel evolution,innovation, and display of luxury (a landmark beginning to the age of Grand Hotels). The hotel boasted astonishingly functional planning10 and had the first proper, sole-purposed lobby, a columned rotunda, to greet guests.

While the Exchange Coffee House featured a grand stair, it was not visually accessible from the hotel's main public space; the Tremont featured the first formal lobby, but its stairs were simply utilitarian and not visible from the lobby. Both establishments possessed the elements needed to create a Showcase Stair, but they had yet to be combined in the manner that would become the standard practice for hotel lobby design in the years to come.

It was in the 1830 decade that stairs began to be located in lobbies primarily to showcase their sculptural qualities. In 1835 the Saint Louis Hotel, located in New Orleans' French Quarter, featured a grand, open stringer sinistral stair11 with ornate handrail scrolls and a carriage that seemed to float.12 The hotel was known for the lavish parties and receptions held behind its façade patterned after the Rue de Rivoli in Paris. The local aristocracy strove to emulate a certain image of France and "le chic parisien", 13 and the impressive, and progressive interior helped create that ambiance.


In the 1850 and 1860 decades there was a building boom of large European hotels that catered to travelers-business transients in the expanding city centers and recreational travelers as international tourism continued to grow. The Station Hotel completed in 1856 in Inverness, Ireland was the forerunner of this movement. Designed by Jos Mitchell, the stone structure described as mid-Victorian Italianate villa style,14 was opened as a private enterprise, but purchased in 1878 by the Highland Railroad. The Station featured a double-return15 open stringer16  Showcase Stair in its entrance hall adding to the overall grandeur of the interior designed by D. Cottier.17  This type of attention-grabbing stair - in this case featuring impressive balustrade18  ironwork and woodcarving along with ornamental nosings, was soon emulated by subsequent hotels such as the Grosvenor at Victoria Station in London.19

Grand hotels began to incorporate Showcase Stairs as part of their standard offerings. It is noteworthy that in 1865 when the Ecole des Beaux-Arts planned a grand hotel for travelers to be built overlooking a lake in Switzerland, it included the allotment for "one Grand Staircase or more" in connection to the "Reception, etc., Vestibule, Waiting Room for arriving guests..." and "Central hall rising to the top of the building."20   

Many of the new large, opulent hotels served railroad stations. The Grosvenor Hotel in London was no exception; it served two stations, both the Brighton line and the adjacent London, Chatham & Dover Railway.21  Designed by James Thomas Knowles, the symmetrical structure featured a double height foyer and a Showcase Stair with a heavy, carved balustrade.22 Like the Station Hotel's staircase, this is another example of a double-return stair; however, only the first flight of bracketed stairs is fully open - the subsequent flights after the quarter-space landing were partially enclosed.

The extravagant Midland Grand Hotel, or St. Pancras Hotel (1868-1876), in London, was considered to be the apotheosis of railway terminus hotel-building, and one of the few hotels that history credited as having architectural significance. Designed by George Gilbert Scott, the railway hotel was fashioned in the Franco-English High Gothic and lauded for its efficient design that symbiotically suited both the station's and the hotel's needs. St. Pancras featured an elaborate open-stringer stair decorated in High Victorian color23 with intricate steelwork (both exposed structural supports as well as the balustrade), generous landings,24a nd sinuous flights.25  

Once established, the Showcase Stair continued as common practice into the 1880 decade. The reception hall of the Hôtel Métropole (1883) in Cannes, France included an uncommon staircase whose thin balusters26 of the second and third flights of the staircase extended past the ornamental nosings of the open string and connected to the stringer rather than the treads.27 The Metropole with its two hundred rooms was not a railroad hotel, but that is not to say that the railroad did not have any influence on the building of the structure. Cannes was little more than a fishing village when it began to gain popularity in the middle of the 19th century. With the opening of the P.L.M. railway line in 1864, the town grew to be a popular holiday destination that ushered in other large-scale hotels.28

On the other side of the Atlantic, America entertained a building boom of its own in resort hotels. The Ponce de Leon Hotel (1885-1888), a luxury hotel designed by John M. Carrére and Thomas Hastings in St. Augustine Florida, was built in a Spanish Renaissance style and laden with fanciful historical symbolism in its interior. One entered through the rotunda at the heart of the building; its great dome capped the eighty foot high space. Directly in front of the entrance doors and behind the rotunda was the grand marble stair that led to the dining room that could seat seven hundred. Unlike the aforementioned staircases, this example was composed of fliers; it had no curtail step,29 and was relatively demure compared to its surroundings.30  The hotel had 450 guest rooms and was the first large cast concrete building in the country. Although this large hotel was not directly connected to a rail company like its European cousins, the hotel's financier Henry Flagler bought the rail serving St. Augustine in order to improve it for his guests. He renamed it the Florida East Coast Railway.31

The "reading room" (lobby) of the Hôtel Terminus (1889) in Paris was a sight to behold. Its most prominent feature was a double dogleg staircase32 with a high, generous landing that allowed for a corridor beneath it.33  This is the first example illustrated in this study of an open stair with closed stringers.34  The hotel was directly linked to the arrival and departure platforms of the Saint-Lazare train station and was, thus, particularly appealing to travelers. Its unrivaled convenience was touted in one of the hotel's promotional brochures that stated, "At Saint-Lazare I walk straight into the Hôtel Terminus, giving my chit to the porter, and already I'm in bed. On departure my ticket is brought to my room, my luggage registered without my having to leave the entrance hall. Amply warned I reach my compartment, in my slippers, directly by the footbridge. Thus I've saved time, money and trouble. Whereas I came once to Paris so now I'll come twice."35

At the end of the 19th century Emidio Novarro, Minister of Public Works, suggested to King Charles the idea of building a modern grand hotel in Bussaco, Portugal with a pavilion reserved for visiting royalty. The design of the resulting Palace Hotel was entrusted to the architect Luigi Manini. Built on the remains of a monastic estate for the monks of the Descalced Carmelites, the hotel design was a curious composition with a tower and a turret flanked by a gallery of twelve Manueline arches and with an ogival arcaded rotunda opening onto the gardens. Portuguese Art Nouveau designers were commissioned for the interior decoration. Opened in 1909, it immediately became the place to go and to be seen.36 Its Showcase Stair reflected the age of the original structure by having a thick stone balustrade with only one squat baluster per tread.37  

In the next decade, the Canyon Hotel was completed in Yellowstone National Park; its architect was Robert C. Reamer. The park had been established decades earlier, but it was the Great Northern Railway that hired the architect to build accommodations to bring in tourists. The Canyon was the second great hotel designed by the architect for Yellowstone; his first was the Old Faithful Inn. Reamer's intention was to contextualize the building in accordance with its natural surroundings. The architect's hotels were credited for establishing the "rustic architectural idiom"38 that was a predominant theme in subsequent western national parks until the end of World War II.

After visiting many resorts, the architect observed that guests tended to congregate only in a few of the many rooms offered for relaxing and socializing. For this reason, he created one large public room in the Canyon for these needs rather than several. The Canyon Hotel's lounge in the main wing featured stepped levels, which were actually oversized landings of a grand stair.39 Cascades of wide fliers of each of the four flights made the entrance especially dramatic when viewed head on; it was undeniably an original interpretation of a grand Showcase Stair.40  

In the 1920 decade the multi-story Showcase Stair of the Hôtel George V in Paris featured sensual curves that subtly commanded attention. Simple, closed white stringers stood in contrast to the intricate black ironwork of the balustrade.41 The landing of the stair at a second story height created a balcony from which guests could look out onto the lobby areas and be simultaneously viewed by those below. The visually light balustrade allowed great visual access and established a continuity of passage and promenade that was decidedly modern.42

The Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel (1923), designed by Schultze & Weaver architects, featured a mix of Spanish and Italian Renaissance elements.  Its most impressive room was a three-story lobby that had a divided Showcase Stair with elaborate cast-iron railing-reminiscent of the lauded 16th century Escalera Dorada (golden staircase) of Spain's Burgos Cathedral.43  The stairheads44 of the two flights converged to create a balcony landing overlooking the grand space.45

Less than a decade later in 1930, Schultze & Weaver finished construction on high-rise Hotel Pierre on the southeast corner of Central Park in New York City. The forty-two-story hotel featured two entrances, and the smaller of the two - which led to the dining room overlooking the park  - featured an oval foyer with a double flight grand stair reminiscent in style to that of the Biltmore, yet decidedly less ostentatious.46 The passageway beneath the stair led to the hotel's main lobby and lounge.

In 1946 lauded decorator Dorothy Draper renovated the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco with much fanfare. She transformed its lobby into a "caricature of a grand Venetian palace with wild geranium and strawberry colors and gold and black lacquer accents." Despite Draper's unreserved color scheme and over-the-top appointments, the closed string dogleg stair remained the visual anchor of the double-height space. 47  

After World War II, Miami Beach began a renaissance that once again made it a resort town. This time, however, the new hotels shed the pretentions of a Mediterranean architectural heritage and embraced the clean, modern International Style. Designed by Morris Lapidus, and completed in 1953, The Fontainbleau was the most influential resort building of the 1950 decade. Its interior blended both modern and traditional elements (to the disdain of architectural critics and to the acclaim of the public). The public spaces were elaborate and allowed opportunities for dramatic movement of the guests.48  The Fontainbleau's lobby featured a bracketed marble Showcase Stair that only led to a card room. The architect said, "All people ever do is walk halfway up, turn around, and walk back down again. But they love that stairway. And they've seen it in the movies - the princess walks down the stairway."49  In this instance, the Showcase Stair's undeniable main purpose was to engage and delight the user, not transport him or her. Despite its stone construction, the carriage50  of the staircase was thin and appeared very light. The curved metal balusters were almost visually negligible from afar; however, they were elegantly articulated and attached in an unusual manner to both the stringer and to the treads. The dark banister thus appeared to almost float above the staircase in a parallel line to the silhouette of the flights and the landing.

The Ritz in Lisbon, Portugal opened in 1960 as one of the world's most luxurious hotels. Sixteen stories tall with over three hundred guestrooms, the hotel was planned and constructed according to the most modern architectural principles of the time. Its Showcase Stair was adjacent to the main lobby and clad in a dark pink marble.51  The open stair was visually light; it featured only a thin balustrade with glass panels for safety. The open string flights had nosings that were the same width as the exposed risers, which created a simple, uninterrupted zigzag pattern from stairfoot to stairhead.

When it opened in 1973, Houston's Host Airport Hotel featured a stunning Showcase Stair adjacent to the glass-encased elevator in its main lobby. The minimalist dextral stair52 featured a moderate curve that referenced the shape of the multi-level atrium within which it was located.53 The hotel featured underground tunnels that connected it to the airplane terminals - a connection reminiscent of the relationship of train station hotels to their train terminals in the19th century.

In the fast-paced hotel industry of the 1980 decade, many grand hotels built earlier in the century underwent extensive renovations after changing hands or even while under the same ownership. The former was true for the new Peninsula Hotel in New York City that had previously been the Gotham Hotel. Hirsch/Bender created an Art Nouveau interior that complimented the existing architecture. The pinnacle of this design was the exaggerated double-return, closed string Showcase Stair in the entrance hall with its organic, symmetrical curves that cascaded from formal, square archways.54 Of note were the excessive handrail scrolls55  flanking the first flight. This substantial feature helped to create the interiors' Belle Epoque ambiance that was supplemented with original artwork and reproductions along with fine materials adding to the space's overall opulence.56  

The Chicago Hilton and Towers, which was touted as the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1927 with 3,000 rooms, also underwent an extensive renovation throughout the 1980 decade. During the $185 million undertaking, the hotel decreased its rooms to 1,620 by enlarging some of its existing rooms and connecting others to create suites. The entire hotel was gutted, and a seven-story building for parking, a health club, and exhibit space were added. Hirsch/Bender & Associates created an awe-inspiring interior ambiance through the use of traditional architecture. The hotel's mammoth Great Hall featured two identical Showcase Stairs at either end complete with four flights, three large landings, and one overlook on each massive stair.57  

In the 1990 decade, designers such as Philippe Stark began to challenge what was expected of a hotel. With avant-garde concepts for boutique hotels Stark and others invented new definitions of a luxury experience. Stark created the Paramount Hotel with hotelier Ian Schrager in New York City in 1990. The relatively small two-story lobby was conceptually a stylized living room featuring conversational groupings of furniture, vintage rotary-dial telephones, a Harlequin (Intype)58  area rug and light play.59 The sculptural wedge-shaped stair appears simultaneously massive and floating, and the glass balustrade is almost invisible.60 The stair, narrower at the bottom than the top, had one landing with Hotspots (Intype)61  that encouraged users to pause as they ascended or descended.

In that same decade, when the smaller independent hotels became in vogue, large hotels were being constructed in enormous multi-use complexes. These megastructures proliferated in Asia, and the Shanghai Centre Hotel designed by John Portman & Associates was no exception. In this example a multistory atrium featured two helical staircases62 that allowed access to the three stories above the main level.63 The sculptural staircases with solid balustrades provided elegant, minimalist focal points in the immense space. The ribbon-like stairs were positioned so that they could be seen from many different spaces within the center such as the hotel's bar and lounge.64

In 2000 the Four Seasons brand opened their first unabashedly contemporary hotel in Canary Wharf in London. The hotel's interior public spaces were dictated by its Showcase Stair that was located directly in the center of its reception area.65 The stair led guests to the second-story ballroom and conference centers. Oriented to take advantage of the exaggerated stair's form, the hotel's bar and lounge space were situated around and behind it. The double-return dogleg style stair featured two large landings. The first overlooked the bar/lounge; the second created a bridge between the two destinations on the second floor and provided a vantage point from which one could observe happenings of the hotel's entrance. The green glass balustrades had a reed pattern inside them that created visual interest while allowing great visual access of those moving up and down the stairs.66

Toward the end of the decade the Mondrian South Beach Hotel Residences opened in Miami, Florida. The public spaces were theatrical with their high-sheen Black White (Intype)67 aesthetic. The most dramatic feature of the lobby was the helical Showcase Stair created through modern technology.68  The jet-black stair, appearing almost to be made of plastic, featured an intricate laser-cut steel balustrade - a modern interpretation of the artisan ironwork so often found in the grand hotels of almost a century before.69

Conclusion
Showcase stairs exist out of necessity in hotels; ironically, though, not because they are needed to fulfill their original function of aiding vertical movement. Showcase Stairs remain a necessity because of the public's ingrained romantic expectation of seeing the sculptural form that embodies ideals of a hotel. Some smaller hotels lack the space for a proper stair and their loss is understandable, yet palpable. Their lobbies feel as though something is missing - or rather that the lobby does not, in fact, belong to a hotel. Philippe Stark, when designing the Paramount hotel in 1990, strove to break from any previously held notions of how a hotel should appear. There in the lobby, though, was the prominent stair, one of the oldest archetypical practices in hotel design. Wildly rendered though it was, it behaved as any other showcase Stair does: attracting attention and highlighting movement. If Stark truly wanted to create an original hotel, the stair would be hidden, deemphasized, or absent. That, though, was too big a risk. Twenty years later this undisputed comprehension of the importance of the Showcase Stair continues to propel the practice.

end notes

  1. 1) Marta Mendez, "Theory Studies: Archetypical Practices of Contemporary House Design" (M.A. Thesis, Cornell University, 2008), 116-128; Leah Scolere, "Theory Studies: Contemporary Retail Design" (M.A. Thesis, Cornell University, 2004), 68-69.
  2. 2) John Templar, The Staircase: History and Theories (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992), 28.
  3. 3) Michael Spens, Staircases: Detail in Building (London, England: Academy Group, Ltd., 1995), 14.
  4. 4) Spens, Staircases, 6, 15; Templar, History and Theories, 28.
  5. 5) Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 174.
  6. 6) Jeffrey Limerick, et al., America's Grand Resort Hotels (New York City: Pantheon Books, 1979), 17.
  7. 7) Jeffrey Limerick, et al., America's Grand Resort Hotels (New York City: Pantheon Books, 1979), 17.
  8. 8) Pevsner, A History of Building Types, 174.
  9. 9) Howard Watson, Hotel Revolution (Chichester, England: Wiley-Academy, 2005), 9.
  10. 10) Henry End, Interiors 2nd Book of Hotels (New York City: Whitney Library of Design, 1978), 11.
  11. 11) SINISTRAL STAIR: a stair that turns to the left in ascent.
  12. 12) Lobby, Saint Louis Hotel [1835] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; New Orleans, LA in Catherine Gregory and Marc Walter, Grand American Hotels (New York City: Vendome Press, 1989), 104; PhotoCrd: The Historic New Orleans Collection.
  13. 13) Catherine Gregory and Marc Walter, Grand American Hotels (New York City: Vendome Press, 1989), 104.
  14. 14) Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels (London, Reaktion Books, 1998), 62.
  15. 15) DOUBLE RETURN STAIR: a stair with one wide flight up from the lower floor to the landing and two flights from the landing to the next floor.
  16. 16) STRING: a sloping board at each end of the treads that carries the treads and risers of the stair; OPEN STRING: a string that leaves the ends of the treads and risers exposed on the outside.
  17. 17) Lobby, Station Hotel [1856] Anonymous, Interior Design; Jos. Mitchell, Architecture; Inverness, Ireland in Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels (London, England: Reaktion Books, 1998), 63; PhotoCrd: Oliver Carter Collection.
  18. 18) Denby, Grand Hotels, 62.
  19. 19) Pevsner, A History of Building Types, 188.
  20. 20) Denby, Grand Hotels, 49.
  21. 21) Denby, Grand Hotels, 49.
  22. 22) Lobby, Grosvenor Hotel [1861] Anonymous, Interior Design; James Thomas Knowles, Architecture; London, England in Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels (London, England: Reaktion Books, 1998), 50; PhotoCrd: Royal Commision on the Historical Monuments of England.
  23. 23) Pevsner, A History of Building Types, 190; Denby, Grand Hotels, 51, 53.
  24. 24) LANDING: a platform at the top, bottom, or between flights of a staircase. Flight: a series of steps between landings.
  25. 25) Lobby, Midland Grand Hotel [1876] Anonymous, Interior Design; George Gilbert Scott, Architecture; London, England in Nicolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 189; PhotoCrd: Country Life.
  26. 26) BALUSTER: a post in a balustrade of a flight of stairs that supports a handrail.
  27. 27) Lobby, Hôtel Métropole [1883] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous Architecture; Cannes, in David Watkin et al., Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Palace Hotels an Architectural and Social History (New York City: Vendome Press, 1984), 51. PhotoCrd: Roger Viollet.
  28. 28) David Watkin et al., Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Palace Hotels an Architectural and Social History (New York: Vendome Press, 1984), 53.
  29. 29) FLIER: a rectangular tread; Tread: the (usually) horizontal surface of a step; also the length (from front to back) of such a surface; Curtail Step: a step curved in plan, so that one or both ends project in a semicircular or spiral shape, usually used for the lowest steps in a flight.
  30. 30) Lobby, Ponce de Leon Hotel [1883] Bernard Maybeck, Interior Design; John M. Carrére and Thomas Hastings, Architecture; St. Augustine, FL in Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 83; PhotoCrd: Library of Congress.
  31. 31) Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 81-86.
  32. 32) DOGLEG STAIR: a stair with two flights separated by a half-landing, and having no stairwell, so that the upper flight returns parallel to the lower flight.
  33. 33) Lobby, Hôtel Terminus [1889] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous Architecture; Paris, France in David Watkin et al., Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Palace Hotels an Architectural and Social History (New York City: Vendome Press, 1984), 65; PhotoCrd: Archives Architecture Moderne (Bruxelles).
  34. 34) CLOSED STRING: a string that extends above the edges of the risers and treads, covering them on the outside; Riser: the upright face of a step.
  35. 35) David Watkin, Grand Hotel, 65.
  36. 36) Watkin, Grand Hotel, 58.
  37. 37) Lobby, The Palace Hôtel [1909] Anonymous, Interior Design; Luigi Manini, Architecture; Bussaco in David Watkin et al., Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Palace Hotels an Architectural and Social History (New York City: Vendome Press, 1984), 57; PhotoCrd: Roger Viollet.
  38. 38) Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 133.
  39. 39) Lobby, Canyon Hotel [1911] Robert C. Anonymous, Interior Design; Reamer, Architecture Yellowstone National Park in Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 136; PhotoCrd: The Western Architect.
  40. 40) Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 133-37.
  41. 41) Lobby, Hôtel George V [c1920] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; Paris in David Watkin et al., Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Palace Hotels an Architectural and Social History (New York City: Vendome Press, 1984), 204; PhotoCrd: Anonymous.
  42. 42) Watkin, Grand Hotel, 207.
  43. 43) Marianne Lamonaca and Jonathan Mogul, eds., Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultz & Weaver (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), 19.
  44. 44) STAIRHEAD: the top of a stair.
  45. 45) Lobby, Bilmore Hotel [1923] Schultze & Weaver, Interior Design; Schultze & Weaver, Architects; Los Angeles, CA in Marianne Lamonaca and Jonathan Mogul, eds., Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultz & Weaver (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), 20; PhotoCrd: Vicki Gold Levi Collection.
  46. 46) Lobby, Hotel Pierre [1930] Anonymous, Interior Design; Schultze & Weaver, Architecture; New York City in Marianne Lamonaca and Jonathan Mogul, eds., Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultz & Weaver (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), 227; PhotoCrd: Amemya, Kushu University Design Library, Lloyd Morgan Architectural Collection; Lamonaca, Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age, 217.
  47. 47) Lobby, Fairmont Hotel [1946] Dorothy Draper, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; San Francisco in Carlton Varney, In the Pink: Dorothy Draper: America's Most Fabulous Decorator (New York City: Pointed Leaf Press, 2006), 101; PhotoCrd: Dorothy Draper, Inc.
  48. 48) Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 241, 243, 247.
  49. 49) Lobby, The Fontainbleau [1953] Anonymous, Interior Design; Morris Lapidus, Architecture; Miami in Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 246; PhotoCrd: Morris Lapidus Associates, Architects; Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 245.
  50. 50) CARRIAGE: the entire supporting framing of a stair, including stringers.
  51. 51) Lobby, The Ritz Hotel [1960] Manuel Rodriges, Fundaçao Ricardo Espírito Santo e Silva, Castro Freire, Fred Kradolfer, Lucien Donnat, Henry Samuel, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; Lisbon, Portugal in "The Ritz in Lisbon," Interior Design 32, no.10 (Oct. 1961): 170; PhotoCrd: Anonymous.
  52. 52) DEXTRAL STAIR: a stair that turns to the right during ascent.
  53. 53) Lobby, Host Airport Hotel [1973] Design/Cord, Interior Design; William B. Tabler, Architecture; Houston, TX in "Houston's Host Airport Hotel," Interior Design 44, no.5 (May 1973): 134; PhotoCrd: Anonymous.
  54. 54) Lobby, Peninsula Hotel [c1985] Hirsch/Bender, Interior Design; AI Group, Architecture; New York City in Anne M. Schmid and Mary Scoviak-Lerner, International Hotel and Resort Design (New York City: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988); 37; PhotoCrd: Jamie Ardiles-Arce.
  55. 55) HANDRAIL SCROLL: the spiral ending to a handrail.
  56. 56) Anne M. Schmid and Mary Scoviak-Lerner, International Hotel and Resort Design (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988), 36.
  57. 57) Lobby, Chicago Hilton and Towers [1990] Hirsch/Bender, Interior Design; Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz, & Associates, Architecture; Chicago, IL in Anne M. Schmid and Mary Scoviak-Lerner, International Hotel and Resort Design (New York City: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988); 187; PhotoCrd: Jamie Ardiles-Arce.
  58. 58) Intypes researcher Marta Mendez identified Harlequin in her 2008 luxury apartment study. Harlequin refers to a checkered pattern (alternating colored squares) oriented in a 90° or a 45° angle typically made of marble, wood, or clay tiles. Mendez, Marta. "Theory Studies: Archetypical Practices of Contemporary House Design." M.A. Thesis, Cornell University, 2008, 76.
  59. 59) Berens, Hotel Bars and Lobbies (New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1997), 109.
  60. 60) Lobby, Paramount Hotel [1990] Philippe Stark, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; New York City in Carol Berens, Hotel Bars and Lobbies (New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1997); 112. PhotoCrd: Tom Vack/Nancy Assuncao Associates.
  61. 61) Intypes researcher Joanne Kwan identified Hotspot in her 2010 lighting design study. Hotspot is an isolated pool of bright downlight that operates in contrast to its surroundings. Hotspot encourages a pause in movement and collection around or within it. It is achieved with a single spot light or a single fixture on a light track. Kwan, Joanne. "Theory Studies: Archetypical Artificial Lighting Practices in Contemporary Interior Design." M.A. Thesis, Cornell University, 2010, 41-51.
  62. 62) HELICAL STAIR: the correct, but not the usual, name for a spiral stair.
  63. 63) Lobby, Shanghai Centre [c1995] John Portman & Associates, Interior Design; John Portman & Associates, Architecture; Shanghai, China in Rosalie M. Grattaroti, ed., Hotel Design: International Portfolio of the Finest Contemporary Designs (Glouchester, MA: Rockport Publishers, Inc., 1994), 102.
  64. 64) Rosalie M. Grattaroti, ed., Hotel Design: International Portfolio of the Finest Contemporary Designs (Glouchester, MA: Rockport Publishers, Inc., 1994), 102.
  65. 65) Lobby, The Four Seasons [2000] United Designers Limited, Interior Design; RHWL, Architecture; London, England in "Cubism in the Docklands," Interior Design 71, no.3 (Mar.  2000): S29; PhotoCrd: Ken Hayden.
  66. 66) Anonymous, "Cubism in the Docklands," Interior Design 71, no.3 (Mar. 2000): S29.
  67. 67) Intypes researcher Rachel Goldfarb identified Black White in her 2008 resort and spa study. Black White describes an interior space that is limited to a black white palette for the floor, wall, ceiling planes and for furnishings. Goldfarb, Rachel. "Theory Studies: Archetypical Practices of Contemporary Resort and Spa Design." M.A. thesis, Cornell University, 2008, 46.
  68. 68) Lobby, Mondrian South Beach Hotel [2009] Marcel Wanders Studio, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; Miami, FL in Sheila Kim-Jamet and Elena Kornbluth "High Style Home-Style," Interior Design 81, no.2 (Feb. 2009): 141; PhotoCrd: Morgan Hotel Group.
  69. 69) Sheila Kim-Jamet and Elena Kornbluth, "High Style Home-Style," Interior Design 81, no.2 (Feb. 2009): 141.
  70. 70) Evidence for the archetypical use and the chronological sequence of Showcase Stair in hotels was developed from the following sources: 1830 Lobby, Saint Louis Hotel [1835] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; New Orleans, LA in Catherine Gregory and Marc Walter, Grand American Hotels (New York City: Vendome Press, 1989), 104; PhotoCrd: The Historic New Orleans Collection / 1850 Lobby, Station Hotel [1856] Anonymous, Interior Design; Jos. Mitchell, Architecture; Inverness, Ireland in Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels (London, England: Reaktion Books, 1998), 63; PhotoCrd: Oliver Carter Collection / 1860 Lobby, Grosvenor Hotel [1861] Anonymous, Interior Design; James Thomas Knowles, Architecture; London, England in Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels, 50; PhotoCrd: Royal Commision on the Historical Monuments of England / 1870 Lobby, Midland Grand Hotel [1876] Anonymous, Interior Design; George Gilbert Scott, Architecture; London, England in Nicolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), 189; PhotoCrd: Country Life / 1880 Lobby, Hôtel Métropole [1883] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous Architecture; Cannes, in David Watkin et al., Grand Hotel: The Golden Age of Palace Hotels an Architectural and Social History (New York City: Vendome Press, 1984), 51. PhotoCrd: Roger Viollet; Lobby, Ponce de Leon Hotel [1883] Bernard Maybeck, Interior Design; John M. Carrére and Thomas Hastings, Architecture; St. Augustine, FL in Jeffrey Limerick, et al., America's Grand Resort Hotels (New York City: Pantheon Books, 1979), 83; PhotoCrd: Library of Congress.; Lobby, Hôtel Terminus [1889] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous Architecture; Paris, France in Watkin, Grand Hotel, 65; PhotoCrd: Archives Architecture Moderne (Bruxelles) / 1900 Lobby, The Palace Hôtel [1909] Anonymous, Interior Design; Luigi Manini, Architecture; Bussaco in Watkin, Grand Hotel, 57; PhotoCrd: Roger Viollet / 1910 Lobby, Canyon Hotel [1911] Robert C. Anonymous, Interior Design; Reamer, Architecture Yellowstone National Park in Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels,136; PhotoCrd: The Western Architect / 1920 Lobby, Hôtel George V [c1920] Anonymous, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; Paris in Watkin, Grand Hotel, 204; PhotoCrd: Anonymous.; Lobby, Bilmore Hotel [1923] Schultze & Weaver, Interior Design; Schultze & Weaver, Architects; Los Angeles, CA in Marianne Lamonaca and Jonathan Mogul, eds., Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age: The Architecture of Schultz & Weaver (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), 20; PhotoCrd: Vicki Gold Levi Collection / 1930 Lobby, Hotel Pierre [1930] Anonymous, Interior Design; Schultze & Weaver, Architecture; New York City in Lamonaca and Mogul, Grand Hotels of the Jazz Age, 227; PhotoCrd: Amemya, Kushu University Design Library, Lloyd Morgan Architectural Collection / 1940 Lobby, Fairmont Hotel [1946] Dorothy Draper, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; San Francisco in Carlton Varney, In the Pink: Dorothy Draper: America's Most Fabulous Decorator (New York City: Pointed Leaf Press, 2006), 101; PhotoCrd: Dorothy Draper, Inc. / 1950 Lobby, The Fontainbleau [1953] Anonymous, Interior Design; Morris Lapidus, Architecture; Miami in Limerick, America's Grand Resort Hotels, 246; PhotoCrd: Morris Lapidus Associates, Architects / 1960 Lobby, The Ritz Hotel [1960] Manuel Rodriges, Fundaçao Ricardo Espírito Santo e Silva, Castro Freire, Fred Kradolfer, Lucien Donnat, Henry Samuel, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; Lisbon, Portugal in "The Ritz in Lisbon," Interior Design 32, no. 10 (Oct. 1961): 170; PhotoCrd: Anonymous / 1970 Lobby, Host Airport Hotel [1973] Design/Cord, Interior Design; William B. Tabler, Architecture; Houston, TX in "Houston's Host Airport Hotel," Interior Design 44, no.5 (May 1973): 134; PhotoCrd: Anonymous / 1980 Lobby, Peninsula Hotel [c1985] Hirsch/Bender, Interior Design; AI Group, Architecture; New York City in Anne M. Schmid and Mary Scoviak-Lerner, International Hotel and Resort Design (New York City: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988); 37. PhotoCrd: Jamie Ardiles-Arce / 1990 Lobby, Chicago Hilton and Towers [1990] Hirsch/Bender, Interior Design; Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz, & Associates, Architecture; Chicago, IL in Schmid and Scoviak-Lerner, International Hotel and Resort Design, 187; PhotoCrd: Jamie Ardiles-Arce.; Lobby, Paramount Hotel [1990] Philippe Stark, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; New York City in Carol Berens, Hotel Bars and Lobbies (New York City: McGraw-Hill, 1997); 112. PhotoCrd: Tom Vack/Nancy Assuncao Associates; Lobby, Shanghai Centre [c1995] John Portman & Associates, Interior Design; John Portman & Associates, Architecture; Shanghai, China in Rosalie M. Grattaroti, ed., Hotel Design: International Portfolio of the Finest Contemporary Designs (Glouchester, MA: Rockport Publishers, Inc., 1994), 102; PhotoCrd: Anonymous / 2000 Lobby, The Four Seasons [2000] United Designers Limited, Interior Design; RHWL, Architecture; London, England in "Cubism in the Docklands," Interior Design 71, no.3 (Mar.  2000): S29; PhotoCrd: Ken Hayden.; Lobby, Mondrian South Beach Hotel [2009] Marcel Wanders Studio, Interior Design; Anonymous, Architecture; Miami, FL in Sheila Kim-Jamet and Elena Kornbluth "High Style Home-Style," Interior Design 81, no.2 (Feb. 2009): 141; PhotoCrd: Morgan Hotel Group.