The Sheraton Palace

Abstract

San Francisco's Sheraton Palace Hotel has just completed a two-year, $1 50-million historical-preservation project, and all of that grand hotel's architectural details have been restored to their original, turn-of-the-century design. Part of the moti- vation was to reposition the aging hotel to capture a greater share of the most lucrative markets: corporate and conven- tion, for example, versus package tours. While the hotel now includes modern amenities such as a health spa, the original portions of the Palace today look almost exactly the way the hotel's architects planned them back in 1909, including a faithful restoration of the famous Garden Court's 8,000- square-foot art-glass ceiling. The entire hotel was gutted before actual construction began, and the 1989 earthquake caused some of the finish work to be redone. This article also looks at the historical restoration of London's Dorchester Hotel; the preservation of the Equinox Resort and the Publick House Historic Resort, in New England, and the renovation of the relatively young Seattle Doubletree Suites Hotel.