History

The Terrace Plaza Hotel was designed between 1945-1947 by New York-based architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) with Natalie de Blois as lead designer, William Brown as project architect and Louis Skidmore as partner-in-charge.  Many other designers contributed to the project including Morris Lapidus (Bond Clothing interiors), Abe Feder (lighting design) and Marianne Strengell (textiles and rugs).
Cincinnati-based Thomas Emery's Sons Co. developed the mixed-use project which included a seven-story commercial base with two department stores (Bond and J.C. Penney) and four small retail spaces and a cafeteria with a thirteen-story hotel block above.  There were three restaurants (the Terrace Garden, the Skyline and the Gourmet), nine floors of hotel rooms and one floor of apartments.
SOM designed everything from the furniture, silverware and china to the staff uniforms, ash trays and soap boxes.  The guest rooms featured beds which converted to sofas during the day and furniture which served simultaneously as a desk, bar, dresser and luggage storage.  Jack Emery and Ellsworth Ireland, President and VP of Emery's Sons, commissioned original works from important mid-century artists including Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg and Jim Davis.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

(re)Marketing Modernism: the revision of an iconic mid-century, mixed-use hotel

I have just completed my Master of Architecture thesis (University of Cincinnati, 2009) on the Terrace Plaza. Entitled "(re)Marketing Modernism: the revision of an iconic mid-century, mixed-use hotel," the thesis included in-depth research into the history of the project, analysis of existing conditions, proposals for restoration and adaptive use, as well as marketing schemes to find sympathetic developers and help bring the building back into the public's imagination.

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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Design students eye Terrace Hotel

Laura Baverman's follow-up article on the Terrace Plaza:

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20090604/BIZ01/906050325/
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