Royal Hotel

designshop was commissioned to study the feasibility of converting one of Memphis’s best preserved Art Deco buildings, the Jolly Royal Building, into a boutique hotel, and subsequently developing concepts for the future hotel. Working with the owner, 18 S. Main, LLC, numerous strategies explored the interplay between the existing historic building and the new tower addition.

The Royal Hotel was designed as a thirteen-story building that is built within the walls of the existing Jolly Royal Building. The historic glazed brick facades were preserved while the building’s floor plates were removed to make way for the tower. To graduate relief between the new and old, a single, open story of the building separates the boutique hotel rooms from the Art Deco style façade. The hotel façade is made up of a random patterning of both opaque and translucent glass. Set within the structural framework clad in pre-cast concrete panels with exposed aggregates. The open story creates space for a terrace, allowing the hotel to further open to the existing buildings and street below with a vegetated landscape. Additionally, the rooftop of the boutique hotel is also accessible, allowing space for a rooftop pool, restaurant, and bar.