Would that give them tax credit for restoration/rehab work? If so then bring it.
5 Likes
That’s my assumption for why they are going for it.
2 Likes
TBJ just published an article on this. As you guessed, a historic designation would provide some tax benefits. The article says it will be a $49 million renovation:
“According to a release, Tidal is planning a complete renovation of the hotel’s interior, including the ground-floor lounge, top-floor bar and event space. The hotel will be rebranded as a Hotel Indigo under the IHG Hotel & Resorts (NYSE: IHG) banner. The goal is to reopen in late 2026 following renovations.”
“Earning official landmark status comes with some financial benefit for Tidal, as the property owners will also be eligible for a 50 percent property tax deferral. But in order for the hotel to qualify for federal and state tax credits, the owners will need to pursue state and national landmark designations outside of the city’s landmark process.”
16 Likes
Man, I hope they go full retro! Colors, carpet, furniture, dial phones!!
13 Likes
So… Not the hideous exterior?
3 Likes
I’ve tried to do some Google searching and I’m not sure this isn’t one of those things that has been repeated so often that it’s been accepted as fact but has a shaky basis in reality.
First of all, how many were ever built in the first place? With Raleigh as possibly the only exception, they’re always in very prominent locations right next to major highways, often near downtowns - easily visible during cross country road trips, so everybody’s seen them here or there over their lifetime. I wonder if that may have created a mistaken impression that they used to be ubiquitous, which I do not believe they ever were.
The two that I can recall from my childhood, Covington KY (across the river from Cincinnati) and Charleston SC, are still there. (My family actually stayed in the one in Covington at one point, on a road trip to Chicago).
This site lists a bunch of hotels by the architect responsible for this design. Not all are round, but as far as I can tell, all of the round ones appear to continue to exist today. Austin (the OG). Long Beach. Los Angeles. San Diego. Panama city (Panama). Acapulco. Mobile. New Orleans. Add Raleigh to the list and that makes at least 11, all still there, all renovated - some converted to apartments.
Although some people find them subjectively ugly, I actually think that (especially today) they get their due as creative, unconventional, quirky, extremely representative of their era, and frankly rather distinguished buildings.
Beyond architecture, though, the economics of demolishing ~20 story buildings is not great, which is clearly a big driving force. That’s a massive structure, expensive to demolish and dispose of. As long as the bones of structure are in decent shape, and there’s enough demand to fill it, it’s nearly always going to be more economical to renovate and update systems than tear it down and start over.
More to the point - can anybody come up with even a single example of where one of these round tower hotels was demolished? Admittedly the internet has a very short memory these days, and is sucking worse and worse for doing historical research, so I could be missing something - but I certainly can’t find one.
11 Likes
About 25-30 were built and about half have been torn down. (ChatGPT)
1 Like
You get the award for “effort” by asking AI to do the search for you, but you appear to have forgotten something: AI must always be fact checked.
Of course I have also done an AI search - that’s how I started my search. I did not use ChatGPT since my work blocks it. However, I did this just now on my phone, and it found the following:
The Christopher Inn in Columbus, OH which was demolished nearly 30 years ago, but was not built as a Holiday Inn and had a different architect and different design
The Millennium Hotel in St Louis which looks externally similar to the Holiday Inns, but has a different architect and is taller - still standing but abandoned and slated for demolition.
The Presidetial Hotel in Atlanta which also has an externally similar design but was never a Holiday Inn: Abandoned, but possible candidate for restoration
Revealed five more that still exist, have been renovated and are still in use today: Denver, Tallahassee, Syracuse, Jefferson City MO, and a second one in New Orleans.
Most of the hotels that ChatGPT identified were in fact not round at all. So yeah, fact checks are necessary.
So we’re up to 16 that still exist, one (from a different architect, with a significantly different design) that has been demolished, one (also from a different architect, and taller, but more similar in design) that is abandoned and slated for demolition, and one that’s abandoned but still standing with fate yet unsealed.
I guess you could maybe consider the Landmark in Las Vegas (demolished 1995) or the Tower Hotel in Niagara Falls (still standing) but those seem different enough that they are kind of their own things.
And of course we can’t forget the OG OG, Marina City in Chicago, which predates all of the above by at least a couple years, but was not built as a hotel, is a two-tower complex, is nearly three times as tall, and is practically worshipped by architecture nerds.
10 Likes
Another Holiday Inn: The Holiday Inn Philadelphia Airport/Stadium.
More still, but veering into hotels that have less in common with the Holiday Inns.
The Park Vista in Gatlinburg which is dramatically different, built a bit later (70s) and still very much in use.
The Summit Hotel in Calgary which is again fairly different, but was demolished in 1989.
Chateau Lacombe in Edmonton which is also rather different, but is still in use
The Doubletree Portland (Maine) which is shorter, pretty different, and two towers, but still round.
The Hilton Memphis which, like most of the above, is still standing but substantially different from the Holiday Inns.
Radisson Duluth. Fairly similar appearance and vintage but again different architect. Still in use.
Gabe’s Tower in Owensboro, KY - early 60s, demolished a couple years ago. Fairly different - had a pool under a greenhouse roof on the top floor!
Waikiki Circle in Honolulu - Similar vintage (1963) but overall different design and different architects. Still standing, still in use.
There are several round Westin hotels.
The Westin Peachtree in Atlanta which was built in 1976, is huge, really nice, and shares nothing at all in common with the Holiday Inns other than the fact that it is round.
The Westin Seattle which has two towers, built in 1969 and 1982, and looks a little more similar to the Holiday Inns than the Westin Atlanta, but still has very little in common other than the shape.
The Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles, which is a cluster of five connected circular towers, which was built in the mid 70s and has even less in common with the Holiday Inns than any of the above, but is also still standing and still in use.
Anyway, the notion that mid century round hotels are on the verge of extinction is greatly exaggerated. All 17 current or former Holiday Inns that I can find info on are still in use, and all of them are linked above. Of the non-Holiday Inns, three demolished (Owensboro KY; Columbus OH; Calgary AB - four if you count the Landmark in Vegas), two abandoned/endangered (ATL and STL), and 10+ open and still in use.
Regardless, I think the Raleigh one is cool and should be kept.
9 Likes
| City/Link | Status | Current Name/Brand | Floors | Year Opened | Year Changed | OG Holiday Inn? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta, GA | Abandoned | Presidential Hotel | 15 | 1973 | 2012 (Closed) | Similar | Future Uncertain |
| St. Louis, MO | Abandoned | Millennium Hotel | 28 | 1969 | 2014 (Closed) | Similar | Pending demolition/redevlopment |
| Raleigh, NC | Construction | Hotel Indigo | 20 | 1969 | 2025 (Rebrand) | Yes | Rebrand in progress |
| Syracuse, NY | Construction | Tower701 | 20 | 1969 | 2025 (Conversion) | Yes | Conversion to student apts in progress |
| Calgary, AB | Demolished | Summit Hotel | 12 | 1965 | 1989 (Demolished) | No | |
| Columbus, OH | Demolished | Christopher Inn | 16 | 1963 | 1988 (Demolished) | No | |
| Owensboro, KY | Demolished | Best Western | 13 | 1963 | 2020 (Demolished) | No | Originally Gabe’s Motor Inn |
| Destin, FL | Demolished | Holiday Inn | 9 | 1971 | 2013 (Demolished) | No | Opened as Hawaiki Inn (not Holiday Inn) |
| Las Vegas, NV | Demolished | Landmark | 31 | 1968 | 1995 (Demolished) | No | |
| Acapulco, MX | In use | Hotel Amares | 26 | 1971 | 2024 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Atlanta, GA | In use | Westin Peachtree | 73 | 1976 | 2014 (Remodel) | No | All-Glass |
| Austin, TX | In use | Holiday Inn | 14 | 1964 | 2016 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Charleston, SC | In use | Holiday Inn | 14 | 1971 | 2019 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Covington, KY | In use | Radisson Hotel | 18 | 1972 | 2017 (Remodel) | Similar | Never a Holiday Inn but very similar |
| Denver, CO | In use | Turntable Studios | 13 | 1967 | 2015 (Conversion) | Yes | Apartments |
| Duluth, MN | In use | Radisson | 15 | 1970 | 2015 (Remodel) | Similar | |
| Edmonton, AB | In use | Chateau Lacombe | 24 | 1966 | 2014 (Remodel) | No | |
| Gatlinburg, TN | In use | Doubletree by Hilton | 15 | 1976 | 2010 (Rebrand) | No | Park Vista |
| Honolulu, HI | In use | Waikiki Circle | 14 | 1963 | 2011 (Remodel) | No | |
| Jefferson City, MO | In use | Doubletree by Hilton | 13 | 1969 | 2008 (Rebrand) | Yes | |
| Long Beach, CA | In use | Holiday Inn | 13 | 1966 | 2016 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Los Angeles, CA | In use | Westin Bonaventure | 35 | 1977 | 2020 (Remodel) | No | Five tower cluster, all glass |
| Los Angeles, CA | In use | Hotel Angeleno | 17 | 1971 | 2006 (Rebrand) | Yes | |
| Memphis, TN | In use | Hilton | 27 | 1975 | 2019 (Remodel) | No | All-Glass |
| Mobile, AL | In use | Holiday Inn | 16 | 1972 | 2008 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| New Orleans, LA (#1) | In use | Copeland Tower | 17 | 1973 | 2021 (Conversion) | Yes | Senior Apartments |
| New Orleans, LA (#2) | In use | Holiday Inn | 13 | 1973 | 2023 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Panama City, Panama | In use | Hotel Plaza Paitilla | 19 | 1975 | 1998 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Philadelphia, PA | In use | Holiday Inn | 16 | 1980 | 2022 (Remodel) | Yes | |
| Philadelphia, PA | In use | Terrace on 18th | 16 | 1964 | 2021 (Conversion) | Yes | Apartments |
| Portland, ME | In use | Doubletree by Hilton | 7, 9 | 1973, 1982 | 2012 (Rebrand) | No | |
| San Diego, CA | In use | Four Points by Sheraton | 16 | 1969 | 2014 (Rebrand) | Yes | |
| Seattle, WA | In use | Westin | 40, 47 | 1969, 1982 | 2013 (Remodel) | No | |
| Tallahasse, FL | In use | Four Points by Sheraton | 12 | 1969 | 2012 (Rebrand) | Yes | |
| Orlando, FL | In use | Four Points by Sheraton | 21 | 1974 | 2007 (Rebrand) | Similar | International Drive |
| Niagara Falls, ON | In use | Tower Hotel | “30” | 1962 | 2010 (Remodel) | No | Only 6 stories of hotel rooms |
8 Likes
I was wondering the same thing. I am sure they will do something to the exterior, I hope…
Aside from paint and new windows, I wonder what sort of improvements/modernizations could be done to an exterior like that.
4 Likes
That’s where having an historic designation becomes a problem. Will they be allowed to changed anything on the exterior or will they have to revert the exterior back to what it looked like originally. The National Park Service (who oversees the historic property renovations) gets very picky about this stuff. Like what iteration of the exterior will be considered the historic facade.
3 Likes
Yeah why not keep it…at least for now. Spiff it up really good. No harm no foul. Gives something unique to Raleigh.
3 Likes
This quote from the TBJ article: “If designated as a landmark, Tidal will have to jump through some extra hoops when it comes to exterior renovations. Any major or minor changes will be subject to a Certificate of Appropriateness that comes with a separate review process with the Raleigh Historic Development Commission.”
3 Likes
This sounds like a giant pain in the ass, and I’m betting they’re going to just wind up keeping the ugly exterior the way it is. Which is pretty annoying. I guess we’ll see what actually happens.
6 Likes
To each their own, but there’s so many beautiful buildings that are part of our history which have been lost forever over the years…and this ugly-ass hotel is what gets saved… 
9 Likes
So to sum up this research, after revisiting, revising, and searching some more: Out of 36 round hotels built between 1962 and 1982 that I could find:
- 16 OG Holiday Inns that are all still in use (3 as apartments)
- 3 in use that were never Holiday Inns, but are similar
- 10 in use that are significantly different (1 as apartments)
- 5 demolished; none are OG Holiday Inns
- 2 abandoned; neither are OG Holiday Inns but both are similar
So in conclusion, while a few have been demolished, that’s kind of what you expect for buildings as they reach this age. Certainly not enough are gone to warrant saying that there are “only a few left” - of Holiday Inns or round hotels in general.
5 Likes
It is over 50 years year old and distinctive and yes I dont care how many are still standing or what, it is unique there is NOT another one in NC and only one in SC. That makes it unique. Previous buildings that have demolished is not the point here with this one. It has been a part of the Raleigh skyline for over 50 years. Raleigh should build some much taller buildings around it and you will never see it. Raleigh actually a very good stock of older buildings and high rises downtown that have been saved many by Empire.
8 Likes
The exterior has had several variations over the years… so they can’t be too strict about it.
Anyway I don’t think this building merits landmarking per se. I don’t think it’s ugly, but the reasons I think it should be kept are mostly economics and sustainability.
9 Likes
I personally believe that it is not good precedent to preserve chain buildings like this. Should the Arby’s on Hillsborough St have been preserved as a historic landmark? The desire to preserve these buildings stems from nostalgia. Preservation should only be done for architecturally, culturally, and/or historically significant buildings.
3 Likes