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Terrace Plaza Hotel

Terrace Hilton Hotel; Terrace Hotel; Crowne Plaza Hotel
Threatened
  • International Style
  • Identity of Building/Site
  • History of Building/Site
  • General Description
  • Documentation

Terrace Plaza Hotel

Terrace Plaza, 1948

Credit

Ezra Stoller/ESTO

Site overview

The Terrace Plaza Hotel is the first International-style hotel built in America, and the first major work of Natalie de Blois who was the chief designer of team that designed all the details of the building including the interiors, furniture, tableware, textiles, uniforms, graphics, ashtrays and even the matchbooks. It was also first building designed by SOM that was widely published in magazines like Time, Life, Architectural Forum, and Harper’s. The Terrace Plaza Hotel is said to have been the best collaboration between Modern architecture and art in the United States by including the works of Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg, Jim Davis, and Joan Miró into the design.

Terrace Plaza Hotel

Gourmet Room, Miró Mural

Credit

Esto

Site overview

The Terrace Plaza Hotel is the first International-style hotel built in America, and the first major work of Natalie de Blois who was the chief designer of team that designed all the details of the building including the interiors, furniture, tableware, textiles, uniforms, graphics, ashtrays and even the matchbooks. It was also first building designed by SOM that was widely published in magazines like Time, Life, Architectural Forum, and Harper’s. The Terrace Plaza Hotel is said to have been the best collaboration between Modern architecture and art in the United States by including the works of Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg, Jim Davis, and Joan Miró into the design.

Terrace Plaza Hotel

Skyline Lounge, Saul Steinberg Mural

Credit

Esto

Site overview

The Terrace Plaza Hotel is the first International-style hotel built in America, and the first major work of Natalie de Blois who was the chief designer of team that designed all the details of the building including the interiors, furniture, tableware, textiles, uniforms, graphics, ashtrays and even the matchbooks. It was also first building designed by SOM that was widely published in magazines like Time, Life, Architectural Forum, and Harper’s. The Terrace Plaza Hotel is said to have been the best collaboration between Modern architecture and art in the United States by including the works of Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg, Jim Davis, and Joan Miró into the design.

Terrace Plaza Hotel

Lobby, Alexander Calder Sculpture

Credit

Esto

Site overview

The Terrace Plaza Hotel is the first International-style hotel built in America, and the first major work of Natalie de Blois who was the chief designer of team that designed all the details of the building including the interiors, furniture, tableware, textiles, uniforms, graphics, ashtrays and even the matchbooks. It was also first building designed by SOM that was widely published in magazines like Time, Life, Architectural Forum, and Harper’s. The Terrace Plaza Hotel is said to have been the best collaboration between Modern architecture and art in the United States by including the works of Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg, Jim Davis, and Joan Miró into the design.

Awards

Advocacy

Award of Excellence

Commercial

2019

An Advocacy Award of Excellence is given to the Cincinnati Preservation Association and the coalition of local advocates, including City Councilmember David Mann, for their efforts to save Cincinnati’s Terrace Plaza Hotel. Designed by Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the Terrace Plaza Hotel opened in 1948 as the country’s first International-style hotel. In addition to the hotel, the building included retail space and a high-end restaurant with a mural by artist Joan Miró. The business began to struggle in the late 1970s but managed to hang on until it closed for good in 2008. It has sat vacant since then, changing owners and experiencing demolition by neglect. The Cincinnati Preservation Association led the effort to preserve the building through educational efforts, statewide and local designation, and creative means to find a sympathetic developer. Terrace Plaza is not “out of the woods” yet, but thanks to the work of the Cincinnati Preservation Association, other local advocates, and the support of councilmembers such as David Mann, the tide is turning in the right direction. 

“The coalition deserves praise for being extremely proactive, reaching out to a broad community of stakeholders and elected officials to awaken their city to Terrace Plaza's high level of significance.”

-Liz Waytkus, Docomomo US Executive Director

"At the time, SOM was cutting edge for employing female architects in their firm, but for so many years only the male figures were recognized. It’s nice to see women architects and designers such as Natalie de Blois coming out of the shadows and getting the recognition they deserve.”

- Robert Nauman, Docomomo US Director

Primary classification

Commercial (COM)

Designations

Added to the National Register of Historic Places, August 21, 2017

How to Visit

Currently closed.

Location

Terrace Plaza Hotel

15 West 6th Street
Cincinnati, OH

Country

Hamilton

Case Study House No. 21

Lorem ipsum dolor

Designer(s)

Natalie de Blois

Architect

Nationality

American

Morris Lapidus

Architect

Nationality

American, born in Russia

Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Other designers

Morris Lapidus, Vincent Kling

Related News

Save the Terrace Plaza Hotel

Newsletter, Threatened, Advocacy, Cincinnati

January 11, 2018

Exploring modernism just got easier

Membership, Explore Modern

October 04, 2018

The Diversity of Modernism: Thematic Focus for 2019

Advocacy, Annual Theme, Diversity of Modernism

February 15, 2019

Celebrating Modern at the 2019 Modernism in America Awards

Newsletter, Award, Modernism in America, Newsletter June 2019

June 26, 2019

Your Impact on Modernism

Membership

October 09, 2019

A few spots left to participate in the Doco Games Epic Architecture Tournament

Giving Tuesday, Doco Games

November 18, 2019

What's at stake in 2020

Advocacy, What's at Stake

December 31, 2019

Docomomo US launches Architectural Photography Competition

News

May 19, 2020

Docomomo US Communications Survey 2021

Newsletter, docomomo

March 15, 2021

Docomomo US welcomes cf3 as a Friend Organization

Cincinnati

January 06, 2022

Terrace Plaza needs a developer with a creative vision

Threatened, SOM, Cincinnati

April 21, 2022

Related Sites

Commission

1945

Completion

1948

Others associated with Building/Site

Joan Miró, Jim Davis, Alexander Calder, Saul Steinberg

Original Brief

SOM was one of six firms invited to submit proposals to John J. Emery, Jr. of Thomas J. Emery’s Sons, on how to use the rest of the site where two department store buildings would be located. SOM found that an office building could provide greater returns, but an office was not stable enough to guarantee long-term profits. They found that a hotel would provide less profit some years, but much more in others, in turn becoming a better investment for the site. Emery chose SOM because of the proposal of a hotel being the best use for the air rights above the department stores. SOM was also a favorite because they were designing in a modern style and had no experience in hotels. This attracted Emery as he “wanted a layout that contained nothing conventional for convention’s sake.” Even though Emery was not a fan of the International Style he believed that a public building should “reflect the spirit of the age and contain examples of the best contemporary art.” Early in the development of the Terrace Plaza, Emery decided that Modern art should be an important component of the design. The development team believed that art was not only desirable in its own right, but could also be used as a marketing investment.

Significant Alteration(s) with Date(s)

In 1959 the Bond Department store wanted more space to display merchandise so the windows on Vine Street were removed and filled in with matching brick masonry on the exterior of the building.

 

Hilton Hotels Corporation purchased the building in 1956 and in 1965 the interior design was renovated with little appreciation for the Modern aesthetics.  The Miró, Calder, and Steinberg pieces were donated to the Cincinnati Art Museum in 1965, while the Davis lighting piece went missing. 

 

The Gourmet Room was renovated in a French Baroque style and the adjoining lounge was enlarged and opened to new views by creating a new window wall.  The Gourmet Room still remains intact on the exterior and the interior still has very significant defining features from the continuous glazing and the steel columns.

 

Plans from architect Robert Springer in 1968-69 show that after J.C. Penney closed in 1968 and Bond closed in 1977, these spaces were subdivided and turned into smaller shops with aluminum display windows and polished granite pilasters.

 

Around 1970 the original vestibule and glass entrance doors were removed to create an open-air valet parking area within the building.  The systems in the building have been updated however the original duel heating system remains and could be functional with some upgrades like new boilers, tanks and fuel pumps.

 

While alterations have been made, the integrity of the Terrace Plaza is still exists.   It still retains character defining spaces and materials.  The exterior still has its brick skin, cubic massing, the original fenestration pattern, the circular restaurant in the penthouse, and its terraces.  The interior of the building with the exception of the ground floor still retains its original circulation. The lobby and Skyline Lounge and Restaurant still exist on the eighth floor along with the original marble walls, terrazzo floors, stainless steel wrapped columns, and plaster ceilings with recessed lighting.  The floor plans and guest rooms are still the same except for lighting and the built in furniture.

Current Use

The hotel is currently vacant however there are businesses in the storefronts on the ground floor.

General Description

The Terrace Plaza Hotel is an International-Style mixed use skyscraper with a 7-story commercial base, originally occupied by two department stores, and office space on a block long site with a stepped back 12-story hotel and terrace on top.  An additional setback at the top makes way for a 51-foot tall penthouse with a dining room.  It is a steel structure with brick curtain walls.  A band of storefronts exist at street level, and the windowless base façade is clad in terra cotta colored brick veneer.  The hotel lobby is on the eighth floor and has a continuous window wall.  The hotel above is arranged by ten foot high floors and a regular grid pattern of wide windows, ten bays in the front, two bays on each side, and eight bays on the rear with the space behind the elevator bank left blank.  The original project included 324 guest rooms, 14 apartments, 4 restaurants, 2 department stores, 3 retail spaces, offices, and back of house areas.  The Gourmet Room is located in the 51-foot tall penthouse and is noticeable on the east end of the building by the projected curved, continuous glazing.  The Gourmet Room has a small outdoor viewing platform and a stairway below to a terrace that has built-in concrete planters.

 

The Gourmet Room was not originally part of the original proposal or program, but de Blois was asked to come up with the architectural and interior plans for a small dining room on top of the building.  She proposed between six to eight designs and Emery liked the curved one the best.  A narrow space lead from the elevators compressed visitors, but upon entering the circular Gourmet Room after going up a short flight of stairs, they could experience views from the circular restaurant.  Slanted glass walls directed views as well as improved acoustic qualities of the space. To not obstruct views, small post columns along the perimeter support the roof while the room sits on a pedestal about six feet above the twentieth floor terrace.  The Joan Miró mural originally existed on the curved back wall however it was removed in 1965 before being replaced by the existing wood paneling.

 

The Terrace Plaza was a hotel of many “firsts”. It was the first to have a lobby on the eighth floor, the first to have fully automatic elevators, the first hotel to have user-controlled air-conditioning in every room, and the first use of a dual heating system that could run on gas and oil or coal.  The hotel also had moveable partitions to create suites upon request, motorized beds that could be turned into sofas, and built-in controls for radio, telephones, and televisions.  The building also included the first use of fluorescent lights for reading in hotel rooms, makeup lights in bathrooms, and filtered exterior floodlights which would enhance textures and colors.  Illuminated white glass ceilings were also used extensively in the building.

Original Physical Context

The 7-story commercial base and 12-story setback hotel block and terrace face north on Sixth Street and spans between Vine and Race Streets. Mostly low and mid-rise buildings surround the Terrace Plaza making it very visible in the urban setting.

References

Elizabeth Hutton Turner and Oliver Wick, ed., Calder|Miró, (New York: Philip Wilson Publishers, 204), 79.

National Park Service, Terrace Plaza Hotel, 8/21/2017, SG100001493

“New Hotel Spruces Up Cincinnati,” Business Week, 3 July 1948, 23.

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