NASHVILLE’S HISTORIC UNION STATION HOTEL REDEDICATED AFTER $10 MILLION RENOVATION PROJECT –
Region reconnects with landmark train station 107 years after its original opening
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (November 2007)--Nashville’s Union Station Hotel is sparkling again after a $10 million renovation polished the lobby’s ornate stained glass ceiling, refurbished all 125 guestrooms and added a new restaurant, among other projects.
The hotel celebrated the renovation’s completion in October 2007, exactly 107 years after the Louisville & Nashville Railroad opened the building as a showplace train station in 1900.
Highlights of the renovation were a complete restoration, cleaning and redressing of the station’s original design and architectural features, including:
+ Delicate accents in the 65-foot-high lobby, including a polishing of the 128 panels of multi-colored stained glass atop the hotel’s original barrel-vaulted ceiling;
+ Addition of an “upscale comfortable” restaurant called Prime 108;
+ Installation of a new marble floor in the hotel’s expansive lobby, plus cleaning of the hotel’s original gold-leaf medallions and rare bas-relief sculptures;
+ A total makeover of all guestrooms—no two of which are exactly alike—including furniture, fixtures and décor;
+ New marble in all bathrooms, with many guestrooms upgraded to glass-enclosed showers;
+ Behind-the-scenes modernization of heating, air-conditioning, Internet and other systems.
The Union Station Hotel, a Wyndham Historic Hotel and a member of Historic Hotels of America, is one of Nashville’s most identifiable buildings. Many visitors consider it part of a Nashville architectural trifecta that consists of the Union Station Hotel, the nearby Ryman Auditorium and the city’s replica of the Parthenon from ancient Athens.
It is 247 feet tall from track level to the top of its clock tower, where a statue of Mercury, messenger of the gods and the god of roads and travelers, perches.
The architectural and design touches inside are a tribute to artisans of another era. In addition to the signature stained-glass ceiling are large clocks at either end of the lobby, a bas-relief sculpture of an Egyptian pharaoh in a chariot and another bas-relief sculpture of a powerful steam locomotive.
The bas-relief locomotive is No. 108, which inspired the name of the hotel’s new restaurant, Prime 108.
Other sculptures include two female figures representing Miss Louisville and Miss Nashville (the railroad’s namesake cities) and a veritable choir of angels. Above the lobby’s 10 great archways are 20 “angels of commerce,” in surprisingly revealing gowns for the conservative time in which the building opened, showing off Tennessee products such as corn, wheat, books and, yes, whiskey.
After passenger train traffic diminished and then left Nashville later in the 1900s, Union Station declined. Mercury even fell from the top of the tower in 1952.
The decline was reversed in 1986 when Union Station came back to life as a hotel. The recent two-year renovation has added another level of amenities and appeal.
In addition to its guestrooms, it has 12,000 square feet of flexible meeting space in six meeting rooms, a business center and a fitness center. In-room amenities include high-speed wireless Internet service, Herman Miller Aeron work chairs, plasma flat-screen televisions and CD players (this is Music City USA, after all).
Union Station Hotel is located between the downtown commercial center, Nashville’s honky-tonk district, Music Row, Vanderbilt University and Belmont University.
It is within walking distance or a short drive of the Nashville Convention Center, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts and the emerging nightlife and dining district called the Gulch.
It is owned by Turnberry Associates in Aventura, Fla., and the Nashville-based Corner Partnership. Complete hotel information is online at www.unionstationhotelnashville.com.
About Turnberry Associates
Founded more than 50 years ago by Donald Soffer, Turnberry Associates is one of the country’s leading full-service real estate development and property management firms. The company has to its credit the development of more than $7 billion in commercial and residential property. This includes approximately 20 million square feet of retail space, more than 7,000 luxury apartments and condominium units, 1.5 million square feet of Class “A” office space and in excess of 2,000 hotel and resort rooms. For additional information, visit www.turnberry.com.
Contact :Melanie Fly
Union Station Hotel
615-620-2182
mfly@turnberry.com
Tom Adkinson, APR
BOHAN Public Relations
615-341-3640
tadkinson@bohanideas.com