St. Paul Square Historic District, San Antonio, Texas, Best Western Suites Plus, Riverwalk

The project called for the adaptive re-use of an historic building to serve as public spaces for a new hotel with a four story addition to contain the guest suites. A glazed elevator lobby was utilized to carefully connect the smaller, historic structure to the new addition. Project services included photographic and as-built documentation and an investigative analysis of the building envelope. The Owner’s program called for the complete re-configuration of the interior spaces, including meeting rooms, offices, restaurant, small commercial kitchen, fitness center and lobby which required numerous structural modifications. Investigations of the existing floor and roof structures also required upgrades to these systems to comply with modern load requirements. The Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines for the Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings was utilized to guide the design of the adaptive re-use of the building. Edward Nelson served as project architect and provided design services, consultation, led the production of construction documents and provided construction administration services. The project opened in 2001.