Client: Oliver Hospitality

Location: Atlanta, Ga

Design Team: 

Gamble + Gamble, Architecture

Reunion Goods & Services, Interior Design 

CitiZn Design, Interior Design

Ray Ellis & LaBrie, Historic Preservation Consultant

Urban Land Institute Atlanta, Awards for Excellence in Preservation 2019

Atlanta Urban Design Commission, Award of Excellence in Historic Preservation 2019

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation 2019

Atlanta Business Chronicle Best in Atlanta Real Estate Awards Finalist 2019

Atlanta Preservation Center Keystone Award 2018

Atlanta Magazine Groundbreakers Award 2017

Hotel Clermont is an adaptive reuse of a historic Atlanta hotel constructed in 1924 as the Bonaventure Arms Apartments. Located along a trolley car line, the apartment building embodied the transition from dense urban city centers towards suburban development made possible by the growing popularity of the automobile. 

It was constructed near the newly developed Ford Motor Assembly Plant, built in 1916, and was followed in 1926 by the massive Sears Roebuck Building now known as Ponce City Market. In 1939, the apartment building was converted to a hotel.  A 1958 document indicates the hotel had 100 rooms and 33 efficiency and one-bedroom furnished apartments. The building was eventually closed in 2009 after many years of decline. 

Hotel Clermont has been renovated and reopened for use as a boutique hotel with 94 guestrooms, a gracious lobby bar and cafe. Amenities include a restaurant to serve hotel patrons and neighborhood residents, as well as a rooftop bar with a stunning view of the surrounding neighborhoods and the Midtown skyline.  Although outside the scope of this project, great care was taken to ensure the continuous operation of the Clermont Lounge, a famous Atlanta landmark operated in the basement of the building. 

The historic preservation effort included window replacement and the restoration of the exterior brick and historic signage. Extensive interior work included restoration of interior terrazzo, plaster and trim. Structural repairs and rehabilitation of the central grand staircase were required to meet current building codes. Due to these efforts, the building is a candidate for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Press:

- The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, 2019 Preservation Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation | April 12, 2019

- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, These 11 sites have been added to Georgia’s register of historic places by Nancy Clanton | April 9, 2019

- Atlanta Business Chronicle, $20M renovation of historic hotel kept basement strip club | March 1-7, 2019

- Gun & Garden, Step Inside Hotel Clermont by Dacey Orr Sivewright  |  July 25, 2018

- Atlanta Business Chronicle, Hotel Clermont reopens as symbol of Ponce corridor’s rebirth by Amy Wenk  |  July 6, 2018

- Curbed Atlanta, The Hotel Clermont’s hard-fought return to grace by Josh Green  |  June 20, 2018

- Atlanta Magazine, A peek at the renovated Hotel Clermont’s hip rooms and vintage furnishings by Scott Henry  |  May 21, 2018

- Curbed Atlanta, Photos: At Clermont Hotel return of landmark radio tower marks major progress by Michael Kahn  |  January 5, 2018 

- Creative Loafing, Step inside the Clermont Hotel by Max Blau  |  January 23, 2014

For more photos and information about the the stay, see Hotel Clermont