Atlanta-based hotel developer, AMS Hospitality, is proud to announce The Pelham Hotel’s 2022 Gold Key Award for the Best Lobby Midscale category. AMS acquired the 65-key historic Pelham hotel in New Orleans in November 2020. Together with the talented Michael Suomi and team from Suomi Design Works, the Pelham was beautifully renovated into a vibrantly reimagined historical mansion that played off the history of its original owner/builder who brought the first English-speaking theatre to New Orleans. With its theatrical underpinnings informing design, The Pelham Hotel stands as an elegant and playful homage to the city’s vibrant and colorful history.
Originally built as a home in the 1800s for American actor and impresario James H. Caldwell, Suomi Design Works’ concept for the refreshed New Orleans property integrates the city’s European influence while drawing inspiration from its classic manor homes and the theatrical flair of its vibrant Golden Age of Theater.
“The Pelham Hotel is our first complete hotel interiors project, and we are very happy that it’s been so well received by the hospitality industry,” says Michael Suomi, President of Suomi Design Works.
Previously made up of four small rooms and just three seats, Suomi Design Works creatively transformed the hotel’s lobby into a dramatic and welcoming lounge featuring gilded shelves filled with hand-selected craft liquors, wines and treats reminiscent of the refined-and-eclectic tastes of a savvy world-traveler’s personal bar. A nod to luxury concession centers found within historic and grand theaters, green canopies accented by playful signage top the front desk space inside the lobby. Featuring built-in ship lamps, along with black-and-white graphic trim, the bar seating provides a highly chromatic flair while the oversized windows showcase views in and out, flanked with bold, grand pendants that reveal the winding bar/arrival desk and its long banquet. The high-contrast soffits and wainscoting create a strong sense of place, while intimate group seating accented by the custom art collection encourages guests to linger.
About Suomi Design Works
Suomi Design Works, a Manhattan-based design firm, was founded by Michael Suomi in 2019 in order to meet the industry’s ever-expanding need for a high-level of creativity combined with deep expertise. With more than 30 years of architectural and interior design experience, Suomi has become well-known for his strong conceptual narrative approach to design for owners, developers, and legacy properties with vision. The firm’s highly creative hotel concepts are grounded in a deep understanding of each property’s local, cultural, and industrial histories. By actively seeking out design catalysts to infuse each project with out-of-industry innovations from the worlds of fashion, technology, and cinema, Suomi Design Works creates completely custom hotels that are crafted through an exceptionally personalized process.
About The Pelham Hotel
The Pelham Hotel, located in the heart of New Orleans’ Central Business District and steps from the French Quarter, features 65 design centered guestrooms. With a lobby styled like that of a Victorian theater and rooms carrying easy, off-beat charm of a classic New Orleans Manor House, the property’s enchanting interiors, eye-catching art, marble-finishes, and gently deco-inspired decor tell a story about a city whose style and personality are never in doubt. For more information, please visit the hotel’s website at www.thepelhamhotel.com or follow the property’s social media on Facebook or Instagram.
About HRI Lodging
HRI Lodging, LLC (“HRIL”), a wholly owned subsidiary of HRI Hospitality, LLC, provides hotel management services for both HRI Hospitality, LLC owned and third-party property owners. HRI Lodging operates 27 hotels and is an approved operator for premium branded and independent hotels. For more information, please visit the company website at www.hrilodging.com.
About AMS Hospitality
AMS Hospitality is one of the most versatile hospitality groups in the Southeast U.S. specializing in the acquisition and development of hotel assets. The company formed as a strategic alliance between The Allen Morris Company and Stormont Hospitality Group. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the principals of AMS Hospitality have over 140 years of real estate and hospitality experience, have completed 131 projects, including over 12,000 total hotel keys, and over $2.0 Bn in hotel development, transactions, and renovations. For more information, visit: http://www.ams-hospitality.com/
