Premier Completes the Conversion and Historic Conservation of Le Pavillon New Orleans, a Tribute Portfolio Boutique Hotel

Premier provided interior design, procurement, corporate engineering, and project management expertise on the conversion, delivering a contemporary boutique destination inspired by the French Quarter’s classic opulence

Premier, an end-to-end architecture, interior design, procurement, project management, and corporate engineering firm with specialization in hospitality, multi-family residential, student housing, adaptive reuse, and mixed-use development, is pleased to celebrate the completion of its Le Pavillon New Orleans, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel project.  More than an impressive property-wide renovation, the project is also notable on account of its success as a historic hotel conservation and brand conversion project, seeing Premier convert one of New Orleans’ oldest independent hotels into the newest member of Marriott’s Tribute Collection.  Premier provided interior design, procurement, corporate engineering, and project management expertise on the project.

Premier’s conversion adds owner value and repositions the Le Pavillon as New Orleans’ newest must-visit upscale boutique destination

Premier has a long-standing relationship with the Le Pavillon.  Built in 1907 and listed on the register of Historic Hotels of America, Premier originally led the extensive and iterative renovation of the property between 2015 and 2019, restoring the historic 118-year-old hotel and reestablishing its standing as one of New Orleans’ luxury destinations.  Most recently, and starting in 2020, Premier was commissioned to lead the ambitious conversion of the iconic independent property to a Tribute Portfolio boutique soft-branded hotel.  As part of the $19 million conversion, Premier led the modernization of the hotel’s lobby, bar, destination restaurant, 226 guestrooms, public spaces, 10,000 sf of event space, and exterior entrance experience.

Beyond thoroughly renovating and repositioning the hotel, Premier’s conversion of Le Pavillon to a Tribute Portfolio hotel created additional value for its owners Ashford Hospitality Trust.  Setting the hotel apart from other luxury destinations in New Orleans, Premier designed a collection of six premium and uniquely styled suites for the new Le Pavillon, each unabashedly embracing the most iconic motifs that define The Big Easy.  Amongst the suites, The Napoleon Suite is a maximal expression of the French Quarter’s classic French Colonial regency, featuring a bathroom with ornate gilded vanity mirrors, marble counters, checkered floors, and a stained-glass window over a massive Carrera marble bathtub reputed to once belong to the French Emperor himself.  In The Frenchman Suite, New Orleans’ notoriety as the birthplace and heart of America’s musical traditions inspires the space by way of a baby grand piano and feature wall clad in classic vinyl records, sheet music, and concert playbills from the jazz and blues clubs along nearby Frenchman Street.  Elsewhere, The Bourbon Suite – furnished with tufted leather sofas and wing chairs, antler chandeliers, and a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf – exudes classic luxury with a contemporary flair in homage to Bourbon Street’s origins, while The St. Charles Suite – with picture frame molded wall treatments, crystal chandeliers, and modern silver and glass furniture – captures a stylish expression of classic French chateau charm.

The addition of the suites, in-part requiring the assembly of multiple smaller guestrooms into larger units across multiple floors, was made possible through the technical expertise of Premier’s Corporate Engineering and Project Management teams.

Premier’s design “turns history on its head” with a modern interpretation of New Orleans’ French Colonial opulence

Key to the success of Le Pavillon New Orleans’ conversion was Premier’s ingenious fusion of classic Régence Period extravagance with the contemporary luxurious aesthetic that defines Tribute Portfolio destinations.  Led by a vision to “turn history on its head”, Premier’s Interior Design team masterfully incorporated antique furniture, 19^th century European artwork, and globally sourced reclaimed building materials, and balanced them with modern and sophisticated accents to bring the hotel’s historical spaces into the present era.  The result is a collection of subtly ostentatious spaces imbued with the French Quarter’s colonial flair, all expressed with a luxurious and contemporary narrative that captures the authentic New Orleans experience.

In the lobby, the space is defined by its accents.  Popping-off the background of matte white walls and ceilings, a mix of tufted antique and contemporary furniture in hues of royal purple and gold are framed from above by gold friezes that outline the recessed ceilings.  Dramatic white columns serve as anchors for built-in furniture, while luscious rugs in deeper hues of purple and gold define the lobby’s spaces otherwise.  Crystal chandeliers with an avant-garde flair emphasize the hotel’s French Colonial inspiration.  Elsewhere throughout the lobby, contemporary art juxtaposed alongside original Claude Lorrain artworks from the late 1600’s underscore Premier’s “French Colonial meets modern” design program for the hotel.  As part of the curated collection, many of the artworks are inverted, literally “turning history on its head”, underscoring Premier’s design vision for the hotel.

Further into the lobby, Bar 1803 is a local destination unto itself.  Inspired by the rich color and layered complexity of the Sazerac – the ruby-hued cocktail born in NOLA nearly two centuries ago – Premier’s design program effectively creates a luxurious speakeasy that authentically serves as the cocktail’s spiritual home.  Floor-to-ceiling velvet drapery in hues of ruby and amber enrobe every wall, custom rope lights create a sultry atmosphere, while slate-colored marble with cream and merlot highlights span the floor and frame the vertical surfaces of the bar.  Named after the year Napoleon signed the Louisiana Purchase, a venue-defining lenticular art piece depicting two sides of “The Little Emperor” – a “serious” Napoleon and a “spirited” Napoleon – anchors the space behind the bar.

In the hotel’s guestrooms, Le Pavillon’s modern expression of French Colonial opulence continues.  Although rooms are individually styled and subtly unique from one to the next, common design elements unify the guest experience from space to space.  In king rooms, tufted leather headboards, molded feature walls with room-wide avant-garde expressions of French Romantic paintings, and recessed ceilings painted in colors perfectly matched to the room’s soft goods complete the spaces.  In larger rooms, original 19th century Rococo Revival beds – many manufactured by famed woodworker C. Lee and some featuring canopies draped in velvet and corduroy – literally envelope guests in the lavish design program.  In guest bathrooms, gilded French Louis-style framed mirrors and fabric wall coverings in fleur-de-lis patterns extend the interior design program into the private spaces.

About Premier 

Dallas-based Premier is a full-service firm with over 30 years of expertise across architecture, interior design, procurement, project management, construction development, and contract administration.  With all services yielded under one roof, Premier’s team is in constant pursuit of finding innovative solutions to the hospitality, multi-family, and student housing industry’s increasingly complex problems.  From straightforward soft goods refreshes to transformative custom designs for renovations, redevelopments, and new developments, Premier’s team of professionals is dedicated to excellence across a multitude of market sectors.  From concept to completion, Premier provides consultative services that are unmatched, bringing our clients’ vision for the built environment to life.  For more information visit www.premierpm.com.