Past Meets Future: Designing New Urban Hotels through Adaptive Reuse

As the hospitality industry continues to shift toward more meaningful, place-based experiences, a new generation of urban hotels is looking to the past for inspiration. Rather than clearing the slate, architects and developers are preserving and reimagining existing buildings, layering old and new to create places that are rich in character, emotionally resonant, and sustainable.

By using a complementary material palette to the original mansion, The Fifth Avenue Hotel’s new tower seamlessly blends with its predecessor. Photo by Andrew Rugge © Perkins Eastman

In today’s development climate, adaptive reuse is more than nostalgic—it’s strategic. Urban land is scarce, business districts are dense, and sustainability is imperative. Adaptive reuse reduces embodied carbon, preserves material value, and avoids the environmental costs and disruption of demolition and new construction. It resonates with today’s travelers seeking local heritage. Guests increasingly seek authenticity, and few things connect them to a place like a building that’s lived many lives throughout history.

A glass-clad elevator tower is a dramatically modern insertion to the Joule’s historic structure. Photo © Eric Laignel

When paired with carefully considered modern design interventions, reuse doesn’t just restore—it elevates. By combining historic preservation with contextual infill, design teams unlock value on tight urban spaces. These projects depend on a nuanced dialogue between past and present and public and private sector considerations: designers must navigate tax credits, zoning laws, and historic preservation requirements, while finding creative ways to insert modern hospitality programs into legacy footprints. Repositioning helps fill functional gaps in underutilized real estate assets, from code compliance to contemporary amenities that broaden travelers’ options.

At their best, adaptive reuse projects become powerful local narratives. Whether it’s custom art or the work of local artisans and makers, design tells a story. Guests are invited not just to stay, but to explore the city within their destination, experiencing the building, and the city, through its many layers.

The Joule Hotel in Dallas, above left, and The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York represent the successful intervention of new construction to complement and elevate the adaptive reuse of historic buildings.
Joule photo © Eric Laignel | Fifth Avenue Hotel photo by Andrew Rugge © Perkins Eastman

One such example is The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City. A landmarked 19th-century mansion, rich in architectural detail, now houses the hotel’s public spaces and suites, preserving its intimate scale and Gilded Age grandeur. Beside it rises a dramatic new tower clad in contemporary materials.

A new 24-story tower rises next to the newly preserved early 20th-century mansion at The Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York. Photo by Andrew Rugge © Perkins Eastman

Rather than mimic the old, the addition boldly contrasts it. This strategy made the development financially viable by adding key count, increasing tower height, and offering more bookable rooms in a central midtown location—all without compromising on design integrity or guest experience.

In Dallas, The Joule Hotel offers a different but equally striking take on adaptive reuse. A former 1920s Neo-Gothic bank building now houses a hotel that blends eras with confidence. Its most striking gesture—a cantilevered glass pool projecting from the stone façade—establishes a dialogue between old and new.

Inside, original details are carefully preserved and interwoven with contemporary design, including more than 70 salvaged mosaics by artist Millard Sheets. Originally installed in the nearby Mercantile Bank Tower, the mosaics were salvaged from demolition and now grace the hotel’s ballroom and public areas.

Mid-century-era mosaics by Millard Sheets were rescued from demolition and installed during the Joule’s renovation. Photo © Shannon Faulk

A street-level glass elevator provides another dramatic intervention, ascending visibly along the building’s exterior and connecting guests to an indoor-outdoor rooftop space. Beyond aesthetics, The Joule has played a catalytic role in revitalizing Main Street, helping transform a dormant block into a cultural and social hub.

As large US cities grow more saturated and expensive, developers are increasingly looking to mid-sized urban markets like Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, and Tulsa. These cities offer a deep inventory of historic buildings ripe for rescuing, lower development entry costs, and distinctive cultural identities—all of which align with the values of today’s desire for local flavor in hospitality destinations.

For travelers, these places offer vibrant, walkable downtowns with a sense of discovery and authenticity. For hoteliers, they present opportunities to test bold ideas and make real impact to the guest experience through thoughtful design.

Craftsmanship and materials from the past often can’t be replicated, which means new elements must complement—not compete with—the original. The most successful projects embrace contrast, allowing history and modernity to sharpen one another. Historic facades, intricate woodwork, and artisanal details ground the experience. Bold additions bring freshness, drama, and a forward-looking identity.

These projects uplift their neighborhoods. Adaptive reuse can reenergize underutilized structures and forgotten corners of a city, generating pride, increasing foot traffic, and supporting new cultural and commercial ecosystems. Adaptive reuse and contextual infill aren’t simply methods—they’re philosophies. When done well, they allow history and innovation to coexist, creating hotels that are not only smarter and more sustainable, but also more soulful and unforgettable.