10 Hotels With Incredible Industrial Design

These striking hotels combine history and industrial style. Get some mechanical age inspiration for your own home.

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April 20, 2018

By: Allison Tibaldi

The Crawford Hotel, Denver

The Crawford Hotel inside the still-active Denver Union Station, is an 1881 rail station, and a registered National Historic Landmark. The hotel retains the building's rich history while embracing a modern lodging aesthetic. The impressive Beaux Arts-style Great Hall serves as both the hotel’s lobby and the place where travelers wait for the train. This grand and bustling space includes Martini side tables from Restoration Hardware. The clocks are original while the dazzling chandeliers are impeccable recreations.

The Durham, Durham, North Carolina

The Durham is a downtown boutique hotel located in what was once a Home Savings Bank branch. The hotel’s design team, Commune, has maintained the structure’s midcentury modern architectural integrity, preserving the original exterior façade.

Chic Space

Noguchi coffee tables, with their signature curved wood base and freeform glass top, marry sculptural form with functionality at the chic Durham Hotel.

Local Talent

Guestrooms at the Durham Hotel enjoy native North Carolina accents such as custom-made blankets by Raleigh Denim.

The Silo Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

Once the tallest building in Sub-Saharan Africa, a grain silo has been converted into The Silo Hotel, a 28-room luxury property opened in 2017. It’s a daring mix of existing infrastructure and whimsical design that mingle with ease.

A Glam Slam

The hotel’s owner is an interior designer who meticulously sources each element. The crown-shaped chandeliers suspended in the café, bar and reception areas are custom-made by ADA Lighting in Cape Town.

Paper Factory Hotel, Long Island City, NY

Commemorating its paper past, the lobby of New York's Paper Factory Hotel showcases a dramatic spiral staircase with a central column sheathed in hundreds of hardcover books, emanating sculptural appeal.

Factory Town

The Paper Factory Hotel has been a catalyst transforming this Queens neighborhood from industrial to industrial chic. The property is located in—naturally—an adaptively re-used paper factory. Soaring ceilings, polished concrete floors and exposed brick fuse with eclectic finds from thrift shops, including an old-fashioned British phone booth to give this spot it unique appeal.

Hotel Liberty, Offenburg, Germany

In Germany’s Black Forest, a former jail has been revamped, opening as the Hotel Liberty in 2017. With a challenging starting point of crude brickwork and angular beams, the design team at Knoblauch added inviting touches. The delicate glass cube, spanning what was once the prison yard, now houses the light-filled lobby.

The Press Hotel, Portland

Maine’s Press Hotel is located in what was once the printing plant of the Portland Press Herald newspaper. The hotel maintains a connection to its journalistic roots in numerous ways. In guestroom corridors, actual headlines from the Press Herald were used to create newsprint-inspired wall coverings from Koroseal. The headline letters spill from the walls onto custom corridor carpeting from Innovative Carpets.

Hotel Covington, Covington, Kentucky

Hotel Covington was initially a high-end department store. The interior offers a peek into its fashionable past with towering ceilings, concrete columns and a traditional Covington home color palette of aubergine, sage and navy. In homage to Kentucky’s bourbon legacy, local woodworking studio Grainwell has created a spirited large-scale installation using bourbon barrels.

The Asbury Hotel, Asbury Park

The Asbury Hotel on the New Jersey Shore was once the local Salvation Army. Today, it’s a hip beach retreat that has preserved functional elements of its past. The lobby, which doubles as a greenhouse, has conserved the original brick and pillars while adding colorful new furnishings including the inviting pit sofa with a blue velvet base and playful hand-sewn cushions, custom designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture. The practical grey oak coffee table is from Restoration Hardware.

Hotel Emma, San Antonio

Housed in a former brewery, Hotel Emma is a stylish jumble of industrial-meets- refined. The lobby, which was once the engine room, has conscientiously retained the original exhaust fans used to ventilate, the turbine-like ammonia compressor and the king valves, which controlled the flow of ammonia.

Detroit Foundation Hotel, Detroit

Located in the original Detroit Fire Department Headquarters, a circa-1929 Neoclassical building, the Detroit Foundation Hotel opened in 2017. Authentic firehouse features, such as the iconic red arched doors where the fire engines would pass, have been maintained. Original glazed brick tiles seamlessly mesh with modern lighting fixtures by Incite Design.

Firm Foundation

Guest rooms at the Detroit Foundation Hotel include nods to Detroit’s automotive industry legacy with a color palette punctuated with metallics, reminiscent of the paint colors of 1960-era cars. Headboards are made with repurposed wood from Architectural Salvage Warehouse Detroit, adding homegrown craftsmanship and nostalgia.