New look, new nameMurals to adorn Inn at Rapid CityBy Dan Daly |
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The Inn at Rapid City will soon be sporting a new look, as well as a new franchise. Formerly a Hilton, the 176-room hotel at Main Street and Mount Rushmore Road will soon be flying the Radisson Hotels banner, hotel officials announced. The new owner, Karim Merali, bought the hotel in April, when he moved to Rapid City from Dallas. By the time he purchased it, the hotel, had lost its Hilton franchise. Maintenance had lapsed while its previous owner spent three years in bankruptcy court. Merali first set about taking care of the building's immediate needs, including exterior paint and structural repairs. He also began redesign plans. "It took me six months to find someone who could bring something so different, so unique to this hotel," Merali said. The person he found is artist Harri A. Aalto, creative director for a company called Creative Edge Corp. of Fairfield, Iowa. Aalto, who began his career in Canada as a fine art sculptor, numbers the family of former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos among his previous clients. Denver International Airport is another, and Disney Corp. remains one of his regular customers. Creative Edge's specialty is making large-scale mosaic murals from stone, ceramics, glass, metal and' other materials. |
Aalto uses a process called waterjet cutting a computer controlled jet shoots a mixture of water and garnet at three times the speed of sound, cutting hard stone into carefully controlled patterns. The result is a mosaic of inlaid stone in varied shades, values and colors. The plan is to create almost a theme hotel, a type of entertainment for the people who stay there, Aalto explained. The medallion at the entrance to Disney's Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Fla., was made by Creative Edge Corp. "We want to create that kind of pizzazz here,” he said. At the Rapid City hotel, a 900.piece stone medallion of Mount Rushmore, 18 feet wide, will greet visitors on the lobby floor. Behind the front desk, a 4,000-piece mural depicting different aspects of the Black Hills will adorn the wall. "I plan on using 150 to 160 different materials in it, including Blue Bahia granite, stainless steel, limestone, brass, many solid-colored ceramic tiles and more," Aalto said of the wall mural. "Never before has a client given us such free rein relative to our waterjet designs." More murals will be placed poolside and at other locations in the hotel. Aalto hired architect Keith Youngquist of Aumiller-Youngquist, a hospitality architectural and design firm with more than 500 "name" restaurants on its client roster. His job is to redesign the bar and restaurant, and make major changes to the overall hotel. |
All 176 rooms are being refurbished, featuring specially made bedspreads using European designs. Landscaping work has already begun at the hotel, using stone from the Crazy Horse Memorial carving and greenery that reflects the Black Hills. "Karim wanted natural landscaping that would blend with the features of the Black Hills. I spent a couple of days in the Hills to get ideas," said Theron Schmeckpeper, horticulturist with Hort Care, a Chicago landscape design firm. Paul Thomas of Lodging Host Hotel Corp., the management company that runs the hotel's operations for Merali, said all the work should be done before next summer's visitor season begins. Judy Chick, general manager of the Inn at Rapid City, said the newly revamped hotel will continue to serve bus tours and summer vacationers, but she hopes to also go after the market for small conventions and events and business travel. Plans call for installation of business centers - places where corporate officials can set up a short-term office - on the eighth and ninth floors. Dual phone lines for computer equipment, speaker phones and other corporate perks also will be available in rooms, she said. And the new design work, she said, "will have tremendous appeal to European visitors." |
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