HBG Design is pleased to announce that the Caption by Hyatt Beale Street in Memphis, TN, is the recipient of the Citation Award for Historic Preservation / Interior Design from the 2023 Fay Jones Alumni Design Awards competition.
The 136-room Caption by Hyatt Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee marries the 144-year old facade of the Wm. C. Ellis & Sons Machine Shop with a contemporary hotel design. The structure attempts to elevate the awareness of the Machine Shop facade to the status of artifact, in which the highly detailed ornamentation and lost construction technique, original to the year 1878, can be observed and appreciated by both the project’s guests and the urban visitor.
The Machine Shop facade along Front Street also acts as a passive functional design element, aiding the lower public levels of the project as a shading device, minimizing the impact of the harsh morning sun. Situated behind the facade is an outdoor courtyard space in which guests can understand design relationships between the old and new elements, as the lower level fenestration and elevation heights of the new design are strategically articulated to mimic the historicity of the existing condition.
The public amenities include a coffee and liquor bar, grab and go market, gallery, outdoor urban courtyard, fitness center and meeting spaces. The first level of hotel rooms is elevated to the parapet of the existing Ellis facade, respecting both the historic elevations and allowing guests to peer into and over the facade deeper into the city.
Reflective of the brand’s eclectic contemporary-meets-urban industrial aesthetic, the interior features open light-filled spaces with a strong industrial flare. The property combines a layering of historic structural elements like exposed brick and original wooden beams, vibrant colors, textures, and hand-painted murals that nod to the storied city it calls home.
The heart of Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis is Talk Shop, the brand’s re-imagined arrival experience where guests enjoy a multi-functional welcome area, all-day lounge and workspace, coffee shop, eatery, grab-and-go artisanal market and cocktail bar. Energy reverberates throughout the colorful space, which was designed to encourage social interaction– a place to eat, drink, and connect – inside, and outside at the adjoining beer garden courtyard. Open to the street’s pedestrian walkway, the expansive patio is uniquely housed within the building’s historic façade in a way that allows guests to fully engage with the active downtown neighborhood.
Eclectic personality and industrial-inspired design continue to the guestrooms, which feature re-purposed non-traditional materials, bold colors, contemporary fabric patterns, and quirky Memphis-inspired graphic wallcoverings. Modular closets and work-play lounges with accessible power outlets allow guests to work, eat and relax separately from the sleeping area.