Just over a century after it was built, Lexington’s first skyscraper has been given a new life – one that pays homage to the building’s history while also marshaling it into the 21st century.
Lexington’s 21c Museum Hotel opened at the end of February in the 15-story building that originally housed the Fayette National Bank and the Main and Upper street annexes that surround
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The 21c Museum Hotel at 167 W. Main St. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
it. Featuring an 88-room boutique hotel, a contemporary art museum and an adjacent restaurant called Lockbox, it is the fifth location opened by the Louisville-based company, which is slated to open a sixth in Oklahoma City this summer.
“The enthusiasm that we’ve received from Lexington has probably been greater than any other city that we’ve been in – there’s a hunger and a thirst here to bring creatives together,” said Molly Swyers, 21c’s senior vice president of design and communications.
Lexington’s proximity to 21c’s home base is only one factor that brought the art-centric concept to town. According to Swyers, Lexington’s mayor and his well-known support of the arts played no small role in bringing the project to fruition.
“Mayor Gray is probably one of the main reasons that we’re here,” she said. “Local government has been very supportive of the project.”
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With contemporary art at the forefront, 21c’s exterior is marked by the whimsical sculpture “Totally in Love," by Dutch artist Pieke Bergman. Photos by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Jamaican-born artist and University of Kentucky professor Ebony Patterson’s work is featured in the museum’s first exhibit, “Dress Up, Speak Up." Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
As with all 21c locations, contemporary art is at the forefront of the concept, which was founded by Louisville art collectors Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson. The museum strictly exhibits artists working in the 21st century, including more than a dozen Lexington-based artists, whose work is incorporated in the museum’s first exhibition – “Dress Up, Speak Up: Costume and Confrontation” – and also displayed in the elevator lobbies. With more than 7,000 square feet of exhibition space designed to house rotating exhibits, the Lexington museum also boasts a collection of permanent commissioned works that lend vibrancy to the unique footprint of the space.
Chief curator Alice Gray Stites, who oversees art and programming for all 21c locations, thrives on pulling in pieces that are specially designed for the unique specifications of each hotel and museum space.
“These were selected for the location, to animate these particular spaces,” said Stites of “Elemental,” the collection of six site-specific installations that make up 21c Lexington’s permanent collection. “These are spaces that connect the building of 21c with the rest of
the city.”
To that end, “Totally in Love,” a whimsical sculpture featuring two arched and interlocking lampposts, was installed on the street corner outside the hotel’s entrance, and the interactive installation “Tomorrow’s Weather” – a collection of glowing orbs, suspended over Lockbox’s bar area and changing colors in sync with the following day’s local weather forecast – is visible to passersby through large ground-floor windows facing Main and Upper streets. Just inside the building’s entryway, “Spectralline,” a colorful prismatic sculpture that doubles as a giant geometric lantern, hangs overhead.
“We wanted to mark the entry with some contemporary art that signaled that you were entering a contemporary art space,” Swyers said.
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And yet just as striking upon walking inside the entry are the building’s carefully preserved historic details – marbled walls, black-and-white Greek Key border tile floors, vaulted ceilings with ornamental molding. All of these are original elements of the Beaux Arts International-inspired building, which was designed by architects McKim, Mead and White, a New York-based design firm also known for its work on the Brooklyn Museum and Pennsylvania Station. Designed in 1914, the building was originally built to mirror Lexington’s rich banking history at a time when it was the center of Kentucky’s agricultural economy.
Under the direction of another New York-based design and architecture firm – Deborah Berke Partners, which has overseen renovations and design for all 21c Museum Hotels – those historic details are now complemented with sculptural, contemporary furniture, most of which was custom-designed, as well as an impressive rotating collection of international art.
According to Swyers, using a historic space with such rich city history is just one of many ways the hotel-museum intends to integrate itself into the local community – in addition to offering 7,000 square feet of rentable space for private events, from weddings and cocktail parties to board retreats and executive meetings. The museum will also curate a variety of cultural programming, including artist lectures, film screenings, poetry readings and more. Free docent tours of the museum, including current exhibits and permanent works, are offered to the public every Wednesday and Friday at 5:30 p.m.
“21c is a multifaceted destination,” Swyers said. “It provides so much for the community in which it stands – free art galleries, a chef-driven restaurant, meeting and event space, hotel rooms and suites and outreach events.”
“It’s not just for out-of-town visitors,” she added. ss