BAMO Helms Historic Galleria Park Hotel Makeover

By Ariela Moraru

BAMO is spearheading a top-to-bottom renovation and redesign of Galleria Park Hotel, a 177-key property in San Francisco’s Financial District. The redesign of the Joie de Vivre property draws inspiration from the Art Deco bones of the 1911 building and comes on the heels of a $4 million makeover completed just four years ago. All guest rooms, including eight suites, have been recently redesigned, while all group meeting and event spaces, along with the lobby and mezzanine, will be unveiled in early 2018. 

The hotel boasts more than 2,000 square feet of Green Meeting certified space, a pet-friendly park terrace, restaurant and bar. The refurbished rooms feature small-scale pointillist irregular dot wallpapers, painterly expressionist carpeting in warm tones, marble-topped desks, wood venetian blinds and antique mirrored surfaces.

Located at 191 Sutter St., the asset is within walking-distance to the Ferry Building, Union Square, SOMA, Moscone Convention Center and Chinatown neighborhoods.

A piece of History

The Galleria Park Hotel rises on the site of the former Lick House—a hotel which opened in 1863—and Occidental Hotel. It was at the Occidental Hotel in the early 1860s where the famous Martini cocktail was born, created by bartender Jerry Thomas for an itinerant miner on his way to Martinez, Calif.

Both properties were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, and were replaced by Hotel Sutter in 1911, renamed Galleria Park Hotel in the 1980s. Joie de Vivre Hospitality completed a $7.1 million renovation in 2007 when the hotel received Green Certification, followed by another $4 million upgrade in 2013. An affiliate of Interwest Capital Corp. purchased the Financial District hotel from Nob Hill Properties Inc. in 2011.

Final Touches

Last phase renovations will be focused on the entrance, lobby and mezzanine. Upgrades will include marble tile floor, organized seating areas, historic photos, antique mirrors, a mural on the upper wall referential of the city, modernist floral wallpaper, central fireplace, brass lighting and bar carts.

The makeover aims to preserve and restore the historic elements of the original building, from the elevator banks, to the pristine 1900s-era marble staircase and original cast iron railings.

Images courtesy of Galleria Park Hotel