Hotel Del Coronado Is Fully Restored After Six-Year, $550 Million Renovation Peels Back the Years
What no one expected during the restoration was to uncover elements – in situ – that they didn’t know still existed.
Photo: Dori Saltzman
When ownership made the decision to renovate its historic Hotel del Coronado (a member of Hilton’s Curio Collection) – lovingly referred to as The Del – in Southern California, the decision makers realized the importance of reviving the property’s early aesthetic. (The historic architect behind the design choices chose the years 1888 to 1948 for inspiration.)
Though the six-year project would see all the existing buildings in the compound taken down almost entirely to the studs, management didn’t see it as a renovation or refurbishment. Instead, the word restoration was chosen.
While some elements of the original building were still present (the elevator cage, some of the wooden flooring in the lobby), everyone involved in the restoration knew they’d have to find ways to recreate long-gone decorative elements only known about today because of blueprints and photographic records.
Aside from bringing the original Victorian building up to code with modern plumbing and wiring (some of what was there dated back to 1888 when the hotel was built), the overall goal was to “restore the hotel back to that time period as closely as possible,” said Gina Petrone, the hotel’s heritage manager.
Much had been changed in the 1960s and 70s that completely wiped away much of the hotel’s historic charm. During those years, hoteliers looked to the future for inspiration, and, in the process, overlooked the importance of the past. A designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1977 brought an end to the haphazard modernization of the original building.
Surprise Findings
What no one expected during the restoration, however, was to uncover elements – in situ – that they didn’t know still existed. Like original 1888 Crown Room doors that had been covered up by plywood for, probably, decades. Or original amber windows ensconced behind dry wall in a second-floor guest hallway.
“The overarching vision for the restoration, especially for the Victorian, was the peeling back of all those layers,” Keriann Greaney Martin, assistant director of marketing at The Del, told TMR during a hotel tour earlier this month.
And peel back the layers they did, literally in some cases, peeling off wall coverings inch by inch and revealing what was left behind, including an original hand painted fresco on the ceiling of the ballroom. Petrone discovered the fresco as workers began the actual work of peeling off the layers, in this case wallpaper and an oil cloth that had been glued to the fresco.
A preservationist and restoration artist were brought in to fix the painting, which is now one of the oldest fresco examples in all of San Diego.
“Back then, to change things, it was cheaper to cover them than remove them,” Petrone said.
Where original furniture and decor no longer existed, the refurbishment team recreated, though sometimes with a twist in order to be compliant with modern safety standards.
“The railings in the front are the original style railings but they’re not up to code,” Petrone explained. “A child can get their head stuck in them. But rather than build a different design or a different railing, he [the architect] installed the original design but put glass in front, so you get the look and the feel that was there in 1888, but it meets modern standards.”
Another design element they were able to recreate – authentically – was a statue that had served as the centerpiece of The Garden fountain but was long gone. The team discovered a company that still had the exact same statue that dated back to the late 1800s. They were able to make a mold of their statue and then cast a new one for The Del.
The restoration project is pretty much completed at this point, and the Del once again reigns resplendent over the Coronado beach, its historic spirit fully intact.
“That’s why people come to the Del,” Martin said. “Yes, it’s about the beachfront but it’s also about stepping back in time and the nostalgia and feeling that sense of history and magic.”
Today, the original Victorian building is one of five “neighborhoods” that make up the Hotel del Coronado complex. The other four are: Beach Village, The Cabanas, The Views, and Shore House. Each neighborhood has a distinct personality, with both the suites-only Beach Village and Shore House having their own private reception areas.
