Hyatt Centric Beale Street Hotel

33 Beale St., Memphis Tennessee 38103 United States

Building Area (sf): 155,600 SF

Completion: April 2021

Perched along the banks of the Mississippi River, Hyatt Centric Beale Street is a 227 room hotel and conference center nestled within a vibrant neighborhood known for its historic music entertainment district, historic landmarks and Southern hospitality.

Located at the intersection of music history on Beale Street, Memphis industrial history on Front Street and the Mississippi River, the Centric property is influenced by the unique juxtaposition of ideas and concepts related to a site which influenced the design.

The contemporary new hotel design is intended to provide a missing connection of activity and excitement from the Beale Street Historic District to the origin of Beale Street at the Mississippi River. The musically inspired ideas of flow, pitch, meter, rhythm, sound, repetition, vibration, and resonance are found throughout the design. These ideas are expressed in the staggered patterning of the window placement which recall sheet music and guitar fret patterns. These patterns are accentuated at night with bars of light adjacent to the windows which provide a musically inspired programmable light show on the urban facades.

Existing on the site and built in 1878, the Ellis Machine Shop buildings were repurposed for the hotel’s event, conference, and meeting space. Designers honored the inimitable history of the former blacksmith shop by integrating them into the overall property and referencing the building and its original use throughout the hotel’s interior design and detailing. Several of the machine shop’s tools and castings were used to create a unique front check-in desk. The new building material palette is rooted in the local design traditions in this historic area of Memphis. Composed of metal, brick, concrete, and glass, all of which allow both the structure to blend contextually with the immediate neighborhood and being an architecture of its time.

The mass of the hotel is elevated on concrete columns and wrapped around an interior courtyard providing full visibility for ground level amenities through a serpentine glass wall. Shaped to mimic the adjacent riverbank and reference the curves and shapes of musical instruments, the curving glass wall recesses within the hotel perimeter to create a three-sided loggia. This loggia provides covered outdoor spaces for entry canopy and outdoor patio dining at the restaurant with a view overlooking the river. While the facades along Beale and Front respect the tight urban condition, the courtyard facades around the pool deck are more playfully patterned to create a village-like scale and more intimate environment adjacent to the historic buildings.

As day turns to dusk, the hotel exterior reveals a glowing ground level of public space, exposing the corner lobby bar while showcasing the floating hotel mass with its color changing vertical neon lights. This theatrical lighting is a contemporary expression of the neon signs and nightlife of Beale Street and the vibrant color changing effects along the two Mississippi River bridges within site line of the hotel.

01 – Located at the intersection of music history on Beale Street, Memphis industrial history on Front Street and the Mississippi River, the Centric design is influenced by the unique juxtaposition of ideas and concepts related to the site. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography
02 – Site Plan
03 – Floorplans
04 – Design Thinking
05- Hotel bar and lounge is sited at a ‘see and be seen’ corner location at Beale and Front. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography
06 – Musically inspired are expressed in the staggered patterning of the window placement which recall sheet music and guitar fret patterns. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography
07 – While the facades along Beale and Front respect the tight urban condition, the courtyard facades around the pool deck are more playfully patterned to create a village-like scale and more intimate environment adjacent to the historic buildings. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography
08 – Beck & Call Rooftop Bar & Lounge. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography
09 – Beck & Call Rooftop Bar & Lounge. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography
10 – The mass of the hotel is elevated on concrete columns and wrapped around an interior courtyard providing full visibility for ground level amenities through a serpentine glass wall. Photo by Dero Sanford / ThinkDero Architectural Photography