Escapes
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FANTASIES OF WES ANDERSON WONDERLANDS
SOUTH’S
SECOND
DEBUT
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THE GARDEN
O P U L E N T OV E R N I G H TS DISTRICT
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THE JEWEL OF THE
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Photo by Douglas Friedman.
Photo by Matt Harrington.
R E T R E AT
A Saintly Stay
THE HOTEL SAINT VINCENT MELDS GARDEN DISTRICT HISTORY
Photos courtesy of M18 Public Relations.
WITH VINTAGE ART DECO FLAIR AND CONTEMPORARY OPULENCE
McGuire Moorman Hospitality, founded by chefs Larry McGuire and Tom Moorman in Austin, the firm changed its name to MML this year with the addition of Lambert. The three have garnered well-earned reputations for hyper-aesthetic hotels and inventive accompanying eateries and bars in Austin and beyond. While the newly-rebranded MML Hospitality handles the operations of the seventy-five room hotel, the San Lorenzo restaurant, Paradise Lounge bar, and more, Lambert and McGuire’s interior design and architecture studio Lambert McGuire Design handled the building restorations and interiors. Having spent most of its life in disrepair, the Saint Vincent’s Infant Asylum’s transformation into Hotel Saint Vincent was an extraordinary undertaking. “We started with an orphanage that was built during the Civil War in New Orleans that had remained fairly untouched structurally since it was built: drop ceilings, and lots of disrepair and abuse, but structurally pretty intact,” said Lambert. “So we approached the build-
By Alexandra Kennon “Saints have no moderation… just exuberance.” ––Anne Sexton
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hen strolling down Magazine Street, it is impossible to miss the immaculately-restored Hotel Saint Vincent, with its three broad stories of red brick laced with wrought iron details, tantalizingly veiled by the leaves of palm trees, beckoning coyly to visitors and locals alike. Such a degree of historic opulence is hardly unusual in the Lower Garden District, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972—but to be invited past the sidewalk, into the Italianate beauty’s very halls? The Hotel Saint Vincent presents such a rose-tinted, vintage fantasy on a golden platter. Before stepping through the heavy double doors and saturating oneself in the splendor of sixties and seventies grandeur, it helps to appreciate the original reason the historic brick structure 52
Photo by Matt Harrington.
was built. In 1861, Margaret Gaffney Haughery, an Irish immigrant and baker known around the neighborhood as “Our Margaret,” founded the building as the The Saint Vincent’s Infant Asylum, which served as an orphanage and a refuge for the elderly. A short walk from the now-hotel, Margaret Place Park continues to honor her memory with a monument created by sculptor Alexander Doyle, which was dedicated in 1884. Around a century and a half since its inception, the orphanage has been completely overhauled into its luxurious present state: The Hotel Saint Vincent officially opened its doors on June 22. Boutique hotelier Liz Lambert, formerly of hospitality company Bunkhouse Group, envisioned and oversaw the transformation as the premiere project of newly-formed company McGuire Moorman Lambert (MML) Hospitality. Formerly
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ing in the spirit of restoration, with the additional intent of layering a new story on top of the historic structure.” “My favorite hotels always seem to be properties that have been in a family for a long time and passed along to new generations, who in turn layer their own remodels and personal styles on top,” added McGuire. “Liz and I imagined that it was our turn, and we were gonna go sixties-seventies decadence over the beautiful base layer of New Orleans classic Garden District design that already existed.” Lambert spearheaded designs for the rooms and lobby area, McGuire said, while he concentrated on the main restaurant and bar spaces. “We needed a full re-imagination of the place,” Lambert added. “We wanted to create something grand and a little debaucherous.” The exuberance is not only for tourists. In addition to its seventy-five luxuriously styled rooms, the hotel boasts three bars and two restaurants that have each already served their share of curious, aesthetic-hungry locals, including this writer.
