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Courtesy of Steinberg Architects
Plans for a new Hilton Homewood Suites — on the site of the former Palo Alto Bowl — were approved in December 2009.
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Planned Palo Alto hotels on El Camino Real
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Its design, now thought of as AS PALO ALTO’S charmingly old-fashioned, was visionary at the time. Ward Win- HOTEL MARKET slow, in his centennial history of Palo Alto, credited John Rickey HEATS UP, with creating a new breed of motel when he opened Rickey’s Studio BUILDERS AND Inn in 1952. Rickey “used lawns CITY OFFICIALS and shrubbery, pools and statues, even swans, to create a novel trend ARE LOOKING TO in 1952: the garden motel. Before long, it was being imitated wher- CASH IN ever the climate permitted.” “It was really a wonderful com- by Gennady Sheyner munity facility in many ways,” said (continued on next page)
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evelopers and Palo Alto land-use watchdogs rarely speak with the same voice, but when the venerable Rickey’s Hyatt hotel closed its doors in June 2005, just about everyone was singing the blues. The hotel had opened during Palo Alto’s post-World War II boom and evolved into a quaint but prominent community resource, with groups such as the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club using its banquet hall as their meeting space. Its list of famous guests included President Bill Clinton, Willie Mays and Jesse Owens.
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Rendering courtesy of Architectural Dimensions
Proposed Hilton Homewood Suites (former Palo Alto Bowl)
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Illustration by Shannon Corey
Proposed Hilton Garden Inn (currently Hertz and Avis car rentals)
The map, above, shows locations of two proposed hotels in Palo Alto, including a Hilton Garden Inn, also shown in an architectural drawing, top right. On the site of Ming’s restaurant near the Baylands, a proposed hotel, right, has received City Council approval but hit financing difficulties. Rendering courtesy of Stoecker and Northway Architects
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