Grand Bohemian Hotel – 15 Floors – 254 Rooms – Boutique Hotel

[Tyrone Wiggum]

Look at this trash. Who made this?  Are we going to AC for the weekend? 

If somebody were to tell me, "make the trashiest entrance you can think of; I want it to look like if Reno and Ventnor had a baby" I wouldn't be able to come up with this.  

Woof.

56 minutes ago, wadesboro2 said:

That sign above the front door is awesome! Looks like ancient Roman/pagan/Belle Acres vibes
 

It looks like a 23 year old who lives on 74 who's never been anywhere or seen anything was told "come up with something classy."  It looks like crap.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Tyrone Wiggum
Thought I could un-edit Urban. Nope.

[TheOneRJ]

7 minutes ago, Tyrone Wiggum said:

Look at this trash. Who made this?  Are we going to AC for the weekend? 

If somebody were to tell me, "make the trashiest entrance you can think of; I want it to look like if Reno and Ventnor had a baby" I wouldn't be able to come up with this.  

Woof.

It looks like a 23 year old who lives on 74 who's never been anywhere or seen anything was told "come up with something classy."  It looks like crap.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I suggest investing this energy into an architecture career so maybe one day it will matter. 

[Tyrone Wiggum]

4 minutes ago, TheOneRJ said:

Thanks so much for your feedback! I suggest investing this energy into an architecture career so maybe one day it will matter. 

So you made it?  Good job.  Guy Fieri is really proud. #donkeysauce

Edited July 24, 2020 by Tyrone Wiggum
#donkeysauce

[Nick2]

@Tyrone Wiggum I totally get your point here but coming from some yokel who knows nothing, I think this is a nice looking building. Lol

I get that when really analyzed, it doesn't hold up but from my uneducated eye it's a great change of pace from the style of most of uptown.

Edited July 24, 2020 by Nick2

[Tyrone Wiggum]

1 minute ago, Nick2 said:

@Tyrone Wiggum I totally get your point here but coming from some yokel who knows nothing, I think this is a nice looking building. Lol

I get that when really analyzed, it doesn't hold up but from my uneducated eye it's a great change of pace for the style of most of uptown.

I have zero education myself, I've just been a bunch of places and seen a bunch of things.  As the youth say, this is try-hard.  I've had the luck and good fortune in my life to stay at the end of the overwater pier facing Otemanu in Bora Bora, at the George V in Paris, and, unfortunately, at Trump Vegas, and Trump Vegas was the George V by comparison.

I'm all for 90 degree angles to the norm; this is just bad.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Charlotte: the Try-Hard city.

(please take us serious. please?)

[AuLukey]

Look at this trash. Who made this?  Are we going to AC for the weekend? 

If somebody were to tell me, "make the trashiest entrance you can think of; I want it to look like if Reno and Ventnor had a baby" I wouldn't be able to come up with this.  

Woof.

It looks like a 23 year old who lives on 74 who's never been anywhere or seen anything was told "come up with something classy."  It looks like crap.

I’m going to concur. The building as a whole is great. However, this entrance is straight out of The Cheesecake Factory’s design playbook.

[Blue_Devil]

On 7/24/2020 at 5:53 PM, Tyrone Wiggum said:

I have zero education myself, I've just been a bunch of places and seen a bunch of things.  As the youth say, this is try-hard.  I've had the luck and good fortune in my life to stay at the end of the overwater pier facing Otemanu in Bora Bora, at the George V in Paris, and, unfortunately, at Trump Vegas, and Trump Vegas was the George V by comparison.

I'm all for 90 degree angles to the norm; this is just bad.

It looks pretty nice in person

[TheOneRJ]

The 6th floor event terrace was originally planned (and built) to support a pool. The terrace was decided to be more profitable in the end. 

[KJHburg]

8 hours ago, AuLukey said:

I’m going to concur. The building as a whole is great. However, this entrance is straight out of The Cheesecake Factory’s design playbook.

Remember this is in the Argentine design 

real live Buenos Aires cathedral

[Guest]

Walking into this building for my tour, I tried to do a juke move on the column that kept me from getting to the front door. I juked it so hard I'm suprised the building didn't come tumbling down.

[j-man]

The entrance feels very much so like Medievil Times in Myrtle Beach. 

[DMann]

The quality goes in before the name goes on!!!!!!

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

If those letters are going to be lit up, it’s going to look very Caesar Palace-y lol. We need a little Vegas in uptown. I know some don’t like the entrance but I feel like the GB brand is supposed to be a little over the top decor wise. Grandiose.  Uptown needs some flair. I think the branding on the back will really help the blank wall a lot on the rear of the hotel too. 

Edited July 31, 2020 by CharlotteWkndBuzz

[JorgiPorgi]

Whoa- the dramatics here. It’s a freakin boutique hotel built in the middle of a culturally business and transient city. Why are some of you “ architecturally educated” world travelers expecting the Taj Mahal here? Get over yourselves. 

[CLT>]

Captain Jack Is probably rolling in his grave down in GA over this, but the good thing is some of the styrofoam off of the building probably blew down to Elbert County and is resting on his grave.

[Madison Parkitect]

If they really did just take elements wholesale from the Vienna Secession Building then the comparisons to Las Vegas are even more apt. This building is pastiche on pastiche on pastiche.

[CLT2014]

The design is completely fitting with the Grand Bohemian brand, target audience, and style. They aren't going for the person that is a minimalist that likes a sleek, modern hotel. A little tacky / flashy elements are core. As they describe themselves, "Grand Bohemian: It's curiosity."

Edited August 3, 2020 by CLT2014

[jthomas]

5 hours ago, Madison Parkitect said:

If they really did just take elements wholesale from the Vienna Secession Building then the comparisons to Las Vegas are even more apt. This building is pastiche on pastiche on pastiche.

I'm not defending this building specifically, but why is this criticism only ever leveled at buildings with classical elements? One could just as easily claim that a building with smooth planes or curtain walls is pastiche ripped from Mies or Le Corbusier. The brainwashing they give us in architecture school is strong, but modern architecture today is just as much a caricature of the original as are newly built classical designs.  IMO the intellectual underpinnings of Modernism are dubious in hindsight (especially the notion that there is nothing valuable to be learned from the past), but regardless, today's glass boxes are just another form of stylistic decoration rather than a pure ideology distilled into architecture.

I say this as someone who enjoys modern design - I am just tired of the myth that modern design is inherently more virtuous.  It creates a huge disconnect between the types of buildings that architects want to design, and the types of buildings that the average person actually enjoys being in.

[tozmervo]

5 minutes ago, jthomas said:

I'm not defending this building specifically, but why is this criticism only ever leveled at buildings with classical elements? One could just as easily claim that a building with smooth planes or curtain walls is pastiche ripped from Mies or Le Corbusier. The brainwashing they give us in architecture school is strong, but modern architecture today is just as much a caricature of the original as are newly built classical designs.  IMO the intellectual underpinnings of Modernism are dubious in hindsight (especially the notion that there is nothing valuable to be learned from the past), but regardless, today's glass boxes are just another form of stylistic decoration rather than a pure ideology distilled into architecture.

I say this as someone who enjoys modern design - I am just tired of the myth that modern design is inherently more virtuous.  It creates a huge disconnect between the types of buildings that architects want to design, and the types of buildings that the average person actually enjoys being in.

The only part of that I'm challenging is your assertion that academic criticism isn't leveled at modern buildings.  I hear that criticism daily. Most modern buildings are built the way they are because of one reason: money. To execute good, well considered classical OR modern design requires more design fee and more construction cost, period. 

[jthomas]

5 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

The only part of that I'm challenging is your assertion that academic criticism isn't leveled at modern buildings.  I hear that criticism daily. Most modern buildings are built the way they are because of one reason: money. To execute good, well considered classical OR modern design requires more design fee and more construction cost, period. 

To clarify - I didn't mean that modern buildings don't receive criticism, but that the specific criticism of "pastiche" seems to only be leveled at buildings with classical elements. As if an arch or a pediment in the year 2020 is more intellectually dishonest than a curtain wall or a piloti.

But I wholeheartedly agree that crap buildings are crap no matter what flavor, and that the most important construction material is money!

[tozmervo]

39 minutes ago, jthomas said:

To clarify - I didn't mean that modern buildings don't receive criticism, but that the specific criticism of "pastiche" seems to only be leveled at buildings with classical elements. As if an arch or a pediment in the year 2020 is more intellectually dishonest than a curtain wall or a piloti.

But I wholeheartedly agree that crap buildings are crap no matter what flavor, and that the most important construction material is money!

That's fair. I think the difference I perceive is often in the application. "Pastiche," to me, implies an applied decoration that is otherwise not functional. Curtain wall is very WYSIWYG. Architects have aesthetic control over aspects of curtainwall, but otherwise it is what it is. I think the modern equivalent of pastiche would be things like wrapping structure with metal panel or something else to make it look "clean" and "slick," when just below the panel is an ugly mess of fire proofing, conduit, etc.

[jthomas]

1 hour ago, tozmervo said:

That's fair. I think the difference I perceive is often in the application. "Pastiche," to me, implies an applied decoration that is otherwise not functional. Curtain wall is very WYSIWYG. Architects have aesthetic control over aspects of curtainwall, but otherwise it is what it is. I think the modern equivalent of pastiche would be things like wrapping structure with metal panel or something else to make it look "clean" and "slick," when just below the panel is an ugly mess of fire proofing, conduit, etc.

OK - I think that's a fair way to make the distinction. And certainly a hallmark of good design is the ability to make the parts of a building that are functionally necessary to be beautiful as well. But, I don't buy the modernist notion that objects whose purpose is to be beautiful are not "functional." Isn't beauty is a worthy function in and of itself? Aren't aesthetics a crucial part of the architect's job? An engineer can design a building too - why not just let them have at it? Why do something like this, when it is not crucial to the building's function?

To bring it back to the Grand Bohemian, while the style is not my cup of tea, I think the ornamentation is effective in its purpose of evoking a certain time period and feeling, which seem to be the distinctive part of the experience with this hotel chain. So in that sense, the design is highly functional for its owner. I think you can make valid critiques of elements of the building (the bell tower thing feels off to me, and the column at the corner seems awkward) and the materials (will this look like crap in 10 years?). But I don't think it is any less intellectually honest than a modern style building, and I appreciate the variety in design.

(I'm really enjoying the discussion BTW - all in good fun!)

[Madison Parkitect]

3 hours ago, jthomas said:

I'm not defending this building specifically, but why is this criticism only ever leveled at buildings with classical elements? One could just as easily claim that a building with smooth planes or curtain walls is pastiche ripped from Mies or Le Corbusier. The brainwashing they give us in architecture school is strong, but modern architecture today is just as much a caricature of the original as are newly built classical designs.  IMO the intellectual underpinnings of Modernism are dubious in hindsight (especially the notion that there is nothing valuable to be learned from the past), but regardless, today's glass boxes are just another form of stylistic decoration rather than a pure ideology distilled into architecture.

I say this as someone who enjoys modern design - I am just tired of the myth that modern design is inherently more virtuous.  It creates a huge disconnect between the types of buildings that architects want to design, and the types of buildings that the average person actually enjoys being in.

I don't have a problem with its classical architecture at all, my problem is with this one specific building. And I have problems with badly-done modern architecture pastiche too, it's why I think the Hyatt Place building is the ugliest tower in Charlotte.

I also don't really even have a problem with pastiche itself, I actually kind of like when places just go all out with it and are unashamed about it. Like Vegas is that way to the max and I kind of like it. But this building, with its cheap construction and terrible ground-floor corner condition, doesn't do it well at all. It's just a bad building at its core and that causes the more "tacky/flashy" elements to miss the mark too.

[704Dimitri]

I’m not going to lie, this spot is now one of my favorite places in uptown. I got my Starbucks from the new one inside the hotel and sat on the bench and the whole vibe was amazing.