GRAND OPENING...quiet exit

The project that I have been working on for the past 13 months, has come to an end. The Grand Opening was held on Wednesday, and I was fortunate enough to attend. This was the first hotel that was mine, from the time the first lines were drawn, to the time the last furniture was put in place, and the last piece of carpet was vacuumed. There is a sense of pride in standing in a building that big, knowing that you had a hand in it. I learned a lot, got to see a lot, traveled way too much, but in the end, it is a great project for our office, not glamorous like the downtown firms, but for us, and what we do, it is a good project.

I got to go to my first Grand Opening party, got to meet all of the big players in the partnership, got to meet the mayor, and all of the power players in the city it is built in, and then, got to quietly climb into my rental car, and leave at 5 am the next morning, with a job well done.

A few pictures.
The Front Entrance and Porte Cochere

The Main Lobby


The Pool at Night


and finally, my favorite one, the pool in the fog.


When we arrived, a coastal fog was setting in on the site, and I knew I did not have long to get up and capture this image. The building created a pocket of light fog behind the building, and everywhere else was dense fog. It reminded me of the California coastal fogs that I had seen during my visits there. This is one of my favorite pictures of the year.