If you missed the open house of the new Hotel Monaco on Friday, here’s a chance to see photos of the boutique hotel. We only wish we could offer you free champagne, as they did during the afternoon tours.
Those who toured were raving about the vibrant rooms and signature design touches such as Italian linens on pillow-top mattresses, the soaking bathtubs, the locally-sourced treats in the rooms and oversized desks with ergonomic chairs. Not to mention all those fun and funky lamps.
The 248 rooms and 16 suites are composed with bold colors and a curator’s touch. You might notice a tufted Kelly green headboard, a bedside chandelier ensconced in a birdcage and a penguin-shaped lamp. Rooms run as large as 463 square feet, and suites come the size of a modest home—the largest tops out at 1,355 square feet, has three bathrooms and a dining area that seats six.
Located on William Penn Place, some of the rooms overlook the beautifully redesigned Mellon Square.
The hotel also features two 3,000-square-foot ballrooms, the fine dining restaurant called The Commoner (open for dinner now and within weeks, lunch and brunch, too) and the more casual lunch and tavern take-out spot, Commoner’s Corner. Come spring, you’ll be able to have drinks on the rooftop beer garden.
In addition to a fitness facility, the Monaco provides a yoga mat in every room and bikes that guests can take for a spin around town.
San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has a knack for working with historic buildings to create an environment that juxtaposes the historic and modern, and for their Pittsburgh location, they chose the James Reed Building, built in 1902.
While there seems to be some disagreement about it, the Kimpton website asserts that their founder, Bill Kimpton, was the first to coin the phrase “boutique hotel” back in 1981. According to Adweek, Kimpton decorated his first hotel with “a whimsical style (no two rooms were exactly the same) and, on the theory that travelers were depressed by the isolating sameness of the chain brands, instituted a social hour in the lobby each evening, where he served free Napa Valley wines.” Hotel Monaco will continue that tradition—perhaps with a different wine selection.
The opening of the Monaco is part of a larger trend: hotel construction is booming in downtown Pittsburgh. Read about that here.
Oh, and our favorite part? Guests can bring their pets during their stay. Ginger, pictured above, was just arriving with her owner, Stephan Bontrager, for the night. She looked like she was loving life.
all photos by Tracy Certo for NEXTpittsburgh