LOUISVILLE, KY—21c Museum Hotels has opened its fifth property, located at 167 W. Main St. in downtown Lexington, KY. 21c Lexington is an adaptive-reuse of the 100-year-old Fayette National Bank Building and offers 7,000 sq. ft. of contemporary art exhibition space open free of charge to the public, an 88-room boutique hotel and Lockbox restaurant and bar.
“21c Museum Hotel will create more than just a place for Lexington visitors and locals to lay their heads, enjoy a great meal and take in contemporary art exhibitions,” said Steve Wilson, founder and CEO of 21c Museum Hotels. “We look forward to our role as a cultural center that helps further reinvigorate the downtown Lexington community.”
The 15-story building, the city’s first skyscraper, was originally designed in 1913 by architects McKim, Mead and White, known for the American Academy in Rome and parts of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the building represents the Beaux Arts International style of architecture, drawing inspiration from Neoclassical and Greek Revival design, according to the company. The Main St. building originally housed the First National Bank & Trust Co., and the property continued to be used as a bank into modern times.
The design team, led by New York-based design architect Deborah Berke Partners and Pittsburgh-based executive architect Perfido Weiskopf Wagstaff + Goettel, embraced the building’s original features to create a space where contemporary and historic meet and contrast, according to the company. The contemporary design is combined with the restoration of the building’s Ionic order exterior columns, marbled walls, Tennessee Pink marble flooring and vaulted ceilings with ornamental plaster patterns. 21c Lexington is Berke’s fifth collaboration with the 21c Museum Hotels team.
The property’s museum space doubles as meeting and event space, and can accommodate a wide variety of events. The Main Gallery, a double-height room with historic arched windows, concrete flooring and velvet drapery, connects with the Gallery One space.
21c Lexington offers a variety of guestroom types featuring high ceilings, custom contemporary furnishings, contemporary art and abundant natural light. The hotel offers five suites, including the 21c suite and Skylight suite.
A neutral space with original hardwood floors, the 21c suite features two living areas and a separate dining area with a table for six, custom furnishings, a bedroom with a TV that vanishes behind a full-length mirror and views of Lexington. The Skylight suite features a skylight above the living area that floods the room with natural light.
Contemporary art is at the heart of the 21c experience, and 21c Lexington will present rotating solo and group exhibitions, site-specific installations and a full roster of cultural programming curated by Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites.
The property features six permanent site-specific installations integrated into a variety of spaces around and within the building. Collectively titled Elemental, the site-specific collection at 21c Lexington combines form with function, inspired by the elements of our ever-changing natural and human conditions. Lights animated by the weather or linked like human limbs; crystals found in ice and in crystalline caves; shifting desert sand blowing inside a table and images of polished brass embedded in a floor.
The property is also home to Lockbox restaurant, designed by Deborah Berke Partners. Lockbox features double-height windows, marble floors, wainscoting and decorative plaster details.