Ever sleep in a museum? You can in Cincinnati, in your own room, plush with amenities.
The place is 21c Museum Hotel at 609 Walnut Street in the Backstage District of Cincinnati’s downtown. The brilliance of the 21c concept may surprise you. Hotel founders, Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, are committed to lofty goals. Among those goals are: engaging the public through contemporary art, supporting the revitalization of American downtowns, and doing so with a sense of preserving and enriching the environment of the American city.
The 21c building is the former Metropole Hotel, built in 1912, and re-opened as a hotel in 2012. Cincinnati’s 21c Museum Hotel is part of the Brown-Wilson mission of revitalization. They carefully renovated the building, diligently working to preserve features such as a mosaic tile main floor that had been overlaid and forgotten decades ago. The façade of the building also received a careful restorative touch. The restoration alone is worth the time to walk through, but there is more—much more.
“First and foremost, we are an art museum, which makes us unique from any other hotel,” said Barbara Gurren, Director of Sales & Marketing for 21c in Cincinnati.
The museum offers exemplary features, along with its array of contemporary art. It’s open 24/7, and free to the public, except during private functions in the main space. Even then, there’s plenty of art to view, starting with the lobby area. The front desk is a work of art that will entice, intrigue and excite, and cause you to want to explore further.
The 21c museum exhibits are curated, and the second-floor gallery is impressive—8,000 square feet dedicated to exhibits, where meetings can be held amidst art items on display.
Dedication to art is not confined to the galleries, as Gurren points out. “We partner with the Contemporary Arts Center, next door to the 21c. Docents come over (from CAC) to the hotel every Saturday at 4 p.m. and tour the 21c art space, and then take those on tour with them for free admission to a CAC tour.”
The restaurant, named Metropole after the former hotel, is a wonder. You’ll see an open hearth cook-space, where a conical stack of hardwood burns and heats. The menu focuses on dishes cooked in the custom-built wood-burning hearth, such as burnt carrot and avocado salad, a crowd pleaser. Chef Michael Paley works on a farm-to-table principle, using local purveyors to supply his restaurant with foodstuffs. There are hearth-roasted meats, fish and vegetables, and a charcuterie hung with sausages and other cures of meat specialties made in house.
The Cocktail Terrace on the roof of 21c is spectacular…..the ambience and views can’t be beat, and The Spa at 21c is the Queen City’s prime pampering destination.
Lastly, there are 156 guest rooms and suites, with every amenity one can imagine. You’ll find turn-down service, chocolate leave-behinds, Nespresso coffee makers, ice buckets filled for you, robes, umbrellas and even rubber duckies.
See you at 21c Museum Hotel!