Cooper Carry designs convention-style Hilton Cleveland Downtown

The Hilton Cleveland Downtown opened on Lakeside Avenue. Involved in the design of the 600-room convention-style property was Atlanta-based architecture firm Cooper Carry.

Overlooking Lake Eerie and the First Energy Stadium, the modern industrial-style structure is clad with reflective glass to ensure unobstructed views. The LEED Silver certified building has smart thermometers and occupancy sensors to detect when spaces are in use.

Downtown Cleveland as it is known today was designed in 1903 by Daniel Burnham as a green mall flanked by the city’s major government buildings. The Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel occupies the last available site on that civic green. Cleveland’s newly opened Convention Center is located under two thirds of the mall. According to Cooper Carry, the design team paid respect to Burnham’s plan.

The building can be viewed as having two parts: the building base and the building tower. The design for the building base was influenced by existing neoclassical buildings flanking the mall. The shared characteristics of those buildings, base, middle and top, expressed with solid corners, were applied to the hotel base but in a modern architectural language. All of the older buildings flanking the mall have a distinctive cornice line 90 feet above grade. The Hilton hotel design has a cornice at 90 feet that becomes a tall porch and continues the horizontal line of the surrounding buildings. The porch connects the hotel to the mall.

The glass tower of the hotel is articulated as three slender towers with glass metal curtain wall. Near the top of the tower, the glass façade tilts out over the mall. On the upper most floor, a terrace for the rooftop bar is cut out of the glass providing an outdoor area overlooking the lakefront.

The hotel entry is on Lakeside Drive directly adjacent to the entry to the convention center. The hotel’s restaurant and public spaces are positioned on the mall.

Inside, there are artworks depicting Cleveland landmarks and monuments, including a collage of 2,800 selfies submitted by local residents.

Among the guestrooms is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame suite, designed in collaboration with the Cleveland-based museum.

Included among the hotel’s F&B options is the Burnham, a three-level restaurant named after the city’s architect and planner Daniel Burnham. Bar 32, named for its location on the 32nd floor, with lakefront views. Meanwhile, communal workspace Eliot’s Bar and grab-and-go the Noshery are also onsite.

For events, the property has more than 50,000 square feet of space, including the 20,778-square-foot grand and 15,729-square-foot junior ballrooms, as well as banquet space on the third and fifth floors, and nine meeting rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Additional amenities include a fitness center and indoor pool.

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown

Hilton Cleveland Downtown