Oxford Hotel
I took advantage of last week’s Doors Open Denver 2012 event to show my daughter
the beautiful Oxford Hotel.
This 400 hundred+ room hotel was designed in 1891 by Frank Edbrooke, the Denver architect
who designed much of downtown, including The Brown Palace (which The Oxford predates).
The hotel is designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style,
named after master architect Henry Hobson Richardson.
In the days before modern steel construction, cast iron columns enabled architects
to build taller buildings without the thick walls required to support the weight.
After prohibition ended in 1933, the hotel employed Charles Jaka to design the
award-winning Art Deco Cruise Room bar, inspired by the lounge on the Queen Mary.
It is decorated with reliefs showing drinking toasts from countries around the world,
often with themes that are considered slightly politically-incorrect today.
Here is a photo of an Art Deco house designed by Charles Jaka
a few years before the Cruise Room.
Because of Doors Open Denver, the hotel was kind enough to open up
some of their rooms, especially this one which continues the Art Deco theme.
And finally, I know that this isn’t in the best taste, but I always like to visit the
bathroom in the basement of the Oxford to marvel at these enormous urinals.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 9:23 am and is filed under Art Deco, Downtown, Hotel, Streamline Modern. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Tom Lundin April 19th, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Thanks Brian!