Hotel Andaluz Albuquerque, Curio Collection by Hilton

Conrad Hilton was born in San Antonio, New Mexico, in 1887 and had owned hotels in Texas for twenty years before he built one at home. The Albuquerque Hilton opened in June 1939 on Second Street at Copper Avenue, ten storeys high, the tallest building in the city and the first in the state with air conditioning and passenger lifts. Hotel Andaluz Albuquerque, Curio Collection by Hilton, is that building, returned to the Hilton family of brands after seventy years away from it.

History

Hilton commissioned the Dallas architect Anton Korn, and the hotel cost about 700,000 dollars. It was the fourth hotel Hilton built from the ground up. In 1942 Hilton married the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor in Santa Fe and the couple spent part of their honeymoon here. The hotel was sold out of the Hilton company in the 1970s, renamed La Posada de Albuquerque in 1984 and declined with the downtown around it. In 2005 the Albuquerque developer Gary Goodman bought it and spent four years and some 30 million dollars on a restoration that earned a LEED Gold certificate, rare for a historic building. It reopened in 2009 as Hotel Andaluz, the name chosen for the Moorish and Spanish references in Korn's design. The hotel joined Hilton's Curio Collection in 2017.

Architecture and design

Korn's building is a brick tower in the Territorial Revival and Pueblo Deco manner of 1930s New Mexico, with a stepped silhouette and a flat roof. The two-storey lobby is the reason to visit: carved and painted ceiling beams, a mezzanine gallery with wrought-iron railings, tiled floors and a fireplace. Goodman's restoration kept the original lobby and the mezzanine, where six small casbahs, curtained alcoves with low seating, were fitted for private conversation. Rooms were rebuilt with new mechanical systems; the roof gained a bar.

Rooms and suites

The hotel has 107 rooms, including suites on the upper floors. Decoration follows the Andalusian theme in muted tones with carved wood headboards, ironwork and tiles. Corner suites have views across downtown to the Sandia mountains, which turn pink at sunset and give the range its name.

Dining

The ground-floor restaurant serves Spanish tapas and New Mexican dishes, with a bar at the lobby end. The rooftop bar on the tenth floor, open in the warm months, is one of the few rooftop terraces in Albuquerque and looks east to the Sandias.

Wellness

There is a fitness room but no spa or pool. The hotel's location puts guests within a few blocks of the Rail Yards and the downtown bicycle routes along the Rio Grande.

Weddings and events

The lobby mezzanine and the casbahs are used for cocktail receptions, and the ballroom on the second floor holds wedding dinners and conferences. Smaller meeting rooms sit alongside it. The rooftop terrace takes receptions in good weather. The hotel is a regular venue for downtown Albuquerque weddings because of the lobby, which photographs well and needs little decoration.

Location

Second Street is in the Original Townsite, the grid laid out when the railway arrived in 1880, two blocks from Central Avenue, the former Route 66. The Alvarado transportation centre, with the Rail Runner commuter train and Amtrak's Southwest Chief, is three blocks south. Albuquerque International Sunport is about eight kilometres south-east. Old Town, the KiMo theatre and the convention centre are all within walking distance, which makes this the luxury hotel in Albuquerque most used by visitors who arrive by train.