https://www.hotelbusiness.com/hb-exclusive-marriott-to-open-historic-luxury-property-in-tel-aviv-israel/
WOW
The preservation and incorporation of those historical elements changed the design elements of the property. “When we were originally thinking about doing it as a W, we had a plan for the Living Room, which was going to be the arrival area of the hotel, which is a bar and a highly activated space in a W,” he said. “The space where the Living Room was to originally be, we uncovered a piece of the original wall of Jaffa—a 10-15-ft.-long, 8-ft.-high portion of the wall. It is now a feature of the Living Room of the Luxury Collection hotel.”
He continued, “As we got into it, what we found was that there was this extraordinary cloister in the middle that has been restored to look like the original cloister. Legally, protection-wise, we could have changed that space, but architecturally, it is too precious a space to not honor, so the cloister in the center has become a real focal point of the hotel. Then, there is an original chapel that was earmarked to be a nightclub. When we started work on this chapel, we uncovered original stained-glass windows and a hand-painted ceiling. You can convert it into a great destination experience, but it doesn’t lend itself to the kind of future-forward, modern approach that we take with W. It wouldn’t do this building and location justice.”