Hotel Valley Ho
Encyclopedia
Hotel Valley Ho is a historic hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona
. Also called the Valley Ho and, for 28 years, the Ramada Valley Ho, the hotel was originally designed by Edward L. Varney, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright
. It first opened in 1956 with a forward-looking and futuristic design. Movie stars and famous baseball players stayed, and the building quickly became known for its trendsetting guests and its fashionable atmosphere. The success of the venture resulted in expansion in 1958, with two additional two-story wings of guest rooms extending to the north. Though initially proposed by Varney, a central tower of guest rooms, rising over the lobby, was not built.
The property was bought by the Ramada
hotel chain in 1973, and was redecorated to cover the 1950s design, seen at the time as outdated. No longer in vogue, but centrally located, the hotel remained prominent for years, and hosted conferences, business meetings, and vacationers. Under Ramada management, however, the property began to show a lack of maintenance, and its popularity declined. It closed in 2001 and its demolition was considered when no purchase offers were received. Admirers of the hotel's exemplary architecture and its local history rallied to save it, and it was placed on the Scottsdale Historic Register.
In 2002, the hotel was bought by Westroc Hotels & Resorts and underwent a renovation, which was completed in 2005. Conceived anew by the architectural firm Allen+Philp, a seven-story tower with guest rooms and condominiums was built above the lobby, in the spirit of Varney's proposal. New restaurants were incorporated, including a retro-chic "comfort food" lobby eatery, and a Trader Vic's franchise across the parking lot. The hotel's original jet-age design was restored as much as possible, augmented with 2000s-era fixtures.
The Hotel Valley Ho is a AAA
"Four Diamond Award" winner and a member of "Preferred Hotels & Resorts". Author and architect Alan Hess
called the hotel "one of the best-preserved mid-century
hotels in the country".
in Los Angeles, California
. He then bought the Hotel San Marcos in Chandler, Arizona
. Following that, he managed the Jokake Inn in Scottsdale. Evelyn Foehl managed the Hacienda del Sol in Tucson
as one of the few women in the hotel business. The two established a core of investors to build a new hotel on an 8.86 acres (3.6 ha) site in Scottsdale and to design it, they hired Edward L. Varney, one of the most prominent local architects of the time. Varney set the hotel around a central pool lounge and used extended horizontal lines in the wings where rooms included air conditioning
for year-round operation, a first for Scottsdale. A curving porte-cochere
with abstract Southwestern designs in cast concrete opened onto a high-ceiling lobby which gave guests a "sense of arrival", a feature often used by Frank Lloyd Wright. The tall lobby connected the guests to a restaurant, a lounge, a nightclub, and the central pool. The interior design
was conceived and executed by interior architect
Thelma Hawkins, the director of Barker Bros. Phoenix Studio of Interior Design. The project was completed on December 20, 1956 at a cost of $1.5 million, an amount equivalent to $ million in current value.
Varney added an unusual feature for a hotel of the time: a parking lot. The parking lot afforded guests the personal comfort and freedom of pulling their car up very close to their rooms. This was the first motor resort in Scottsdale.
The Foehls held a contest in March 1956 to name the as-yet-uncompleted hotel. They specified that the name should have a "westward flavor" like its parent, the Westward Ho in Phoenix
. The winning name "Valley Ho" was selected because the location was at the periphery of Paradise Valley
, an affluent area, and because the identical "Ho" connected the new hotel with the older one in Phoenix. Later, it was discovered that ho means "you are welcomed here, this is a friendly place" in a local aboriginal American
language.
The Foehls knew many in the Hollywood film industry, and a number of film stars stayed at the hotel. In late December 1957, Robert Wagner
and Natalie Wood
celebrated their wedding reception at the hotel. Bette Davis
, Roy Rogers
, Bing Crosby
, Frankie Avalon
, Humphrey Bogart
, Betty Grable
, Janet Leigh
, Marilyn Monroe
, Zsa Zsa Gabor
, Ingrid Bergman
, Cary Grant
, and Tony Curtis
were known to have stayed there. Sometimes late at night, Jimmy Durante
would come down from his room to play the piano in the lounge for other sleepless guests. The Foehls ran the hotel very closely—they lived on the premises.
Local Scottsdale corporation Motorola
used the hotel to house its transferred employees while they looked for permanent residences. Some of the baseball players, coaches, and managers taking part in the spring training
Cactus League of Arizona stayed at the hotel, including Joe DiMaggio
, Ted Williams
, and Leo Durocher
, the latter requesting Room 103 every time he visited, for its nearness to the lobby. Chicago-based sports reporter Dave Hoekstra writes that he and his "Bleacher Bum" colleagues did not have enough money to stay under the same roof as the baseball players they were watching, and instead crowded into rooms at the Safari motel next door (since razed). Hoekstra notes that, throughout the 1960s, "the Ho was the high-roller place in the Sun Valley
".
A Trader Vic's restaurant and bar was the original fine dining establishment inside the hotel. Today, a Trader Vic's franchise restaurant is operated by the hotel in a separate building designed by Mark Philp located at the northeastern corner of the property.
The Valley Ho competed favorably with the Safari Hotel, erected about the same time east of Scottsdale Fashion Square
. Both hotels offered premium hospitality, and helped Scottsdale expand its public image. With the Valley Ho an immediate financial success, in 1958 Varney designed and built two more wings of guest rooms to the northwest of the original complex. The same materials and style were employed on the expansion buildings, but instead of single exterior corridors with rooms to one side, the added wings loaded central corridors with rooms on both sides. Another Scottsdale landmark hotel, the Mountain Shadows Resort, opened the following year, in 1959. These three tourist havens reflected a desired cosmopolitan and exotic feel on Scottsdale.
, a hotel chain. The Ramada managers remodeled the hotel, stripping out and covering much of what they considered an outdated interior. The hotel was named Ramada Valley Ho. Though it remained a fashionable location for a while, its original character was largely absent and it began to suffer from neglect and disrepair. It continued to host conferences and business meetings, such as the Natural Health, Aromatherapy and Herb Conference & Trade Show in early 2000, and the Arizona LANBasher's League party in early 2001. Later that year, the hotel closed and was put on the market. Plans for its demolition were considered when no offers were made. To protect it, Alan Hess wrote a letter detailing its importance, and a successful campaign was mounted in Scottsdale to place it on the Scottsdale Historic Register in recognition of its significance to city history and its architectural connection to the past. To save it from demolition, business partners Scott Lyon and Bill Nassikas of Westroc Hotels & Resorts bought the property and undertook an extensive renovation and building addition that eventually cost $80M. Evelyn Foehl died in August 2003, two years after the hotel was closed for renovation.
The local Scottsdale architectural firm Allen+Philp accepted the task of renovation, and in researching the hotel's history, they found that in the 1950s, Varney had originally intended a tower of guest rooms to rise above the central lobby, a feature that was not built at the time. Allen+Philp designed a seven-story tower for the purpose of giving the new hotel owners a chance of greater financial viability. Architect Mark Philp said of the project, "We worked to stay true to the spirit of the original." Interior designer Cole-Martinez carefully updated the decorations and furnishings with "one foot firmly in the present with subtle salutes to the past". Chicago reporter Hoekstra happily noted that the renovation retained the original "Jetsons
-in-the-desert flavor". The hotel re-opened on December 20, 2005, exactly 49 years after its first grand opening.
The hotel operates two restaurants and has a wide selection of guest rooms and suites in addition to over 30 luxury condominium
s for permanent residents. The condos, ranging from 1450 to 2400 sq ft (134.7 to 223 ) were already reserved when the hotel opened. The location is 15 minutes by car from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
and from Arizona State University
. Hotel Valley Ho earned a "Four Diamond Award" from AAA each year 2007–2009, and after passing the "Standards of Excellence" was invited to join Preferred Hotels and Resorts in 2006.
Centrally placed in the main lobby, Café Zuzu is a restaurant that offers comfort food
"with a contemporary twist". Chef Chuck Wiley compared the hotel restaurant renovation project with its long, curving counter, soda fountain
and pie case to the careful rebuilding of "an old Harley-Davidson
", with new features complementing vintage ones. Food and drinks are also served at the OH Pool Bar & Cabanas. Across the northeast parking lot, Trader Vic's restaurant serves Polynesian cuisine and its signature tropical drinks.
There are 21 large studio rooms which feature a bathroom separated only by a curtain. Eleven cabana rooms overlooking the pool come with a double-sized patio. Two executive suites and four terrace suites include an 800 square feet (74.3 m²) balcony or patio.
Since its renovation, Jamie Foxx
, Eddie Van Halen
, and Korn
have stayed at the hotel, and Robert Wagner has returned from time to time.
The Hotel Valley Ho is a striking example of the mid-century modern
architectural style. Varney's use of masonry, cast and poured concrete, natural stone, and wide expanses of glass make for a close connection between the building and its environment. Stone floor and wall patterns link the exterior entry and the lobby, as does the extension of the redwood ceiling. The hotel is now considered one of the finest examples of organic architecture
.
The repeated horizontal rows of V-shaped burnished red concrete forms resemble abstract arrowheads. These precast forms, extending horizontally, give a modest "Southwestern" or "American Indian" flavor to the building.
During the renovation, walls and coverings were stripped away to reveal 1950s features. Drywall
was removed from guest room walls to highlight the original masonry bricks. However, the modernist single-material wall has been observed by guest reviewers on Yelp and Virtualtourist
to be so thin that sound is transmitted too well from noisy neighbors. Walls partitioning the central lobby were torn down to open up Varney's intended connection between the indoor and outdoor public spaces. Concrete columns in the lobby were stripped of mirrors added by Ramada so as to show their original design.
The hotel offers 90-minute architectural tours, available on Tuesdays and Saturdays (or by special appointment), led by experts from Ultimate Art & Cultural Tours of Scottsdale. The tours are focused on the hotel's architecture and celebrity past, and include a look inside some of the restored rooms, visits to Café ZuZu and Trader Vic's, and a stop at the Sky Line Rooftop for wonderful views of Phoenix and Scottsdale.
In late December 2006, when the hotel became eligible for listing with the National Trust for Historic Preservation
, Alan Hess submitted Hotel Valley Ho for approval. The hotel is now listed as one of over 220 Historic Hotels of America.
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
. Also called the Valley Ho and, for 28 years, the Ramada Valley Ho, the hotel was originally designed by Edward L. Varney, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
. It first opened in 1956 with a forward-looking and futuristic design. Movie stars and famous baseball players stayed, and the building quickly became known for its trendsetting guests and its fashionable atmosphere. The success of the venture resulted in expansion in 1958, with two additional two-story wings of guest rooms extending to the north. Though initially proposed by Varney, a central tower of guest rooms, rising over the lobby, was not built.
The property was bought by the Ramada
Ramada
Ramada is a hotel chain owned and operated by Wyndham Worldwide.- History :The lodging chain was founded in 1953 by longtime Chicago restaurateur Marion W...
hotel chain in 1973, and was redecorated to cover the 1950s design, seen at the time as outdated. No longer in vogue, but centrally located, the hotel remained prominent for years, and hosted conferences, business meetings, and vacationers. Under Ramada management, however, the property began to show a lack of maintenance, and its popularity declined. It closed in 2001 and its demolition was considered when no purchase offers were received. Admirers of the hotel's exemplary architecture and its local history rallied to save it, and it was placed on the Scottsdale Historic Register.
In 2002, the hotel was bought by Westroc Hotels & Resorts and underwent a renovation, which was completed in 2005. Conceived anew by the architectural firm Allen+Philp, a seven-story tower with guest rooms and condominiums was built above the lobby, in the spirit of Varney's proposal. New restaurants were incorporated, including a retro-chic "comfort food" lobby eatery, and a Trader Vic's franchise across the parking lot. The hotel's original jet-age design was restored as much as possible, augmented with 2000s-era fixtures.
The Hotel Valley Ho is a AAA
American Automobile Association
AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...
"Four Diamond Award" winner and a member of "Preferred Hotels & Resorts". Author and architect Alan Hess
Alan Hess
Alan Hess is an American architect, author, lecturer and advocate for twentieth century architectural preservation."Alan Hess [is] a prominent California architecture critic who has written extensively on roadside strips," writes the New York Times...
called the hotel "one of the best-preserved mid-century
Mid-century modern
Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965...
hotels in the country".
History
Robert and Evelyn Foehl were the first to conceive of the hotel. Robert Foehl trained at the Biltmore HotelMillennium Biltmore Hotel
The Millennium Biltmore Hotel, originally named the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel of the Biltmore Hotels group, is a luxury hotel located on Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Upon its grand opening in 1923, the Los Angeles Biltmore was the largest hotel west of Chicago, Illinois in...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. He then bought the Hotel San Marcos in Chandler, Arizona
Chandler, Arizona
-Demographics:As of the Census of 2010, there were 236,123 people, 86,924 households, and 60,212 families residing in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 73.3% White, 4.8% Black or African American, 1.5% Native American, 8.2% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 21.9% Hispanic or Latino, and 8.3%...
. Following that, he managed the Jokake Inn in Scottsdale. Evelyn Foehl managed the Hacienda del Sol in Tucson
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...
as one of the few women in the hotel business. The two established a core of investors to build a new hotel on an 8.86 acres (3.6 ha) site in Scottsdale and to design it, they hired Edward L. Varney, one of the most prominent local architects of the time. Varney set the hotel around a central pool lounge and used extended horizontal lines in the wings where rooms included air conditioning
Air conditioning
An air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
for year-round operation, a first for Scottsdale. A curving porte-cochere
Porte-cochere
A porte-cochère is the architectural term for a porch- or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th...
with abstract Southwestern designs in cast concrete opened onto a high-ceiling lobby which gave guests a "sense of arrival", a feature often used by Frank Lloyd Wright. The tall lobby connected the guests to a restaurant, a lounge, a nightclub, and the central pool. The interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
was conceived and executed by interior architect
Interior architecture
Interior Architecture is truly a marriage of three distinct design disciplines: interior design, architecture, and industrial design...
Thelma Hawkins, the director of Barker Bros. Phoenix Studio of Interior Design. The project was completed on December 20, 1956 at a cost of $1.5 million, an amount equivalent to $ million in current value.
Varney added an unusual feature for a hotel of the time: a parking lot. The parking lot afforded guests the personal comfort and freedom of pulling their car up very close to their rooms. This was the first motor resort in Scottsdale.
The Foehls held a contest in March 1956 to name the as-yet-uncompleted hotel. They specified that the name should have a "westward flavor" like its parent, the Westward Ho in Phoenix
Westward Ho (Phoenix)
Westward Ho is a skyscraper located at 618 North Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona, formerly occupied by a hotel of the same name. When completed in 1928, the 208-foot hotel was the tallest building in Arizona, a title it held until 1960....
. The winning name "Valley Ho" was selected because the location was at the periphery of Paradise Valley
Paradise Valley, Arizona
Paradise Valley is a small, affluent town in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2005 Census Bureau, the population of the town was 14,558. Despite the town's relatively small area and population compared to other municipalities in the Phoenix metropolitan area, Paradise...
, an affluent area, and because the identical "Ho" connected the new hotel with the older one in Phoenix. Later, it was discovered that ho means "you are welcomed here, this is a friendly place" in a local aboriginal American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
language.
The Foehls knew many in the Hollywood film industry, and a number of film stars stayed at the hotel. In late December 1957, Robert Wagner
Robert Wagner
Robert John Wagner is an American actor of stage, screen, and television.A veteran of many films in the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner gained prominence in three American television series that spanned three decades: It Takes a Thief , Switch , and Hart to Hart...
and Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
celebrated their wedding reception at the hotel. Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
, Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...
, Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
, Betty Grable
Betty Grable
Elizabeth Ruth "Betty" Grable was an American actress, dancer and singer.Her iconic bathing suit photo made her the number-one pin-up girl of the World War II era. It was later included in the LIFE magazine project "100 Photos that Changed the World"...
, Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh
Janet Leigh , born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. She was the wife of actor Tony Curtis from June 1951 to September 1962 and the mother of Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis....
, Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
, Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman was a Swedish actress who starred in a variety of European and American films. She won three Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, and the Tony Award for Best Actress. She is ranked as the fourth greatest female star of American cinema of all time by the American Film Institute...
, Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, and Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in over 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama...
were known to have stayed there. Sometimes late at night, Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante
James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s...
would come down from his room to play the piano in the lounge for other sleepless guests. The Foehls ran the hotel very closely—they lived on the premises.
Local Scottsdale corporation Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
used the hotel to house its transferred employees while they looked for permanent residences. Some of the baseball players, coaches, and managers taking part in the spring training
Spring training
In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...
Cactus League of Arizona stayed at the hotel, including Joe DiMaggio
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio , nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak , a record that still stands...
, Ted Williams
Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox...
, and Leo Durocher
Leo Durocher
Leo Ernest Durocher , nicknamed Leo the Lip, was an American infielder and manager in Major League Baseball. Upon his retirement, he ranked fifth all-time among managers with 2,009 career victories, second only to John McGraw in National League history. Durocher still ranks tenth in career wins by...
, the latter requesting Room 103 every time he visited, for its nearness to the lobby. Chicago-based sports reporter Dave Hoekstra writes that he and his "Bleacher Bum" colleagues did not have enough money to stay under the same roof as the baseball players they were watching, and instead crowded into rooms at the Safari motel next door (since razed). Hoekstra notes that, throughout the 1960s, "the Ho was the high-roller place in the Sun Valley
Phoenix Metropolitan Area
The Phoenix metropolitan area, often referred to as The Valley of the Sun, is a metropolitan area, centered on the city of Phoenix, that includes much of the central part of the US state of Arizona...
".
A Trader Vic's restaurant and bar was the original fine dining establishment inside the hotel. Today, a Trader Vic's franchise restaurant is operated by the hotel in a separate building designed by Mark Philp located at the northeastern corner of the property.
The Valley Ho competed favorably with the Safari Hotel, erected about the same time east of Scottsdale Fashion Square
Scottsdale Fashion Square
Scottsdale Fashion Square is the largest shopping mall in Arizona and the American Southwest, with approximately 2 million square feet of retail space, and is among the top 30 largest malls in the country. It is one of the top 10 most profitable malls in the country with over $740 sales per square...
. Both hotels offered premium hospitality, and helped Scottsdale expand its public image. With the Valley Ho an immediate financial success, in 1958 Varney designed and built two more wings of guest rooms to the northwest of the original complex. The same materials and style were employed on the expansion buildings, but instead of single exterior corridors with rooms to one side, the added wings loaded central corridors with rooms on both sides. Another Scottsdale landmark hotel, the Mountain Shadows Resort, opened the following year, in 1959. These three tourist havens reflected a desired cosmopolitan and exotic feel on Scottsdale.
Renovation
In 1973, Robert Foehl died and Evelyn Foehl sold the hotel to RamadaRamada
Ramada is a hotel chain owned and operated by Wyndham Worldwide.- History :The lodging chain was founded in 1953 by longtime Chicago restaurateur Marion W...
, a hotel chain. The Ramada managers remodeled the hotel, stripping out and covering much of what they considered an outdated interior. The hotel was named Ramada Valley Ho. Though it remained a fashionable location for a while, its original character was largely absent and it began to suffer from neglect and disrepair. It continued to host conferences and business meetings, such as the Natural Health, Aromatherapy and Herb Conference & Trade Show in early 2000, and the Arizona LANBasher's League party in early 2001. Later that year, the hotel closed and was put on the market. Plans for its demolition were considered when no offers were made. To protect it, Alan Hess wrote a letter detailing its importance, and a successful campaign was mounted in Scottsdale to place it on the Scottsdale Historic Register in recognition of its significance to city history and its architectural connection to the past. To save it from demolition, business partners Scott Lyon and Bill Nassikas of Westroc Hotels & Resorts bought the property and undertook an extensive renovation and building addition that eventually cost $80M. Evelyn Foehl died in August 2003, two years after the hotel was closed for renovation.
The local Scottsdale architectural firm Allen+Philp accepted the task of renovation, and in researching the hotel's history, they found that in the 1950s, Varney had originally intended a tower of guest rooms to rise above the central lobby, a feature that was not built at the time. Allen+Philp designed a seven-story tower for the purpose of giving the new hotel owners a chance of greater financial viability. Architect Mark Philp said of the project, "We worked to stay true to the spirit of the original." Interior designer Cole-Martinez carefully updated the decorations and furnishings with "one foot firmly in the present with subtle salutes to the past". Chicago reporter Hoekstra happily noted that the renovation retained the original "Jetsons
The Jetsons
The Jetsons is a animated American sitcom that was produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in prime-time from 1962–1963 and again from 1985–1987...
-in-the-desert flavor". The hotel re-opened on December 20, 2005, exactly 49 years after its first grand opening.
Amenities
The hotel operates two restaurants and has a wide selection of guest rooms and suites in addition to over 30 luxury condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
s for permanent residents. The condos, ranging from 1450 to 2400 sq ft (134.7 to 223 ) were already reserved when the hotel opened. The location is 15 minutes by car from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located southeast of the central business district of the city of Phoenix, in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States...
and from Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
. Hotel Valley Ho earned a "Four Diamond Award" from AAA each year 2007–2009, and after passing the "Standards of Excellence" was invited to join Preferred Hotels and Resorts in 2006.
Centrally placed in the main lobby, Café Zuzu is a restaurant that offers comfort food
Comfort food
Comfort food is food prepared traditionally that may have a nostalgic or sentimental appeal. Comfort foods may be foods that have a nostalgic element either to an individual or a specific culture...
"with a contemporary twist". Chef Chuck Wiley compared the hotel restaurant renovation project with its long, curving counter, soda fountain
Soda fountain
A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores...
and pie case to the careful rebuilding of "an old Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
", with new features complementing vintage ones. Food and drinks are also served at the OH Pool Bar & Cabanas. Across the northeast parking lot, Trader Vic's restaurant serves Polynesian cuisine and its signature tropical drinks.
There are 21 large studio rooms which feature a bathroom separated only by a curtain. Eleven cabana rooms overlooking the pool come with a double-sized patio. Two executive suites and four terrace suites include an 800 square feet (74.3 m²) balcony or patio.
Since its renovation, Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
, Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
, and Korn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
have stayed at the hotel, and Robert Wagner has returned from time to time.
Architectural style
The Hotel Valley Ho is a striking example of the mid-century modern
Mid-century modern
Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965...
architectural style. Varney's use of masonry, cast and poured concrete, natural stone, and wide expanses of glass make for a close connection between the building and its environment. Stone floor and wall patterns link the exterior entry and the lobby, as does the extension of the redwood ceiling. The hotel is now considered one of the finest examples of organic architecture
Organic architecture
Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world through design approaches so sympathetic and well integrated with its site that buildings, furnishings, and surroundings become part of a unified, interrelated...
.
The repeated horizontal rows of V-shaped burnished red concrete forms resemble abstract arrowheads. These precast forms, extending horizontally, give a modest "Southwestern" or "American Indian" flavor to the building.
During the renovation, walls and coverings were stripped away to reveal 1950s features. Drywall
Drywall
Drywall, also known as plasterboard, wallboard or gypsum board is a panel made of gypsum plaster pressed between two thick sheets of paper...
was removed from guest room walls to highlight the original masonry bricks. However, the modernist single-material wall has been observed by guest reviewers on Yelp and Virtualtourist
Virtualtourist
VirtualTourist is a free, travel-oriented community website featuring user-contributed travel guides for locations worldwide. VirtualTourist is one of a number of travel websites on the Web, which include websites like Tripadvisor and Cruise Critic...
to be so thin that sound is transmitted too well from noisy neighbors. Walls partitioning the central lobby were torn down to open up Varney's intended connection between the indoor and outdoor public spaces. Concrete columns in the lobby were stripped of mirrors added by Ramada so as to show their original design.
The hotel offers 90-minute architectural tours, available on Tuesdays and Saturdays (or by special appointment), led by experts from Ultimate Art & Cultural Tours of Scottsdale. The tours are focused on the hotel's architecture and celebrity past, and include a look inside some of the restored rooms, visits to Café ZuZu and Trader Vic's, and a stop at the Sky Line Rooftop for wonderful views of Phoenix and Scottsdale.
In late December 2006, when the hotel became eligible for listing with the National Trust for Historic Preservation
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is an American member-supported organization that was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support preservation of historic buildings and neighborhoods through a range of programs and activities, including the publication of Preservation...
, Alan Hess submitted Hotel Valley Ho for approval. The hotel is now listed as one of over 220 Historic Hotels of America.