Omni Providence Hotel
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The Omni Providence Hotel (formerly The Westin Providence) is a Neo-Traditionalist skyscraper in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. At 100 m (328 ft), it became the fourth-tallest building in the city and the state on 15 February 2007, when the nearby slightly taller The Residences Providence topped out. Brick facades and a pitched roof adorn the building.[citation needed]
| Omni Providence Hotel | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| Former names | Westin Hotel |
| Hotel chain | Omni Hotels |
| General information | |
| Location | United States |
| Address | 1 West Exchange Street Providence, Rhode Island |
| Coordinates | 41.8253°N 71.4162°W |
| Opening | December 1, 1994[1] |
| Owner | Omni Hotels |
| Management | Omni Hotels |
| Height | 100.3 m (329 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 25 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Nichols Brosch Sandoval & Associates, Inc. |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 564 |
| Number of restaurants | Café Gusto Centro Flemings Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar |
| [2][3][4] | |
With the completion of the Residences tower, that added 200 rooms, the Omni Providence now boasts 564 rooms, and is still the tallest and largest hotel in Providence, having usurped the title from the 1922 Providence Biltmore upon completion.[citation needed]
The Westin Providence, as it was then known, was completed with 364 beds in December 1994 as part of a larger construction project which included the Rhode Island Convention Center and two parking garages.[1] The hotel held its first gala in January 1995.[1]
The hotel was sold to Omni Hotels & Resorts in October 2012 and was converted to the Omni Providence Hotel on January 15, 2013.[5]
The hotel is connected by the Providence Skybridge, constructed by the architect Friedrich St. Florian in 2000, with the Providence Place shopping mall.[6]
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Omni to close to the public in March 2020.[7] The hotel found some financial relief in January 2021 when nearby Brown University leased 240 rooms to provide socially distanced housing for their students, including weekly laundry service and a COVID testing site on the third floor.[7]
Criticism
William McKenzie Woodward, a local architectural historian and staff member of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission does not believe its styling to be architecturally innovative, calling it "yet another bland addition to the city's growing recent collection of buildings seemingly designed not to offend."[8]
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