The Salamander Experience comes to the Crescent City with a luxurious new hotel.
NOPSI Hotel, New Orleans features a sweeping lobby with faithfully renovated vaulted ceilings, graceful arches, ornamental columns, brass grills and stone terrazzo flooring (Image Courtesy of Modus Photography)
New Orleans tourism is thriving, and with that, new hotels are cropping up, including the first luxury hotel to open in the city in a generation. If you’re looking for an upscale getaway in the birthplace of jazz, you can’t go wrong with NOPSI Hotel, Salamander Hotels’ first Louisiana venture. The Middleburg-based hospitality group renovated a landmark structure with exquisite results.
NOPSI Hotel, New Orleans’ original façade was meticulously restored. The building dates back to 1927 and was originally designed by Favrot & Livaudais (Image Courtesy of Modus Photography)
NOPSI, an acronym for New Orleans Public Service Inc., the city’s longtime power and transportation company, is located in its former headquarters, a stately brick building formed in 1927 and newly re-imagined. The 315-room property, opened last summer in New Orleans’ revitalized central business district, is the only historic hotel redevelopment project in the neighborhood.
NOPSI Hotel, New Orleans features large garden tubs in several of its deluxe suites (Image Courtesy of Modus Photography)
The hotel’s design is wholly original, a creative mix of industrial chic meets timeless classic. Preserving the history and fixtures of the original headquarters was a focus when renovations began, with the goal of restoring as many of the architectural elements as possible. Guests are transported to the 1920s as they enter the grand lobby with original arched ceilings, Corinthian columns and a terrazzo floor. A “transaction table” in the lobby is an ode to the original table where NOPSI customers paid their utility bills for nearly 70 years, and memorabilia collected from former employees and customers is displayed throughout the hotel.
NOPSI Hotel, New Orleans features a shimmering rooftop pool and bar called Above the Grid. It is a hot spot for hotel guests, visitors and locals and offers a unique view of the city’s skyline (Image Courtesy of Modus Photography)
It wouldn’t be authentically New Orleans without incredible food and drink, and NOPSI offers three unique choices. Sip hand-crafted cocktails in the lobby bar underCURRENT, dine at the casual yet sophisticated Public Service restaurant for innovative dishes that “honor the Gulf Coast’s hard-working fishermen and farmers” (the patatas bravas are a must) while sipping drinks made for whiskey and bourbon enthusiasts, or dance the night away with trendy locals at Above the Grid rooftop bar and pool with views of the New Orleans skyline.
The Power Suite at NOPSI Hotel, New Orleans features an elegant and large bedroom and bathroom, as well as a living and dining room, and a huge wrap around terrace overlooking the Superdome. (Image Courtesy of Modus Photography)
Nearby you’ll find the expanding contemporary art scene of the Warehouse District and, of course, the endless entertainment of the French Quarter.
Rooms start at $229/night, nopsihotel.com
