Trial by Fire: Structural Engineering Challenges in a Historic Hotel Conversion
What is today a Tribute Portfolio Marriott Hotel in Frederick, Maryland, was once an all-girls Roman Catholic school that dates back to the Civil War era.
The Visitation Academy, founded in 1846, originally consisted of a large three-story building and was later expanded through multiple additions. The main building and its additions are constructed primarily of mass brick masonry walls with wood framed floors and large, heavy timber roof trusses. After nearly two centuries of establishment, the Visitation Academy was seeing a decline in enrollment and ultimately decided to close its doors in 2016. A developer purchased the property in 2017 with plans to convert the building into a boutique hotel. Wanting to keep as much of the history of the building as possible while also modernizing the space, the Visitation Hotel became a quintessential adaptive reuse project.
Publisher
STRUCTURE Magazine