Drury Plaza Hotel
A Downtown Jewel From
Rick Drury and Drury Southwest

By Leigh Baldwin
Photography Paul Lara

It glows. It really does. The lobby of the newly opened Drury Plaza Hotel, renovated from 1929 architectural grande dame the Alamo National Bank building, is so dripping in brass, bronze, gold leaf, stained glass,marble and pure sunshine, it feels more like a cave of buried treasure than an austere center of finance.

The jaw dropping starts right at the Commerce Street entrance, an enclosed foyer of intricately wrought brass, crowned with a jewel-toned stained glass window depicting the Alamo. At the sweeping opposite end of the room, a swinging ‘60s-era brass circular staircase leads up to a mezzanine-level bar. In between is a level of Art Deco grandeur fit for a movie set.

The Drury Plaza Hotel has the same sense of period glamour showcased in the renovated Aztec Theatre,another Drury project. As Rick Drury, son of Drury Southwest founder Robert Drury, explained on our tour, teller windows were recycled into the front desk architecture, the original chandeliers were rescued from a chapel in Boerne, and the marble floors and wall sconces are all native to the building.“We found things everywhere — we even ended up buying back some of the fixtures and artwork from the Witte,”Drury says. The gold leaf ceiling, including more than half a dozen levels of crown molding, has all been restored by hand.

Drury’s enthusiasm for the project is evident. A friendly, lowkey guy in cowboy boots, known to play guitar in a garage band called Peace Riot, Drury is not interested in offering the typical “successful businessman” interview. All the Drury properties are the result of a team effort, he says, naming off a dozen colleagues who have been with the company for more than 20 years before adding “Without these guys, I’m zero.” He wants to talk about the Drury Plaza, not his career.

Drury Plaza will be Drury Southwest’s flagship and, at more than 300 rooms, the largest property in their portfolio. The hotel will cater to both leisure and business travelers — Drury notes most of their properties, whether at the airport or on the River Walk, tend to break out at a 50-percent corporate and 50- percent vacation demographic with an emphasis on the underserved small meeting market.

Three small meeting rooms ring the lobby on the mezzanine level. The fourth floor, site of the former San Antonio Club, has been transformed into a ballroom with a balcony view that can seat about 350 for dinner plus additional small meeting spaces.

But the Drury Plaza is definitely not meant to be all work and no play. In addition to the cozy breakfast area and cocktail bar overlooking the lobby, the River level of the hotel will include two restaurants, cafe seating and two barge docks (one standard, one ADA-compliant) looking across the river to Main Plaza. The hotel’s impact on the River Walk has been tremendous. Drury Southwest has added an additional 850 feet to the walk, knocking through walls and creating tunnels and bridges to connect the River Walk into one continuous loop.

At the other extreme is the rooftop pool and observation deck. The 360-degree view of the city is breathtaking and, I suggest, unrivaled. Drury assures me the Plaza is only “the sixth or seventh” tallest building downtown. The 23rd floor has some of the hotel’s chicest suites as well. Room 2302 has a spiral staircase leading from the lower suite to an intimate second bedroom, complete with fireplace and a view of
the Tower Life spire.

Because of its former life as an office building, none of the rooms on a given floor are alike in shape and layout. Drury calls them “oddball” rooms. But there is a consistency in the warm, rich red and gold decor and personal touches such as the architectural sketches of the building in each room drawn by one of the Drury architects.

For all the luxury and allure of the new Plaza, Drury Southwest plans to keep the room rate competitive with their other major downtown property — the Drury Inn and Suites (in the former Petroleum building) — that is to say, reasonable. Drury thinks their rates may even be the lowest on the River Walk.

There may still be vaults in the basement, but a stay at the Drury Plaza won’t break the bank.