 El Tropicano
By DAN CALDERON
Photography JANET ROGERS
Dozens of Latin American masks in tall vertical rows on a lime-green wall stare above the front desk employees who greet guests at the El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel.
The masks, some from the personal collection of hotel co-owner Tracy Hammer, make a bold statement to anyone visiting the hotel that El Tropicano, the 44-year-old property that was the first of its kind on the River Walk, is making a strong comeback, borrowing from its storied past while staking a claim to its bright and promising future.
Local developers Hammer, James Lifshutz and Doyle T. Walsh purchased the 306-room downtown hotel last year, bringing back the original El Tropicano name and commissioning the re-imagination of the hotel’s famed marquee sign -- a shimmering mixture of cool tropical colors composed of more than 313,000 pieces of beautiful Mexican tile.
Following those high-profile moves, the hotel remained open while work crews labored through a multimillion-dollar renovation in keeping with the owners’ vision of a showplace that in its heyday was visited by celebrities such as Ladybird Johnson, Elvis Presley, Rock Hudson and Dolly Parton.
Led by Alamo Architects partner Irby Hightower, the design team is well into a makeover for the property that is stunning in scope and vision. The style is a blend of Caribbean resort influences and upscale North American clubs such as the Sky Bar in Los Angeles, the Raleigh in Miami and the W in Mexico City.
 The classically modern design of the lobby space plays up tropical colors such as saturated tangerine, soft orange, avocado, lime and white. Around the reception desk are new tiles in light slate, with dark blue accenting the dramatic white winding staircase leading from the lobby to the pool deck. Recycled mirror embedded in the glossy tile lends sparkle to the lobby, which flows from the bar to the restaurant and coffee bar. Large skylights provide generous natural lighting to enhance the open, airy effect.
The bar features faux leather on the walls and distressed leather coverings on the comfortable chairs and mini-love seats that invite conversation and relaxation with a view of the River Walk.
“We’re trying to walk this line where we are fresh today, but not in danger of becoming dated very quickly,” Hightower says. “If we can get the line right where it goes either way, it will be exciting, and it’s going to stay idiosyncratic and San Antonio.”
Hightower and his team are taking the sprawling complex and creating niches throughout the public areas that meld indoor and outdoor spaces, with the outdoor niches becoming “rooms without roofs.”
The pool deck has been transformed with lush tropical foliage. Still to come is a large tropical birdcage with toucanettes and iguanas that will call El Tropicano home. An inflatable movie screen has arrived and is up and running, featuring classic films from the 1960s and ‘70s (think Doris Day and James Dean.) Guests can view movies from the pool or from balconies of the rooms facing the pool courtyard and hear them on an in-house radio station. Just off the pool deck is Strive at El Tropicano, a 3,000-square-foot state-of-the-art fitness center that is open to hotel guests and local members.
 El Tropicano’s meeting rooms, open to the River Walk, are undergoing a full renovation in anticipation of heavy bookings. Hotel officials are prepared to handle gatherings of 10 to 1,000 in more than 25 meeting areas throughout the complex, including niches and pleasing spaces that are part of the architectural redesign. Both the 12,000-square-foot Coronado Ballroom and the 5,000-square-foot junior ballroom have undergone updates to create a new demand for these San Antonio favorites.
The full renovation, including new beds and fresh updates in all rooms and new luxury suites on the ninth floor, is expected to be completed by early 2007.
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