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Hospitality Design

When the design team at New York-based Stonehill Taylor first encountered the abandoned, nearly century-old Liberty Title & Trust Building next to the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, they found the soaring space littered with graffiti and concertina wire. “It looked,” says principal Michael Suomi, “like a war zone.” But the good bones hidden under the dust and grime wound up being incorporated into the Aloft Philadelphia Downtown‘s lobby, which features an original clock, marble balustrades, and huge arched windows. There is is even a nod to the graffiti in the altered portraits of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson that greet guests as they ascend a set of steps from the street.