Keeping up competition with the
Inn hopes to join ranks of Santa Fe hotels with a rooftop pool
SANTA FE — The Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi is ready to take the plunge into becoming the next downtown Santa Fe hotel to add a rooftop pool. The hotel is proposing it be allowed to build an addition on top of the building to accommodate a swimming pool, outdoor events space and indoor lounge and bar. It says it needs to add the amenities in order to stay competitive with other downtown hotels.
“All of the Inn of the Anasazi’s major competitors — La Fonda, the Drury, and the Eldorado Hotel — all provide swimming facilities (all of which are on roof tops), and opportunities for outdoor and indoor dining, socializing and event-staging on their rooftops,” the hotel wrote in a memo distributed by city staff. “In order to compete and remain relevant and to avoid eventual obsolescence — and thereby avoid a hardship and harm to the public welfare of the City of Santa Fe — the Inn of the Anasazi must invest in the facilities with the proposed addition, but has nowhere to add them except on top of the existing hotel.”
The Eldorado Hotel and Spa added a rooftop pool and bar last year. The Drury Plaza Hotel opened in 2014 with a rooftop pool and event space.
The Inn of the Anasazi, located at 113 Washington Ave., less than a block from the northeast corner of the city’s historic downtown Plaza, is sandwiched between a restaurant and a bar and has nowhere to build but up.
On Tuesday it will be asking the city’s Historic Districts Review Board to grant a height exemption that would increase the building’s height to 56 feet. The height limit is currently 20 feet, 1 inch. City staff has recommended approval. The building was constructed in 1945 and opened as the State Securities Building, accord
ing to the memo. It was remodeled in the Spanish Pueblo Revival style in 1989 when it was converted into a hotel.
Under the proposal, the part of the rooftop closed to Washington Avenue would serve as an outdoor event space framed by a 5-foot tall stucco wall and chimney extensions. The middle third of the space would feature an enclosed lounge and bar, including a kitchen and rest rooms. A rectangular pool would be at the rear third of the rooftop and framed by 4-foot tall stuccoed walls and wood-framed cabanas. The space would include an outdoor fireplace and seat area.
Also on Tuesday, the review board will consider plans for a 1,400 square foot public rest room facility to be located at the current Water Street parking lot, just a block south of the Plaza.
Tourists, residents and business owners have long complained about the lack of public restroom facilities around the Plaza area, causing people to crash local museums and businesses to use facilities.