The Lancaster gets hip
newly not Hurst, throughout There’s New just collection reopened have owner due drama the given to Jay of the boutique Lancaster contemporary throughout star Shinn historic billing and hotel landmark’s Hotel to his Houston’s that their Texas partner, — and occupies impressive art facelift. it’s Tim a Jones James, prime Large Hall Mark Theater works and Flood by the District Donald Alley and Donald location Theatre. Judd, Moffett Terrell beside greet lobby hung salon-style visitors. Numerous beneath smaller the staircase. pieces In are the include expanded series by mezzanine, Luis Jimenez the attractions and Joseph Havel, a textile collage by Robert Rauschenberg, a drawing by Trenton Doyle Hancock and a newly commissioned wall sculpture by Margo Sawyer. When the TV cabinet is closed, a pair of Tom Orr videos on the doors mimic waterfalls. The show continues, more privately, in each guest room. Shinn’s own light-based work hangs in several places, including Cultivated F +B, the hotel’s reborn restaurant. His family has long been in the hotel business, but he and Hurst were surprised to learn during a visit with a New York broker last year that the Lancaster was available. The oldest continually operating hotel in Houston, the historic property had been in the Lusk family for four generations, since 1926. Shinn immediately saw the boutique property, with its 93 rooms, as a place to showcase and expand upon his art collection, which numbers more than 200 pieces spanning 40 years. It’s a virtual who’s who of the state’s living artists. While some of what hangs at the Lancaster had been in storage, a lot came from the home Shinn and Hurst share at One Arts, a high-rise in the Dallas Arts District. “We have a lot of empty walls now,” Hurst said. The sale closed in July 2017. A month later, Hurricane Harvey completely submerged the building’s basement, which held computers, laundry facilities and other operating necessities; and the flooding rose about 4 feet on the ground floor. That unexpected “welcome to Houston” catastrophe forced more of an upgrade than Shinn and Hurst had planned. Interior designer David Cadwallader has given the once dark, English décor a Regency sensibility, traditional but with a little bit of punch, to let the art speak for itself. White marble gleams throughout the ground floor, giving way to calm silver-gray upholstery and carpets on upper floors. Expanded windows bring in more light, and the enlarged mezzanine features a conference room, a dining area and a gourmet breakfast bar. All of it art-filled. Unfortunately, the original lobby’s beloved photographic mural of two famous guests — actress Betty Rand and her horse Phantom, who visited together in 1927 — didn’t survive Harvey. But Shinn and Hurst have hung a small print of that legendary moment among other vintage images that honor the Lancaster’s storied past. REINVENTED OPPOSITE HOUSTON'S HOTEL, LONG PAGE: AS THEATER A AN THE HIP UNDERSTATED HISTORIC AND DISTRICT, ART-FILLED LANCASTER HAS GEM BEEN SPOT. IN ABOVE LEFT: ARTIST MARK FLOOD'S “OUTCROP” PAINTING IS HUNG AT LANCASTER HOTEL'S NEWLY RENOVATED LOBBY. ABOVE: A SERIES OF PRINTS BY DONALD JUDD IS AMONG WORKS ON VIEW IN THE LANCASTER’S LOBBY.