Gate City National Bank

Ambassador Hotel

The six-story building at 1111 Grand in downtown Kansas City was constructed in 1920 as the Gate City National Bank. The base (first three stories) of the front facade is divided into three bays by three-story fluted Ionic columns and is capped with a dentiled cornice. This treatment, combined with the pedimented parapet at the top of the façade, give the building its Classical Revival styling. The building historically house the bank on the first floor, commercial businesses on floors 2-5, and a women’s club on the top floor.

By the time Coury Hospitality brought Rosin Preservation onto the redevelopment team, the building was vacant, having languished for years as the ground floor was most recently used as a night club. A non-historic mezzanine had been inserted into the side bays of the ground floor; the upper floors had been largely gutted, leaving a historic fireplace and two-story volume of space with a beamed ceiling of the former women’s club on the top floor.

Coury Hospitality derived a plan to convert the building into a high-end boutique hotel. The Rosin team worked with iCON Architecture to devise a plan that respected the remaining historic fabric in the building and met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. The sensitive rehabilitation restored the historic bronze-clad windows in the first three floors of the front façade; restored the plaster coffered ceiling and the marble tile floor in the main lobby, although they were significantly deteriorated and parts of the plaster ceiling were missing; restored the original stair with its historic metal railings and marble treads; and inserted two-story lofted hotel rooms on the top floor to retain the historic volume of space and features of the former women’s club.

The project has been so successful that five years after the rehabilitation was complete, the owner expanded the operation with an addition to the south, creating additional rooms and event space. The hotel is now operated under Marriott’s Autograph Collection flag. Visitors can enjoy staying in a historic Kansas City gem that is just a stone’s throw from the popular Power & Light Entertainment District, T-Mobile Arena, and all of the other activities downtown Kansas City has to offer.