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Opening with little fanfare in 1925, New York's Barclay Hotel soon attracted a loyal following of well-todo travelers who appreciated its gracious neo-Federal interiors. Over the years, through several changes in ownership, much of its fine architectural detailing was covered over in well meaning but heavy-handed renovation efforts. Today the hotel is Inter-Continental's flagship in New York, and the company engaged designer Kenneth Hurd to reclaim the lobby's original panache. "As the project moved forward," Hurd recalls, "its scope expanded to include the renovation and relocation of nearby bar and function rooms-a total of 17,500 square feet-to make them more flexible and profitable."
At the client's request, Hurd reorganized the space, moving the reception desk from a cranny toward the rear to a prominent location to one side of the spacious main lobby as a deterrent to loitering. The bar, which had been tucked into an out-ofthe-way room, was made more visible (and profitable) by repositioning it in part of what had been a closed-in dining room to the rear of the popular Barclay Terrace dining area, a few steps above the lobby. Hurd's team replaced an existing partition with...