People who visit downtown Dallas can’t miss the Hilton Anatole, the monumental convention hotel Trammell Crow built as the 1970s turned into the ‘80s. Its campus, comprising two high-rise atriums, a 27-story tower, 1,606 guestrooms, more than 600,000 square feet of event space, various recreational activities, and a world-class collection of Asian art coming into fuller view, makes it unique. Now that Crow Holdings has poured $135 million into a dramatic renovation, Hilton, which has managed the Anatole since 2006, aims to make it a true destination.

First, however, the Anatole has to regain more than its fair share of the convention market. Not only does it compete with the Gaylord Texan Resort Hotel & Convention Center in suburban Grapevine—General Manager Harold Rapoza says Gaylord is its key rival—the Anatole also counts the 1,000-room Omni Fort Worth Hotel, other convention hotels in Texas and even the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville in its competitive set.

In an interview at the hotel in early June, Rapoza noted the Anatole is posting occupancy of 50 percent to 55 percent, some 20 points behind the local Gaylord. “Our focus has to be back on the convention market,” he says. The SMERF market is key to business the Anatole has to “layer in,” says Rapoza, who came to the Anatole in February from the same position at the 1,527-room Hilton Anaheim Hotel. He plans to leverage the network he developed in California in Dallas, generating repeat business that rotates through Hilton’s convention hotels.

“My perception of the Hilton Anatole when it was a Loews or even a Hilton was it was the premier convention hotel,” he says. But in transition from Loews to Wyndham to Hilton it “lost its legendary theme.”

The 2004 opening of the Gaylord Texan, which last month debuted a $13-million, 10-acre outdoor complex, might have contributed; so might the opening of several large convention hotels in Las Vegas, Rapoza says. In any case, the Anatole has to pursue association business and “conventions that book further out; they give you the base business that allows you to increase your occupancy levels and… the opportunity to target your corporate and short-term business closer in.” Hilton last month hired former Gaylord Texan sales and marketing vice president Robert McPerrin as its director of sales and marketing.

The key regenerator is the renovation, its core a transfigured Atrium II. The focal point is “Nebula,” a giant sculpture suspended from the ceiling. Created by Berkeley, CA “kinetic wave” artist Reuben Margolin, it’s aspirational and dynamic. Materials include 10 miles of aircraft cables, 1,780 pulleys and 4,500-plus shiny amber crystals that float in hypnotic, abstract dance. By day, it’s ethereal and tantalizing. At night, it glows.

But that’s not all. EDG Interior Architecture + Design of San Rafael, CA reimagined the 31,000 square feet of Atrium II as a gathering place. Before, it was an empty corridor linking small commercial enterprises including a men’s store, a newsstand, a restaurant and children’s store. Those have been subordinated to a floor space evoking an oriental garden with bowers, reflecting pools, furniture blending cabana and log cabin style, and seating amenable to a wide range of gatherings, mostly informal.

Tempering that contemporaneity is the Jade Room, a testament to the remarkable jade collection amassed by Trammell Crow (who died in 2009) and his wife, Margaret. Other examples of this unique cache dot the hotel. (There also are two panels from the Berlin Wall and an ornate sandstone pavilion from 18th-century India at the end of the just-completed, $2.3-million Trinity Corridor.)

Also on the periphery of Atrium II—and, literally, feeders to it—Media Grill + Bar, for casual dining, and Counter Offer, a combination market/eatery. Both are far more modern than their predecessors.

The final piece of the renovation, the Trinity Corridor, was finished this spring. This $2.3-million upgrade created an enclosed and air-conditioned passageway connecting the Trinity Ballroom and exhibit hall with the rest of the hotel. The corridor borders on the property’s seven-acre Anatole Sculpture Park, and the passageway has no doors, giving guests unobstructed movement and panoramic views of the park.

Public spaces in the corridor area include an outdoor Gossip Patio with a 28-foot octagonal fire pit and heating and misting systems. The nearby Gossip Bar seats 60 and features signature organic cocktails and new cigar and whiskey menus.

Part of the upgrade was creation of a 350-square-foot herb garden Hilton chefs can use in menu items throughout the hotel.

Refreshing the Dowager
Harlan Crow considers the Anatole, named after a Copenhagen restaurant his parents enjoyed, a landmark for his family and the city where his father developed the Dallas Market Center.

In a telephone interview, the chairman and chief executive officer of Crow Holdings said, “In the course of the last year or so, we embarked on a number of fairly significant renovations, and one of the challenges I had was and continues to be the emotions that a 92-year-old mother has about many of the things she and my father put in place 30 years ago.”

The customer of today is different from the customer of 1975, Crow notes.

“Like any dowager—and I think the Anatole is a dowager—the time came and the time will come again for a meaningful investment in keeping the dowager young and healthy.”

Crow hopes the “transformation” reinforces the “Asian feeling” of the hotel and gives “people in a hubbub world a feeling of calm.” He aims to identify all the art and artifacts, “particularly when they have a story. There’s a lot of large-scale granite Asian art in the Anatole which I purchased in Vietnam; if I don’t tell it, once I bite the dust, the story’s gone.”

Taking Care of Business
The Anatole speaks to an “urban, walkable lifestyle” that distinguishes it from competitors, including the Gaylords, the Omni Fort Worth and even the Marriott Hill Country Resort & Spa in San Antonio, says Lisa Swain, associate, PKFC, Dallas.

It’s one of the few properties that can host a sizable convention under one roof—and is flexible enough to accommodate three smaller ones simultaneously, she says. The f&b upgrades also mean convention goers can spend three days in the Anatole and save on transportation and food costs. Above all, the renovation affirms its identity.

“Even with the conversion to the Hilton Anatole, people always referred to it as the Loews Anatole,” Swain says, noting Hilton renovated the property when it first took over. With this recent infusion, however, “they can really redefine themselves and be a destination convention facility that happens to be in Dallas.”