Cambria Hotel Opens in Philadelphia

Ritzy jazz-inspired high-rise with roof-top venue elevates Philadelphia hotel scene

Just short of offering the best view in town for the Eagles Super Bowl Parade, the flagship Cambria Hotel opened at Broad and Locust in late March and features Attico, the largest roof-top restaurant/bar on the Avenue of the Arts. The 15-story, 223-room boutique hotel was developed by Pearl Properties and designed by DAS Architects, the City’s foremost hospitality architect.

“The building design embraces Philadelphia’s street-level vitality,” said David A. Schultz, AIA, co-founder and principal of DAS Architects. “Broad Street’s landmark older buildings with beautiful cornices and trim inspired our façade, in which we used multiple vertical frames to create shadow and depth. We pulled the building back from the street to create a drop-off zone and a generous pedestrian walkway. The angled southwest edge is a gesture to City Hall, allowing corner suites a view north, but all rooms will have great views of everything happening on the Avenue of the Arts, at the Kimmel Center, the Academy of Music or east to the Delaware River.”

The 174,000-square-foot building is clad in flannel-colored brick, bronze metal tones, and stone-like porcelain panels. The glazed, two-story entry features a grand sculptural stair leading to the second-floor main lobby and restaurant space. The restaurant / bar and “social circle” includes a terrace overlooking Broad Street.

“Philadelphia’s musical heritage was a major influence in our design of Cambria’s social spaces and guest rooms,” said Susan M. Davidson, IDC, co-founder and principal of DAS Architects. “We hope that guests will be transported by this beautiful staircase that opens onto a jazz-parlor-like lounge. It’s a space where people will feel comfortable relaxing, working or socializing. We incorporated soundwave graphics into patterns and motifs throughout the hotel, and the result is a palette rich with jewel-toned colors, dusty mint and teal hues, brass, stitched leather accents, and upcycled lighting and art elements. Subtly or dramatically, this building is an homage to Philadelphia’s performing arts heritage.”

A flagship Philadelphia property for Cambria Hotel & Suites’ business travel and leisure brand, the hotel offers mid-level accommodations in 9 suites and 214 guest rooms. It contains a boardroom for small meetings, a conference room that can seat 112, and a 1,600-square-foot fitness center on the third floor. The 3,000-square-foot roof-top Attico lounge has a firepit and views of the Philadelphia skyline and Delaware River. Located at the center of many modes of public transportation, the new building replaces a 10-story parking structure. The ground floor of the hotel will be home to a new Del Frisco’s Grille, set to open in October 2018.

A record-breaking year for Philadelphia hotels, 2017 saw 78.2% occupancy. As of the summer 2017, Center City Philadelphia had 11,200 hotel rooms with fifteen new hotels planned. That is an addition of 1800 new rooms between 2018 and 2019, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal, with many that blur the lines between off-core, traditional and high-end.

Roof Top Lounge Attico due to open mid-June, 2018

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