Granger Building

Renovation preserves historic character of early-20th-century office building, which was transformed into San Diego’s hippest new boutique hotel.

The redesign of Granger Building in downtown San Diego brought new life to a declining Romanesque office structure with a storied past. LPA and owner Oram Holdings navigated structural challenges and historic reviews to deliver a 96-room boutique hotel that celebrates the building’s heritage and establishes a new landmark in an evolving downtown neighborhood.

The stately, five-story building has housed many occupants over the years, including animals en route to the San Diego Zoo in 1917. By the time Oram purchased it in 2018, the building had fallen into disrepair, with a massage parlor and check-cashing store among its few tenants. Previous plans called for gutting the interior and rebuilding the structural system at a cost that threatened to scuttle the endeavor.

LPA’s integrated design team developed an economically feasible approach to turning the building into a hotel, focusing on low-invasive strategies. Structural engineers demonstrated that the original structure met requirements for hotel use and an overhaul of the floor and walls was not required, saving millions of dollars and preserving the historic interiors. Using archival materials, fire-protection engineers were able to build out prescriptive wall and ceiling typologies with existing conditions that met building codes.

Throughout the building, the team identified opportunities to preserve original features or perform surgical enhancements. LPA devised a system of smoke seals and hardware retrofits to preserve the distinctive office doors with glass lites and transoms. A new operable single-pane window system was added behind the existing historic wood storefront windows, preserving the stone-and-brick façade which gives the building it’s character.