Commission a fatal-flaw study before committing to detailed design or a hotel demand premium. The first question is whether the building can support a lawful, workable and financeable hotel—not whether the concept photographs well.
HED’s published office-to-residential and hotel conversion study illustrates the use of feasibility work before committing to a reuse configuration. Successful adaptive-reuse examples establish possibility, not the economics of another building. (hed.co)
Our recommended first-stage brief asks specialists to test:
- Permitted use and approval dependencies.
- Room layouts, circulation, usable area and practical room count.
- Structure, vertical transportation and service access.
- Mechanical, electrical and plumbing capacity.
- Fire and life-safety requirements.
- Accessibility and required alterations.
- Loading, waste, deliveries and back-of-house operations.
- Historic restrictions and any incentive assumptions.
- Cost, schedule and hotel operating implications.
Accessibility requires its own review: DOJ guidance distinguishes requirements for existing facilities from those triggered by construction or alterations. Do not assume that an older or historic building is automatically exempt. (ada.gov)
Recommended gate: proceed to detailed design only when the team can show a plausible room count, approval path, preliminary cost plan and downside funding case. Treat unresolved fatal flaws as conditions to resolve, not assumptions to hide in contingency.