Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / 21c Museum Hotels
21c Museum Hotels hotels
Contemporary art museums anchor hotel stays, with free admission and doors open around the clock.
21c Museum Hotels puts a contemporary art museum, a restaurant, and hotel rooms in the same historic building, starting in downtown Louisville in 2006. The founders, Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, were collectors and preservationists who wanted art in daily life and empty downtown buildings back in use.
6 21c Museum Hotels hotels in 1 country on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.
- Founded by Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson
- Worldwide: The founders' own account says the company now runs 7 hotels, a multi-venue contemporary art museum, and 6 restaurants, with more than 1,000 employees. The atlas files 6 of the hotels.
- On the atlas: 4 Accessible Luxury, 2 Near Luxury
History
21c Museum Hotels puts a contemporary art museum, a restaurant, and hotel rooms in the same historic building, starting in downtown Louisville in 2006. The founders, Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson, were collectors and preservationists who wanted art in daily life and empty downtown buildings back in use.
Timeline
- 2006 — Brown and Wilson open 21c Museum Hotel Louisville. The atlas dates that house to 2006 and 91 rooms.
- 2007 — They form 21c Museum Hotels to develop further properties. It had not been the plan to open more than one.
- 2013 — 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville is dated 2013 in the atlas, 104 rooms.
- 2015 — Durham is dated 2015 in the atlas, 125 rooms.
- 2016 — Lexington is dated 2016 in the atlas, 88 rooms.
- 2023 — St. Louis opens in August in a refurbished gymnasium building: 173 rooms and 14,000 square feet of exhibition space. JLL managed the project for developer NuovoRE.
The houses to know
- 21c Museum Hotel Louisville, Louisville, United States — Nineteenth-century bourbon and tobacco warehouses became a place to sleep among contemporary art when Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown opened the first 21c in April 2006.
- 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati, Cincinnati, United States — 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati in Cincinnati, United States
- 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville, Bentonville, United States — You can wander the galleries at any hour here: more than 12,000 square feet of contemporary art, free to the public, with 104 hotel rooms alongside.
- 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis, St. Louis, United States — 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis opened in August 2023 at 1528 Locust Street, with 173 rooms and about 14,000 square feet of exhibition space, most of it a refurbished gymnasium and running track.
- 21c Museum Hotel Durham, Durham, United States — Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the Empire State firm, designed Durham's 17-story Hill Building with George Watts Carr.
- 21c Museum Hotel Lexington, Lexington, United States — A crystal installation by SOFTLab changes as you move through the entrance of Lexington's old Fayette National Bank.
Newest openings
- None of the open houses filed in the atlas carry a 2024 or later date.
Opening next
- The company says it will develop more hotels. No named project and year were verified.
Every 21c Museum Hotels hotel on the atlas
United States
- 21c Museum Hotel Bentonville — Bentonville · Accessible Luxury
- 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati — Cincinnati · Accessible Luxury
- 21c Museum Hotel Louisville — Louisville · Accessible Luxury
- 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis — St. Louis · Accessible Luxury
- 21c Museum Hotel Durham — Durham · Near Luxury
- 21c Museum Hotel Lexington — Lexington · Near Luxury
Open The Maison in the atlas for 21c Museum Hotels's full dossier, with prices and maps.