Each year, I complain bitterly about the location of the conference. It is always some town I have no real desire to see - Louisville, Phoenix, Houston, Wichita (seriously), and now Cincinnati.
Why can't we have USITT Hawaii or USITT Virgin Islands? This year was not different. I whined and complained right up until I stepped in to the Cincinnati Hilton Netherlands Plaza Hotel. And then I shut up!The conference itself was fine. My USITT chapter meeting involved an interesting discussion on how the economy is impacting education. My ESTA meetings were centered around strategic planning for the association and offered in-depth analysis of the importance of ESTA and its programs. The exhibits were great and I got a chance to spend some time learning about wireless DMX from Andrew at City Theatrical and playing with the long-awaited new Element Control Console from ETC. A typical USITT.
A typical report from a USITT would include a detailed description of the new equipment offerings and how they can better your facilities. This will not be a typical report. You don't need me to tell you all about the new Element Control Console, you have already seen 9 press releases about it and visited the ETC website. Instead, I am going to tell you about the hotel.
As artists, we all want to be inspired. I find as I get older, that I am less and less easily inspired. Everything seems mundane and dim and industrial. Architecture and interior design has devolved to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Structure and color have become anticipatory to me. I can walk up to a building and tell you exactly what it will look like inside. But not the Hilton Netherland Plaza Hotel!
This hotel was completed in 1931 by a gentleman who cleverly pulled is money out of the stock market moments before it crashed. As a result, he was able to complete his project, and employ a great number of people, at a time of great despair for many others. This hotel is a model of Art Deco splendor that makes the Empire State Building look like a shack. What was once the lobby of the hotel is now the Palms Court Restaurant and Bar, which is the picture at top. Lined in Brazilian Rosewood, it features glorious wall sconces, remarkable scroll work, and lovely paintings (sadly lit with Par 46 cans - one of which I was forced to adjust slightly because I couldn't stand it anymore). At the far end is a zigguraut-shapped fountain with a rams head. From the Mezanine level, you can look down at all this splendor, and up at some more, as there are brilliant chandeliers and luscious murals on the ceiling of Apollo and Diana.
We decided to take a walking tour of the entire hotel. Guests are permitted to wander in and out of ballrooms and meeting rooms. Each one more amazing than the next. The USITT Banquet was held in the Hall of Mirrors on the third floor. Originally designed to look like a theatre, the room features a majestic staircase, jaded green grille work, and painted draperies. The main feature of the room was, of course, the mirrors, which reflect warm shimmering light from every angle of the room.
Beneath the hotel is a breezeway that connects the hotel to Carew Tower and to the above street-level walkway to the convention center. Even the breezeway is an example of Art Deco splendor. Chrome and lavander decor with remarkable marble pillars. The lighting overhead seems natural instead of being underneath 27 stories of over 600 guest rooms.
Every room we visited brought new joys and surprises. Murals, chandeliers, scroll work, grilles, scuplture, and sconces. All of it designed to transport the visitor to a time and place of opulence and romance. Colors, textiles, metals, woods, and furnishings all selected with the one goal of human inspiration. I would be pleased to return to Cincinnati for any reason, so long as I could spend 2 hours basking in the glory of this delicious hotel.
That being said, next year USITT will be held in Kansas City, Mo. NOT Hawaii, as I requested for the 15th year in a row. The best I can hope for is to be once again surprised and inspired by the ingenuity of man and power of really good art.
We decided to take a walking tour of the entire hotel. Guests are permitted to wander in and out of ballrooms and meeting rooms. Each one more amazing than the next. The USITT Banquet was held in the Hall of Mirrors on the third floor. Originally designed to look like a theatre, the room features a majestic staircase, jaded green grille work, and painted draperies. The main feature of the room was, of course, the mirrors, which reflect warm shimmering light from every angle of the room.
Beneath the hotel is a breezeway that connects the hotel to Carew Tower and to the above street-level walkway to the convention center. Even the breezeway is an example of Art Deco splendor. Chrome and lavander decor with remarkable marble pillars. The lighting overhead seems natural instead of being underneath 27 stories of over 600 guest rooms.
Every room we visited brought new joys and surprises. Murals, chandeliers, scroll work, grilles, scuplture, and sconces. All of it designed to transport the visitor to a time and place of opulence and romance. Colors, textiles, metals, woods, and furnishings all selected with the one goal of human inspiration. I would be pleased to return to Cincinnati for any reason, so long as I could spend 2 hours basking in the glory of this delicious hotel.
That being said, next year USITT will be held in Kansas City, Mo. NOT Hawaii, as I requested for the 15th year in a row. The best I can hope for is to be once again surprised and inspired by the ingenuity of man and power of really good art.
