Minneapolis hotel lobbies offer grandeur, gilt and a vibe-y jumble

The new lobby of the Hotel Indigo in the relaunched Northstar Center (618 2nd Av. S., Mpls.) might surprise a hotel visitor from 100 years ago. A big hotel, and such a small lobby. Grand hotels had grand spaces, no?

Once, yes. The West Hotel (5th Street and Hennepin Avenue S.) was the premier hostel of the late 19th century, built in 1884 to serve a growing city. Its lobby was vast — the largest in the nation, they claimed. A two-story space with acres of carpets.

People expected these impressive spaces in quality hotels; in the next few decades, hotel lobbies would get bigger and more ornate. People would rather sit in the lobby and watch the world go by than hole up in their tiny room.

They weren’t just for guests. The lobby had a social function for the whole city. A weary shopper could pause in the lobby and collect herself, watching the parade of businessmen with suitcases, travelers eager or bewildered, gaggles of ladies who’d come down to lunch at the nice cafe. The ding! summoning the bellboy, the creak of the baggage cart wheels, the rattle of the elevators’ cages. Over there, by the potted palm, the house detective eyeing a guy who’s been reading a newspaper for a long time. Give him another five minutes, then maybe see if he needs to be moved along.

The clientele might depend on the location. The Curtis Hotel and the Leamington Hotel, on the southwest edge of downtown, would have the middle- and upper-class citizens. The Ritz Hotel on Washington Avenue, between the train stations, might have the traveling-salesman type in the Panther Room off the lobby, wishing he could move up someday to the palatial lobby of the new Nicollet Hotel.

Besides the West and the Nicollet, there was the original Radisson. The lobby was rather glacial, with heavy white marble making it seem more like a crypt than a spot to relax. After a 1930s redesign stuffed it with tables and chairs, a brochure said: “A colorful dignity pervades the lobby.”

The Radisson, by the way, was replaced by — well, a Radisson, and the lobby had a big stone ball that revolved on a cushion of water. It’s now the Royal Sonesta, with an enormous table in the middle of the lobby and a gigantic cone overhead, looking as if it could descend and vacuum up everyone.

The newer downtown hotels have more intimate lobbies now, and bigger, better rooms. They’re no longer meeting places for nonguests who’ve come downtown on business. They strive to set a tone for the property, not provide a set for the daily plays of people’s lives. But you can still drop in, order a drink and enjoy some idle time in a space designed for nothing more than sitting, waiting, reading or just gazing out the window at the daily parade.

Different hotels have different moods, of course.

HISTORIC: The Rand Tower Hotel (527 Marquette Av. S.) is Minneapolis’ most elegant Moderne building. A white stone façade with black Art Deco ornamentation. Rufus Rand, the man who willed the building into existence, was many things, including a World War I aviator — hence the exterior carvings of planes and pilots. The lobby doesn’t exploit the Deco/Moderne vibe as much as it could. But the lobby has a wall of travel memorabilia set into niches, including a 1920′s ticket from Universal Air Lines, good for the grueling jaunt between Minneapolis and Alexandria, Minn.

TIMELESS: The Hyatt Centric (615 2nd Av. S.) is like a grand old hotel from the age of giant hostels, shrunk. The coffered ceiling has an Old World gravitas, and it’s left over from the building’s original life as the Minneapolis Athletic Club. There’s a small room off to the side with a view of the street, and it feels like a private little place you just discovered.

GRAND: There’s a big old-style lobby at the Hilton (1001 S. Marquette Av. S.) It’s as close as you’ll get to the days of the ostentatious space of the past. The original glittery mirrored lobby has been sheathed in stone, making it more settled and sedate.

GOOD VIEW: The Embassy Suites (12 S. 6th St.) provides a view of Hennepin Avenue and 6th Street, as well as the ordinary expanse of the City Center.

But you can imagine that the Dyckman Hotel still stands across the street, and that the lobby is full of salesmen and travelers wondering what’s on the menu at the French restaurant. The Embassy Suites is in a rehabbed office building, the Plymouth, built in 1911. If you literally want to walk in the steps of untold office workers long gone, go up the lobby stairs and note how the marble has been worn away over the decades.

There are many others, of course, each with their own character, but all sharing the same intention: a place to wait, and rest, and watch. A unique crossroads, an oasis for transients. We think they’re the domain of travelers, but they’re part of our city, and in a way they’re the domain of the citizens, as well. As long as you buy something to sip or don’t overstay your welcome. There might not be a house detective peering through the fronds of a potted palm, but you never know.