A few weeks ago, our friend Meg Fielding of Pigtown Design shared with us her pictures of The Ivy Hotel mid-construction. On Wednesday evening, I saw the new boutique hotel with the furnishings installed, and the results are stunning! The Ivy, owned by Baltimore businessman and philanthropist Eddie Brown and historic real estate refurbisher Marty Azola, is managed by the Charlotte, Vermont company Garrett Hotel Consultants, which also runs The Wilcox in South Carolina, The Pink Adobe in New Mexico, and Twin Farms in Vermont, among others. When it opens in mid-June (June 19 to be exact) The Ivy, at Calvert and Biddle Streets, will stand alone in Baltimore as the city’s only world-class small luxury hotel, and Garrett’s first urban hotel.
The interior designer on the project, San Francisco-based Joszi Meskan, has decorated many Garrett hotels, and she mixes well the historic and the modern.
One of my favorite rooms is the back sunroom, which leads to the courtyard with views of Baltimore.
There are only nine rooms and nine suites, which will be offered from $495 to $1,400. Most of the rooms are still under construction, but we caught a glimpse of a few.
The Browns are benefactors to MICA (they built the school’s iconic Brown Center), so it comes as no surprise that the armoires in some of the rooms were each hand painted by MICA students.
A charming detail of the hotel are the needlepoint seat covers on the chairs in the breakfast room. Each one depicts a Baltimore scene, from the Washington Monument to the University of Maryland Medical School building and more.
The restaurant, Magdalena, is not open yet, but the decorative paint on the hallway that leads to the restaurant gives a hint of what’s to come…something vibrant and lively, perhaps? Magdalena will have a soft opening in mid-June. The chef, Mark Levy, relocated to Baltimore from The Point, a five-star resort in Saranac Lake, New York, to run the restaurant.
The hotel already has over 40 employees getting ready for the official opening of the hotel, restaurant and spa next month. Can’t wait to see the final result once it is fully operational. At first glance, at least, it appears to be a sophisticated addition to the Baltimore hospitality scene.
