The Hotel Grinnell in Iowa makes no pretenses about being housed in the town’s former junior high. Perkins+Will designed the 65,000-square-foot hotel to embrace the 1921 building’s history and strengthen its ties to the local community by highlighting and repurposing original details in the new-concept hotel. “It’s a true boutique hotel, the way they used to be,” says Jacqueline McGee, a Perkins+Will design principal, explaining the hotel has the typical limited number of guestrooms, an urban location, and a strong concept. The owner, a former executive of the local chamber of commerce and visitors bureau, had a vision for something that could host visitors to Grinnell College and celebrate broader reinvestment in the town.

To start, building products were sourced with an emphasis on social purpose. For example, rooms contain paintings by local artists; an Iowa-based manufacturer fabricated the iron beds, armoires, vanities, and table bases; and a woman-owned company produced the OEKO-TEX-certified bedding and bath linens.