UGA Music Business Program

The UGA Music Business Program continues to capture the hearts and minds of our project team. We see great value in a program that develops the symbiotic disciplines of economics and the arts.

Just recently, our project team decided to commit to a substantial donation in support of the UGA Music Business Program. Hotel Indigo Athens' investors, general contractor, architects, engineers, interior designers, attorneys, and other consultants all agreed to give a portion of their fees generated by the project to the Program. For details, please view our Press Release.

We visited a UGA Music Business Program class yesterday and were greeted by over 80 talented students. Each one displayed a self-made, hand-crafted nameplate, which attested to the individual expression behind each creation. No doubt this was a clever assignment by Bruce Burch and Keith Perissi to teach the students the importance of standing out among a crowd. We are excited to have a student extern, Emmy Bateman, join our Hotel Indigo marketing team. She will be helping us build a student program for attracting music talent to the hotel.

Athens Art Scene

Athens is a gold mine for the arts. Between the University of Georgia's commitment to art education and the larger community's promotion of local talent, there exists a richness of spirit and culture unique to this college town.

For the first time ever, UGA introduced a four-day Arts Festival featuring fine and decorative arts exhibits, as well as musical and theatrical performances. Honoring UGA's new home for arts education, the festival kicked off with the Lamar Dodd School of Art building dedication, which our development team attended this past Thursday. We were very impressed by the building's accomplishments in sustainability, from its green roof to its water conservation efforts (includes a stormwater infiltration system). But the building's most unique sustainable feature is the art on the walls--continuously produced by both faculty and students, and displayed on a rotating basis. Our hotel seeks to create the same community-inspired environment through art exhibits that refresh seasonally.

We are excited to find so many people within the Athens community that share our philosophy about sustainable development as it relates to the arts. From the Athens Design Development group to the Mercury Art Works duo, we are discovering unforeseen opportunities that we cannot wait to realize. The home of Sandi Turner and Chris Wyrick is a good example of what we would like to create within the hotel--a place where the boundary between art gallery and living space blurs:

School Starts, Construction Underway

Classes began at UGA this week, and we had our first on-site construction meeting. The project team, including JM Wilkerson, Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein Architects, and Rialto Property Partners, as well as key project stakeholders, gathered in a double-wide trailer to discuss the construction schedule. Site grading and underground storm water systems are currently underway, which you can see from our walking tour of the site (visit album First On-Site Construction Meeting). August 11, 2009 is our target date for completion.

This week we saw a pronounced difference in the pulse of downtown Athens. The streets have come to life with the arrival of UGA students. This observation reminded us of the value of bringing student perspective into our project. We just hired an Interior Design student from UGA who has the talent to make a unique contribution to our hotel. In addition to helping us with space planning, Sarah Brown will be helping us make inroads with the university's art departments. Design and art are a big part of our vision for the hotel, and we are looking for opportunities to bring in new ideas via student competitions.

Nuci's Space and Athens Land Trust

We took a trip to Athens yesterday to personally deliver our "greenbreaking" donations to Nuci's Space and Athens Land Trust (see Album entitled Nuci and ALT). We are so impressed by what these organizations have accomplished, we can't help but talk about them.

Nuci's Space was created in honor of Nuci Phillips who was a talented musician and student at the University of Georgia until he took his own life in 1996. Nuci suffered from depression, and so the Foundation created a place where musicians could seek mental health treatment without stigma. During our visit, we could see why the foundation has been so successful at attracting musicians and saving lives, from the sound-treated practice rooms to the people behind its mission. We had the opportunity to meet Nuci's mother Linda, as well as Bob Sleppy, who spoke very candidly about their personal motivation behind the cause.

We also met with Heather Benham of Athens Land Trust who is working to create energy-efficient and affordable housing for the Athens community. At the same time, the organization is responsible for protecting 1200 acres of farmland and forestland. We learned that land trusts are playing a large role in natural resource protection--more than 6.2 million acres of greenspace in the U.S. is protected by land trusts according to a recent census.

Our greenbreaking has inspired us to leave a development footprint that's as green and responsible as Athens Land Trust, and to create a hotel environment that's as welcoming and memorable as Nuci's Space. One detail about Nuci's Space that was particularly striking was its location in Athens, just in front of the tower where Athens' most famous band used to practice--how's that for tribute?

Construction has officially commenced

A massive amount of dirt has started to move around our site. We consider this news to mark the official commencement of construction. To view more pictures of the site grading, please visit today's album.

Wondering why your weren't invited to a groundbreaking event? Because we didn't have one! In lieu of a traditional hole-digging ceremony, we decided to have a "greenbreaking" instead, and diverted funds to support community intiatives, including Nuci's Space and Athens Land Trust. Check out our offical announcement to the press here: http://www.athensdowntownhotel.com/indigo-pr-80408.pdf

Ellen Hanson Designs

Our NYC based designer Ellen Hanson has a mention in the New York Times today. Look for the Home section, under the article "What Green Means in the Hamptons" (Page D7 in paper format), where photographs of her kitchen and dining area design are featured. We love the handcrafted table, made of pieces of lumber from the original house and sitting on steel legs made by a local blacksmith.

Just as our architects Surber Barber Choate & Hertlein have designed the building to meet Gold LEED criteria, Ellen Hanson is using a green lens in her selection of the hotel's interior finishes and furnishings. Because there are no LEED-equivalent standards for interior furnishings, she has self-imposed such design criteria as specifying materials sourced from within a 500 mile radius and using local suppliers whenever possible.

Ellen is also the creator of the "Green Scene" on 1stdibs.com.

Athens Grow Green Coalition

We recently learned that Athens has its own organization for promoting sustainable development called the Athens Grow Green Coalition (AGGC). We have taken interest in the group, because we share their mission to promote responsible community development.

Last week we had the opportunity to meet two representatives of the board, and we have been thinking about ways to get involved. We have been tossing around different ideas, from providing financial support to assisting with a lecture series on sustainable development. Stay tuned for future updates, but we wanted to get the word out about the group's initiatives, one of which is an annual report called "Growing Sustainability."