Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1121563
67 Peter & Paul. The Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church was built by architect Henry Howard in 1860 and for more than a century, the church offered a spiritual base for the Faubourg Marigny and educated its youth. But as the years passed, suburban flight led to a decrease in enrollment, and forced the school to shut its doors in 1993. The church and its accompanying rectory, schoolhouse, and convent had been abandoned for more than a decade before developer Nathalie Jordi arrived with a big (but not easy!) vision. Determined to resurrect this community sanctuary, she brought in partner ASH NYC, an AD 100 design and development firm versed in historic hotel conversions (The Dean in Providence, Rhode Island, and The Siren in Detroit). Local architectural firm studio WTA joined the team, to preserve the beloved building fabric and to apportion guest rooms and baths from children's lavatories, an auditorium and gymnasium in the school building, and to reconfigure Mother Superior's private quarters in the Convent. On trips to France, Belgium, and beyond, Jordi and ASH NYC's Ari Heckman and Will Cooper sourced 770-plus antiques to fill the hallowed halls. Pointing to the city's history of immigration and trade, the accretion of objets adds up to a monastically austere hybrid of French country, Italian palazzo, and Gustavian styling. Iron beds topped with crosses, trompe l'oeil wardrobes inspired by Christian Bérard, and hand- painted shower tiles showcase the talent of countless local artisans and craftsmen whose hands built Hotel Peter & Paul. The 71 guest rooms of this heaven on earth are canonically suffused with miles of check fabric by Filtex, a 100-year-old Swiss textile manufacturer, in a color palette derived from the hotel's vertu of 14th- through 18th-century religious paintings. In the School House, where we took pine-colored corner quarters (from $194 a night), each floor is devoutly green, blue, yellow, or red monochrome, and no two rooms are alike. (continued)