Last week, a unique hotel opened in Boston's South End. The Revolution Hotel was once a YWCA. It features Boston-inspired art, 163 modest and compact guest rooms - some with bunk beds, and a co-working space called Conspire.
“Our intention is to honor the revolutionary spirit of Boston by creating something really new for the city,” Kate Buska, vice president of brand development and communications for Provenance Hotels, told Boston.com.
Guests have several lodging options when staying at the Revolution. While the bunk bed option is fun and quirky, you can also choose a king bed with your own private bathroom.
Buska expects that younger guests searching for a more economic choice while traveling will take advantage of the hotel's triple or quad suites. These rooms have bunk beds and are clustered around shared private bathrooms.
“Maybe you live in New York or D.C. and are just coming for the weekend for a game or a concert and you’re not intending to spend a lot of time in your room,” Buska said. “We’re the perfect place.”
As for the finer details, the Revolution features tons of Boston-inspired artwork and information.
For example, the lobby features a massive mural featuring people important to Boston's history such as John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as objects and inventions attributed to the city.
The colorful, graffiti-style piece was created by street artist, Tristan Eaton.
Even the bar top inside the Conspire public work space is a beautiful piece of functional art crafted from the wood of an 1880s Boston elm tree. It features important dates in Boston's history such as the day same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts and the day Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.
The hotel also boasts a stunning sculpture created by the Individuals Collective, a group of local artists.
“They collected all these objects that had been physically invented in Boston and then they turned them into art,” Buska said. “They put them in this column as a sculpture. It’s this really cool, visual piece of art.”
According to Buska, Provenance Hotels plans to add a restaurant to the Revolution in 2019.