I love this! Spotting old HoJos is one of my favorite things to do on road trips, though I never would have suspected this one as it is today (maybe in its Lone Star form though).
One of my favorite finds was a few years ago when I stumbled upon the last HoJo motel to still bear the name in Massachusetts. It has since rebranded to a non-HoJo brand, but the old motel building still remains!
I was blown away comparing it to the Highway Host archival photos.
There’s another one near me that I’ve been meaning to photograph for a while. It’s a restaurant with an old tower hotel behind it. The restaurant is now a sushi place. They painted over the roof, but that new paint is starting to chip off, revealing the orange underneath!
My experience on a Planning Commission tells me the reason they did a "remodel" is because it significantly reduces the administrative burden and avoids potential domino changes required by the zoning as a result of a new construction. The remodel typically costs more since these new modern building types are pretty cheap to build from scratch, but weighing the costs (both monetary and time) in both scenarios the remodel was probably more cost effective.
I love this! Spotting old HoJos is one of my favorite things to do on road trips, though I never would have suspected this one as it is today (maybe in its Lone Star form though).
One of my favorite finds was a few years ago when I stumbled upon the last HoJo motel to still bear the name in Massachusetts. It has since rebranded to a non-HoJo brand, but the old motel building still remains!
https://heathracela.substack.com/p/wednesday-walk-one-last-original
Oh wow, that motel is really unchanged. It's always neat when an upgrade/renovation leaves some part of the thing like that.
I was blown away comparing it to the Highway Host archival photos.
There’s another one near me that I’ve been meaning to photograph for a while. It’s a restaurant with an old tower hotel behind it. The restaurant is now a sushi place. They painted over the roof, but that new paint is starting to chip off, revealing the orange underneath!
My experience on a Planning Commission tells me the reason they did a "remodel" is because it significantly reduces the administrative burden and avoids potential domino changes required by the zoning as a result of a new construction. The remodel typically costs more since these new modern building types are pretty cheap to build from scratch, but weighing the costs (both monetary and time) in both scenarios the remodel was probably more cost effective.