Field Trip!

At the end of this semester, I took all of my interior design classes on a field trip. We went to the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. Having never actually been there but seeing information on their website and hearing wonderful things about their designs, I called to schedule a field trip. I divided my classes into two groups so that they would be smaller and went on two different days. I was incredibly nervous about this field trip: What if the buses don't come? What if they forget that we're coming? What if someone gets lost or leaves or dies or...? I'm a chronic worrier.

On the first day, I was the most nervous! There was only one parent who volunteered to chaperone, so I nominated Tim to come and help. He helped calm me down. All in all it went really well. A few of the "oops" moments are when I told my students that they could leave their backpacks in my classroom since it would be locked but forgot that I had a worksheet for them to fill out during the tour that they needed a pen for. Quick fix: ask the hotel to borrow some of their logo pens. *whew* Easy save on that one. The other "oops" moment was pretty funny now that I think about, but it wasn't at the time. We were all getting off of the elevator onto the ground floor when one of my students hands me her phone and says, "She needs to talk to you." I have no idea who this is, I'm guessing a mom who needs to check out her daughter and forgot we were on a field trip, but no. It was a student who was trapped in the stairwell. She gets claustrophobic in elevators and decided to take the stairs....from the 23rd floor. When she got to the first floor, she realized she couldn't get out. See, they lock from the outside. So, after realizing this, they went all the way back up and called at the 18th floor. So my husband and the wonderful tour guide went to rescue her and a friend from the locking stairwell while I took roll on the bus. The students were wondering why we weren't leaving yet and where my husband was, so I told them some students got locked in the stairwell. Of course, they wanted to know who it was, but I told them they would find out when they got on the bus.

The next day, I had learned a few things, like 'don't take the stairs!', so it went a lot better. On Day 1, my students kept asking if they could have the water and the cookies that were sitting out for the guests, but I told them no, since they were for paying guests. On Day 1, I toldmy classes not to eat them, but the front desk manager kept offering them to my students and they wouldn't take any. Even after he told them that they baked them especially for our group. I felt bad that my students were rejecting his kind offer, so I told them that since they were offered, they were allowed to eat them. Some still didn't, even after I took a cookie. I don't know what it is, but my second day students are very low-maintenance. It was nice. Also, day 2 had 4 chaperones, so Tim didn't need to come again. (On a side note: When Tim went with the tour guide to get the girls out of the stairwell, the tour guide asked Tim how he liked his interior design class. Tim told him that he was actually married to the teacher. Yay! It's not just me that gets mistaken for a student!)

Now for the explanation of the pictures and some facts about the hotel.

There is 450,000 square feet of granite in the hotel.

The wood in the lobby is from West Africa and is exquisite!!

There is a mirror in the hotel that is worth $1 million.

The sconces in the lobby are made by the same company who made the light fixtures for Versailles.

The regular rooms are $300/night and the presidential suite is $5,000/night. Famous people that have stayed there include Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, President Bush, President Clinton, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, and the Rolling Stones, just to name a few.

This is one of the many hand blown glass chandeliers. This is in the Garden Cafe.

This is a sconce in the Garden Cafe.


This is a fancy wooden and gold inlay bureau that is in the presidential suite.

The view from the presidential suite of the Salt Lake City/County building. Possible field trip for next semester after learning about architecture...

This pictures shows the two chandeliers in the grand ballroom. They are 14 feet in diameter and the largest in the world. The crystals hanging from them are no longer made and were hidden during World War II.

This is a sconce on a mirrored panel in the grand ballroom.

This armoire is made from the wood of an African fruit tree. Sitting on top is a vase from the Ming Dynasty. I love the grain of the wood. It reminds me of zebra stripes.

Another of the chandeliers. If you enlarge the photo you can see the amazing moldings all around the doors, ceiling and walls. It was absolutely breathtaking!

This chandelier is so fun and colorful. It is in the same room as the million dollar mirror, but there were people in the room so we couldn't get a good view or photo of the mirror. Honestly, though, I wasn't that impressed with the mirror. I thought it would be bigger and grander, but it was quite small.

This is the chandelier as soon as you walk in the lobby. You can kind of see the wood in this picture. Right below the chandelier, you see some funky branches. Those are willow branches that are in the floral arrangement. Since I taught a unit on floral arranging, I asked him how much it cost to make the arrangement and how frequently it is replaced. Apparently, it costs between $700 and $800 and is replaced every four days. On the second day of our field trip, some of the flowers looked like they were on their last leg, so they should be getting replaced soon. Surprisingly, I didn't take a photo of the flowers. Hopefully one of my students did. I still need to get copies of their pictures.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the photo tour of the Grand America Hotel. I know there are a lot of pictures of the chandeliers, but what can I say--I like sparkly things.