Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center
| Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center | |
|---|---|
Cascades Atrium
|
|
| General information | |
| Location | Nashville, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 36°12′41″N 86°41′40″W / 36.21139°N 86.69444°WCoordinates: 36°12′41″N 86°41′40″W / 36.21139°N 86.69444°W |
| Opening | November 1977 |
| Owner | Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. |
| Management | Marriott International |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 7 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Earl Swensson Associates |
| Other information | |
| Number of rooms | 2,888 |
| Number of suites | 220 |
| Number of restaurants | 15 |
| Website | |
| Gaylord Opryland | |
Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, formerly known as Opryland Hotel, is a large hotel and convention center located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is owned by Gaylord Hotels, a division of Ryman Hospitality Properties (formerly known as Gaylord Entertainment Company), and operated by Marriott International. It is one of the largest hotels in the world.
The original Opryland Hotel opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1977, on land adjacent to the former Opryland USA amusement park. The hotel was originally built to support the Grand Ole Opry, a Nashville country music institution. The hotel at that time had 580 guest rooms and a ballroom. The Magnolia Lobby was designed to resemble a grand Southern mansion with an impressive staircase and a Tiffany-style chandelier.
In 1983-84 the hotel was expanded, adding over 400 guest rooms and incorporating facilities to meet the demands of the corporate meeting and convention market. A Garden Conservatory resembling a Victorian garden was added. This atrium maintained a constant temperature of 71 degrees and housed more than 10,000 plants.
In 1988, 2 acres and 797 guest rooms were added to the hotel. The Cascades Atrium was built, including a 3.5-story waterfall and more than 8,000 tropical plants. The Cascades Lobby expanded to 24 check-in stations that could check in 580 guests per hour when necessary.
A 4.5-acre expansion completed in 1996 doubled the size of the resort, adding approximately 1,000 guest rooms, 10 meeting rooms, a 289,000-square-foot exhibit hall and a 57,000-square-foot ballroom. The trademark feature of this addition was the Cajun-themed Delta Atrium, which incorporated a quarter-mile-long indoor river. Flatboats were introduced to carry guests along the river, and past a water feature that included jets which were choreographed to music. When the expansion was christened, water samples from more than 1,700 rivers throughout the world (including every registered river in the United States) were poured into the Delta River. The Old Hickory Steak House, built to resemble an antebellum-style mansion, was also added.
On October 26, 2001, Opryland Hotel Nashville was rebranded as Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center (or Gaylord Opryland, for short), taking its name from its corporate parent. Company officials at the time stated that the "Opryland" branding was strong to Nashville (and Texas, initially), but did not fit with projects in other parts of the United States. According to a 2003 press release, Gaylord Opryland planned to build a 5,000-seat amphitheatre on the site in the near future, but those plans seem to have been abandoned in favor of a convention center expansion.
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