Walk down almost any block in New Orleans’ Central Business District and look at the ground. Thousands of manhole covers still stamped with the name NOPSI are embedded in the pavement, the last physical trace of a utility company that once ran the city’s streetcars, power lines, and public transit all under one roof.
The building that those operations called home still stands at the corner of Baronne and Union, and it’s now one of the finest places to stay in the city.
The nine-story building went up in 1927, designed by the Louisiana firm Favrot and Livaudais for the New Orleans Public Service Inc. at the height of its influence.
The company had consolidated every major public utility in the city under a single organization just five years earlier, and it built accordingly: ornamental columns, vaulted arches, brass grills, stone terrazzo floors, and a lobby that communicated civic authority the moment you walked through the door.
NOPSI vacated the building in 1983, and it sat largely empty for decades before a $50 million restoration by Salamander Hotels brought it back to life in 2017 as the first luxury hotel to open in downtown New Orleans in a generation.
The restoration was precise work. Local firm Woodward Design + Build coordinated closely with Louisiana’s State Historic Preservation Office to ensure the architectural details survived intact.
The vaulted lobby ceilings, cast iron rails, stone facades, and terrazzo floors were returned to their original condition. Guest rooms were fitted with furnishings that draw from the building’s history, and the hotel’s circular logo was pulled directly from the old NOPSI manhole cover design.
Even the rooftop pool and bar, called Above the Grid, required engineering work to add a new floor to the top of the original structure without compromising the historic bones below.
That rooftop is where most people end up spending the most time, and it earns it. The views from up there take in the CBD skyline, the Superdome, and on a clear evening, the curve of the Mississippi River catching the last of the light.
By day, the pool deck runs at a quieter pace with cabana service.
After four o’clock, the bar picks up and the crowd shifts. It’s open to hotel guests and locals alike, which keeps the energy honest.
Below, the Public Service restaurant occupies a separate two-story structure on the property, running a Gulf Coast-focused menu out of an open-display kitchen with a raw bar and open-flame rotisserie.
NOPSI Hotel is at 317 Baronne St. in the Central Business District. Visit their site for rates and reservations.
