Page 18 - Demo

18 | September 2022
Bottleworks Art Deco Past Revived as a One-of-a-Kind Hotel
Slippery Rock Gazette
Some 400 custom tiles had to be created by hand, including firing in custom colors to match or replace the original installation. This colorful mosaic is in the lobby / tasting room.
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Besides the terrazzo, there was tile work to be done. The most complicated portion was in the lab, where the Coca-Cola brands were actually formulated and made. Here they needed to repli- cate 400 4 x 4-inch tiles. Working with a local artist who used regu- lar unglazed tile to match the col- ors and then fired them in a kiln, they were able to do just that. The same process was done in the lobby as well, with colors ranging from antique white to sea-green to maroon to cyan blue and more. One hundred pieces or more of each color were created for the finished product.
There were bathroom renova- tions involving tile, terrazzo and stone that Santarossa was also responsible for. New shower installations made with Calacatta porcelain tile were part of estab- lishing the opulent feel of the guest rooms for the boutique hotel.
Working on this area proved dif- ficult because the building had to adhere to strict codes to preserve its historical status. Alexander said that nothing was square and they were required to keep their caulk joints to no more than a six- teenth of an inch anywhere.
Another challenge they had was matching marble for the window- sills in the club room that had been damaged, again due mainly to neglect. Alexander said that they were lucky enough to find marble to match the windowsills in their own yard. “This is not the first time that our yard yielded exactly what the job called for,” said Alexander. “Who knows? It could even have been left over from the original. Being able to find that for this legacy project was truly awesome.”
Santarossa Mosaic and Tile Company will celebrate its cen- tennial in 2024. Located in cen- tral Indiana, the company was founded by Italian immigrant
Domenic M. Santarossa. Leaving Italy at age 13 to study the ter- razzo and mosaic trade in Germany, Domenic arrived in the United States at age 20 to build a future for himself and his fam- ily. Santarossa started out as a traveling company, but in 1921, Domenic and his partner moved into the building that they still occupy today. The company was officially incorporated in 1924.
Today, four members of the Santarossa family are still with the company, making three gen- erations involved in the business.
The Bottleworks Hotel web- site tells the history of the build- ing. Built by brothers Lee and James Yuncker, the building fea- tures unique art-deco architec- ture. The factory located on Mass Ave was able to produce more than 2 million bottles of soda per week at its peak. But in 1964, the factory moved to Speedway, IN after being purchased by Tony Hulman. The plant stayed empty
Dal “Diamond Mine” panoramic large format porcelain pan- els were chosen for the pri- vate baths in this beautiful hotel. The Panoramic panels were custom cut into 2 x 2-inch hexagon mosaics for the shower floors, and the bathroom floors were custom cut to 24 x 24 inch tiles. All of the shower walls were cut to size for each unit to match the veining, and kept in their large panel sizes.
This high-ceiling former lab room is on the second floor,
and needed extensive replace- ment, restoration and cleaning of the walls and floor. It’s now used for weddings and events.
until 1969 when the Indianapolis Public Schools bought the prop- erty. It was the home of the IPS Service Center until 2016. That’s when Hendricks Commercial Properties purchased the property for its current development. The rest, as they say, is history.
For more information, visit www.bottleworkshotel.com and www.Santarossa.com .