The Roanoker March/April 2022 - 20

THE GIST
Liberty Trust: Resplendent Again
written by Dan Smith A new hotel gives life to one of Roanoke's signature early buildings.
W
hen what came to be
known as the Liberty
Trust Building was first
opened in December of
1910, it caused quite a
stir in Roanoke. The French Renaissance/
Beaux Arts building, designed by one of the
Commonwealth's best architects, John Kevan
Peebles, was called a " Temple of Finance " by
a local newspaper. It opened as First National
Bank and remained a bank of one vintage or
another for nearly 100 years.
In March of 2022 the building, which is
on the National Register of Historic Places,
will re-open as a downtown hotel, The Liberty
Trust, and it will retain many of its most spectacular
features, especially the main lobby.
According to Managing Director Vishal
Savani of Savara Development, " The building
is a total of approximately 36,000 square feet,
54 guest rooms (200 square feet to 500 square
feet), and six room classes ranging from Petite
Queen to Classic Double Queen with two
queen beds. Most rooms will have one kingsize
bed. The vault is being renovated and will
be a tasting room. "
The seven stories were initially made
possible by the invention of the electric elevator
and improvements in fireproofing. Liberty
Trust was Roanoke's first skyscraper.
Ana Bell has been named general manager
for The Liberty Trust. She served as the operations
rooms manager at Keswick Hall, a luxury
resort in Charlottesville.
Savani says of obtaining financing during
the pandemic, " Fortunately, we commenced
20 MARCH/APRIL 2022
the project and secured our financing before
COVID began. We acquired the building in
2018 and began construction at the end of
2019. We paused construction during COVID
and restarted it in January 2022. "
Most of the key project participants in the
renovation are local businesses. The general
contractor is R.L. Price Construction, based in
Salem. Architectural and engineering work is
being completed by Balzer and Associates. Hill
Studio is consultant on historic restoration and
preservation. The project is financed locally by
Roanoke-based Freedom First Credit Union.
Roanoke engineer and developer John
Garland of Garland Properties, who has a
history of renovating historic downtown
buildings, says, " I have admired the Liberty
Trust building for many years. Liberty Trust
is one of the best remaining historic gems we
have in downtown Roanoke. The first floor is
breathtaking. The copper-clad office doors are
the only ones I know of in Roanoke. Even the
urinals are historic keepers.
" Unfortunately, there are so many historic
components that should be restored and integrated
into the adaptive reuse of the building, it
became problematic to convert to apartments.
The boutique hotel is more easily adapted by
using the small office rooms for hotel suites and
the first floor becomes a grand lobby.
" Losing the Liberty Trust building to a nonhistoric
preservation developer, or worse yet, to
be razed, would have been a significant loss to
our downtown historic building fabric. A hotel
use should be a significant economic positive
driver for our downtown. "
Robert Pilkington of Balzer & Associates,
the project's architect, says, " It's always a challenge
to preserve the historic character and
at the same time suit a modern purpose and
meet modern codes. " With historic tax credits
applied to the renovation, he says, " come guidelines.
You can't just go and tear things out. You
can't move them. In historic renovation you
want to keep everything in historic locations. "
Pilkington stresses that " the project has
entailed a full historic restoration of the
Liberty Trust building, from top to bottom.
In addition to a full restoration of the building's
historic features including its parapet,
and historic copper interior doors, we have
installed completely new mechanical systems,
electrical, plumbing, HVAC, life safety systems,
etc., inside the building. "
Liberty Trust presented a significant challenge,
says, Pilkington, one so distinct that
several other potential developers passed on
the project. " Challenges are opportunities, "
says Pilkington.
One of those was to make a bank lobby feel
like a hotel lobby, and converting the spectacular
vault into a tasting room became " a cool
feature, " he says.
Pilkington has spent a significant portion of
his career working on old buildings and says,
" Any historic property like that is a joy to work
on. A project like this comes every once in a
while. I feel fortunate we got to work on it. "
For a detailed history of the building and its
importance to Roanoke, visit Libertytrusthotel.
com. I
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The Roanoker March/April 2022

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