During the Great Depression, the construction of a neoclassical U.S. post office in downtown Bend provided much-needed employment. It also gave people hope with its grand brick and terracotta façade featuring a column detail and Art Deco flourishes. Reborn as a 23-room hotel, The Westman has once more become a beacon of light and a community gathering spot. After visitors and guests enter the rectangular foyer with its soaring 16-foot ceilings and a lobby bar, they’ll find stories that unfold in every elegant corner.
The Westman co-owner Gil Burgess, a successful businessman who grew up in rural Oregon, remembers trips to Central Oregon with his family, where they would buy sandwiches at a local deli, walk around downtown Bend and camp on the Metolius River.
“I have a lot of fun memories of Bend. It was a very special place to me growing up,” said Burgess.
During dinner, his business partner asked a profound question, “What if we did something that would spark joy in both of us? What would that be?” Eventually, they decided on hospitality. When the old post office came up for sale, they jumped on it, determined not to let it go the way of Bend’s Pilot Butte Inn that was demolished in 1973 despite having a historic designation.
“It was really important for us to maintain all the historic elements of the post office and do it the right way,” said Burgess.
Hudson’s Inspirational Interiors
Burgess and the hotel’s management group, Embarcadero Hospitality, prioritized saving as much of the building, on the National Register of Historic Places, as possible. They preserved 175,000 bricks, 1,900 square feet of gold terrazzo flooring, 1,700 tons of concrete and 44 original windows, while also creating a luxurious hotel with modern comforts, like an oversized heated outdoor soaking tub.
Interiors are a modern take on Art Deco with nods to Mountain West style. Senior interior designer Jenny Baines at LRS Architects of Bend and Portland was tasked with selecting interior finishes, furniture and fixtures.
Baines chose four Kelly Wearstler schoolhouse-style pendant light fixtures for the lobby. Echoing the shape of the space’s pilasters, Artistic Frame barstools feature fluted bases. The jewel box of a parlor features rich green velvet sofas and a handmade brass fireplace crafted by MW Designs in Salem. There’s a river rock art installation on the wall and a dramatic charcoal crystal light fixture.
“High-end hospitality in Oregon needs to have a level of elegance, but it also has to have casualness to it. People don’t want stuffy, they want comfortable,” said Baines.
Inspired by the building’s history, architecture and the surrounding landscape, guests will spot walls painted U.S. Forest Service green—the Forest Service was an original tenant—and dark blue, a nod to the night sky. Pops of dark gray and rich brown recall postal uniforms and leather mailbags.
Preservation Challenges for the Hotel
The hotel’s namesake, Minnie Westman, was the first woman mail carrier west of the Mississippi. Riding horseback through Oregon to deliver mail in the 1880s, Westman even encountered bears along the way. The Western motif wallpaper in the public bathrooms on the main floor, a custom design by local artist Mikayla Bivona, is an ode to her adventures. It requires grit and determination similar to Westman’s to turn a nearly 100-year-old post office into a hospitality venture, but Emerick Architects, a Portland firm with extensive experience in historic restoration, was up for the challenge.
“There are a lot of constraints, but that’s part of the fun. It really demands a lot of creativity to try to crack that code and figure out the puzzle,” said principal architect Brian Emerick.
Working with the existing square footage and original wooden windows allowed for larger rooms. Each of the 23 guest rooms, including 15 suites, has a unique layout. Lower-level rooms have outdoor patios with firepits in old window wells to let in natural light.
The Mailroom Suite, one of three guest rooms with spiral staircases and loft sleeping areas, has a fluted marble fireplace.
The corner Franklin Street suite showcases one of Baines’ favorite details: handstitched cashmere scarf-like draperies that accentuate the verticality of the spaces. Each guest room has a white oak kitchenette with a built-in refrigerator, a design akin to something found in a high-end home.
Caretakers of History
In the early 1900s, people would congregate in post offices to receive news about loved ones during wartime. It feels fitting that this important building is once again a gathering place. At the lobby bar called Minnie’s, the menu includes a Minnie Westman-inspired Smoking Revolver cocktail and a refreshing Marionberry Bramble with Wild Roots gin, fresh lemon juice and marionberry puree, along with a plate of tater tot waffles topped with Pacific Northwest smoked salmon.
The care taken to create The Westman experience extends to all the senses. When visitors walk into the hotel, they’ll immediately smell the intoxicating scent of cedarwood atlas, sandalwood and oakmoss blended with an oregano tincture. It’s a signature scent created by Bend-based natural perfumer Kristine Ambrose.
“I wanted to capture the scent of Central Oregon, but I also wanted to include the entire region through the lens of Minnie and the routes she took,” said Ambrose. Portland-based interior mural and hand-painted wallpaper company Lonesome Pictopia applied gold leaf to lobby windows inside, creating a swirling, storm-like effect.
The Westman is a love letter to Bend and the building’s history from the walnut wood postmaster-style desks made by Bend woodworker Aaron Johnson to the post office’s original vault door emblazoned with an American eagle emblem, showcased in a special suite called the Vault.
Just like the 90-year-old ficus trees in the lobby, which lived in the post office for decades, the stewards of this project haven’t forgotten the roots of this space, “What we’ll have here cannot be duplicated or replicated,” said Burgess.
