The renovation and re-opening of classic motels is picking up steam When interior designer Nicole Cota began working on the Drifter, a recently renovated roadside motel in New Orleans that reopened last year, she felt like she was bringing a building back to life.
Located on a commercial stretch of Highway 61 known as Tulane Avenue, near the city courthouse, the former Rose Inn Motel was part of a stretch of faded commercial properties the NOLA Defender called ?dilapidated, flea-ridden, and pimp-frequented.? The area was just beginning to see the stages of bohemian revival, but was still most likely to attract the young and hip who had a court date to catch.
But Cota saw something in the old motel, a vision that has motivated numerous investors, hotel guests, and designers to pursue similar projects over the last decade. Like other motels that came of age during America?s budding romance with the highway, the Drifter had faded, fallen out of favor, and found itself off the beaten path of the typical tourist.
Nicole Franzen for Design Hotels?
The Drifter in New Orleans was designed to ?feel uniquely New Orleans? without falling back on local architectural cliches.

Nicole Franzen for Design Hotels?
The pool at the Drifter.

But Cota and the developers felt this property, an affordable adaptive reuse, could be reimagined to ?feel uniquely New Orleans? without falling back on local architectural cliches?ferns, wr...