With the interiors established, I still needed an exterior.
This mansion didn't look anything like the real Hotel on
the outside. After scouting around Richmond, a large
industrial building was selected in the neighboring town
of Petersburg. I designed a new façade that echoed
the original Hotel, and applied that to the façade to
figured he would not pay for gaslight in the servants'
areas. The basement kitchens were built in a closed
hospital next door. Oil lamps would be the lighting of
choice there.
"A mansion in Richmond
had a few large rooms and
many smaller ones that
would become the hotel
turned hospital. I decided to
give each floor a different
color as a sort of road map,
so that the audience
would know what part
of the hospital/hotel they
were in."
