Status: Preserved
Address: 22 North B.B. King Boulevard (formerly North Third Street), Memphis
Built: 1963
Architectural Style: Mid-Century Modern
Original Function/Purpose: Hotel
History: This building consists of a first floor hotel lobby with restaurant/nightclub and retail, plus parking entrances, topped by six floors of parking and finished off with the three-story hotel featuring an interior courtyard with pool. It was the first Holiday Inn in downtown Memphis and is said to be the first garage and hotel combination in the country. It is a significant early example of the work of T.Y. Lin, a structural engineer who emigrated from the People’s Republic of China to the U.S. in 1931. Lin “developed methods for pre-stressed concrete that allowed for new uses and designs of concrete structures.” He is known for the “Lin Tee,” a pre-stressed concrete single tee “that was structurally efficient, capable of spanning longer distances and carrying heavier loads than the double tee. Its T-form supports can be “placed at the outside walls of a building over which any length span can be used, without having internal building columns.”” During construction of the building, beams 96 feet long were completed in Frayser “and then hauled on flatbed trucks through downtown Memphis with the coordination of the city traffic engineer.” The building’s architect was Merrill G. Ehrmann, also responsible for many other historic Memphis structures. In 2018 the building was converted to the upscale boutique Hotel Indigo that is “a virtual time capsule using the structural bones of an early Holiday Inn and former Econo Lodge.” The developer used historic preservation tax credits to help finance the renovation.
City Council District: 6
Super District: 8
County Commission District: 8